Easily: Reaching a mass audience to build a consumer brand
We are a nation of egotists once we’re online. Half of us search for ourselves on the web by typing our own names into search engines. We also secretly spy on our partners. Two thirds of women have conducted online searches about their partner, and one in 10 women have searched online for a date.This was the story that Hotwire developed for Easily.co.uk, a company that provides cost effective web hosting and domain name services. Hotwire was briefed to build awareness of the Easily.co.uk brand and its WebStarter package by reaching a wide consumer audience. In order to create maximum media appeal and reach a mass audience, Hotwire developed a strategy that had three vital ingredients: a carefully packaged story with a high talkability factor, a celebrity spokesperson to endorse the campaign, and a radio PR strategy to reach a mass audience.
Hotwire began the campaign by commissioning research into our online egos. The research analysed several factors, including who has a website of their own, who has conducted an online search for themselves or googled their friends, partners and work colleagues, and so on. The survey revealed some compelling data, such as the fact that half of us search for ourselves online, and that Brits are most likely to go online to dig up dirt on a date, partner, family member or a work colleague. It also identified trends - men’s online egos are focused on their careers, with one in five creating personal websites to host their CV. Women are more family oriented, hosting websites for the birth of a child or a wedding. This research created a fully packaged story that would attract media coverage and get consumers talking about their own online habits and thinking about hosting a personal website.
Hotwire then appointed Christine Hamilton as the campaign’s celebrity spokesperson. Christine was the perfect celebrity for the role. She matched two important criteria: the research showed that silver surfers aged 55+ are most likely to own a domain name and Christine already had her own website, which Easily redesigned for her after she joined the campaign. Describing herself these days as a ‘media butterfly’, it might also be said that Christine is an exemplar of a Brit with a big online ego.
The research was then packaged into a story for radio. Christine appeared in live on-air radio interviews in June 2005. She talked about how frequently Brits like to look themselves up on the internet by referring to the Easily research and discussed how easy and inexpensive it is to set up your own website and its many uses.
Christine said of working on the campaign: “It was a great pleasure to work with Hotwire on the Easily.co.uk campaign. It is important for me to have a website so people can contact me - a lot of my work comes via the internet. I am delighted with the WebStarter which, even with my limited IT skills, I can manage quickly and efficiently with a minimum of time and effort. I had a lot of fun on the campaign and Hotwire’s professionalism and attention to detail ensured that everything ran smoothly – they certainly made it easy for me. I look forward to working with them again in the future knowing I can relax and let them take care of everything.”
The campaign had a phenomenal reach. Easily set Hotwire the objective of obtaining 10 radio interviews. By the end of this part of the campaign, 57 interviews were completed and broadcast, with a total audience reach of 5,478,000 with almost five hours of airtime.
Easily Marketing Manager, Scott Davison said of the campaign: “We were testing the water with our first ever radio PR campaign. Easily needed a great story to tell in order for the campaign to be successful. Hotwire developed the online ego research into a compelling piece of editorial. They did a great job of securing the radio interviews and briefing the media spokesperson. Our initial target of 10 radio interviews has been exceeded and the campaign has already had a measurable impact on our business.“
