Direct > Product & Service
THE GNOME EXPERIMENT
OGILVYONE WORLDWIDE, London / KERN & SOHN / 2012
Awards:
Overview
Credits
Overview
BriefWithProjectedOutcomes
Scientists love experiments. So Kern is conducting the world’s first mass-participation science experiment: one that reveals a little-known phenomenon.Earth’s gravity actually varies, so you’ll weigh slightly more or less wherever you go. These fluctuations wouldn’t even register on typical scales, but Kern scales are more than capable of measuring them.The audience would play a starring role in demonstrating just how accurate the product is by recording the gravitational variation in their location and adding the data to the experiment website.
ClientBriefOrObjective
Kern makes some of the planet’s most precise scales. And now they want to grow their reputation and revenue in the education and laboratory sectors. But there are millions of labs and schools around the world - and credible data into who buys science equipment simply doesn’t exist. Making the challenge even tougher, Kern’s marketing budget was ‘lightweight’. So the brief was to create a newsworthy campaign that would reach and engage this huge audience, without the costs global campaigns usually generate. This strategy would also help us boost Kern’s Google rankings which are key to success in this sector.
Effectiveness
The experiment immediately captured the hearts and minds of our audience. Within 2 days of media launch, the story had reached an audience of over 355m in 152 countries, with 3 requests every minute from people wanting to weigh the gnome.After 2 weeks, 16,386 websites had linked to GnomeExperiment.com which pushed Kern from page 12 to page 1 on Google, resulting in an 11% sales uplift and a 1,042% ROI. There was a TED talk all about the experiment, while several countries added the Gnome Experiment to their curriculum.Kern’s fame continues to grow.
Relevancy
An experiment easily could have been dull and not generated publicity. So we used a twist on the travelling gnome prank.Gnomes are well-known for globe-trotting. So we equipped one with a Kern Scale and packed him in a flight case.
Once scientists received the gnome, they happily escorted him to landmarks for photos – they even sent him from one laboratory to another, from the South Pole to the CERN particle collider.
And as he travelled, each world-famous institution acted as a highly credible endorsement for Kern.
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