P&G's Secret rolls out anti-bullying geofilter for high schools
For today only, Procter & Gamble's Secret brand is deploying the first anti-bullying geofilter campaign targeted specifically at high schools as part of a broader multi-channel campaign.
The consumer goods manufacturer launched another facet of its Mean Stinks campaign for its Secret deodorant brand today with a geofilter on Snapchat targeted to high-school aged users. Secret will be leveraging consumer-generated content on social media platforms, Snapchat and a scholarship attempting to produce a highly favorable image by supporting the anti-bullying movement.
"Secret, with its mean Stinks program is helping bring attention to the extremely important social issue bullying," said Michael Becker, managing partner and co-founder at mCordis. "Millions of teems globally are impacted by bullying worldwide.
"Bullying can take many forms, from the unintended harm that one quickly regrets to the proactive and sustained effort to cause harm, all of which can lead to mental and physical distress," he said. "In some cases bullying has led to teen suicide.
"While bullying is not strictly and online phenomenon, it certainly has been taken on new forms, especially for the Centennials, kids born around 2,000. The Centennials have never lived without social media and the stakes are higher given today?s data driven world."
Snapchat stopping bullying
As bullying continues to be a hot topic for consumers, brands are leveraging their resources to help aid the end to the multitude of teen suffering that derives from harassment. Secret is hoping to spread the audience of its Mean Stinks campaign through verticals, which will resonate with high school students, the demographic most affected by the issue.
Snapchat geofilters have sparked widespread interested for users, and is an opt-in method of advertising that seems to be effective for marketers that hit the mark. The practice allows for consumers to share marketing content with peers if they choose, making the ad seem less intrusive but more authentic.
Users located near or within a high school will be able to show their support for their campaign through a geofilter on the app only available to those locations.
Users located near or within a high school will be able to show their support for their campaign through a geofilter on the app only available to those locations.
Secret is sponsoring a scholarship within the campaign named the Nice Scholarship, in which participants write an essay on their ideas of how to end bullying once and for all, while embodying the Mean Stinks campaign. Winners will be picked by a variety of criteria such as purpose and support, organization and logic of idea, leadership and results and grammar and spelling.
The winning contestant will be announced through Secret Mean Stink?s social media pages, and entries will be accepted until December 14. The campaign has its own pages on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as an aggregate site, which congregates related content.
Social media empowerment
Marketers are taking to social media more and more to help empower consumers, especially women and young girls.
Plus-sized women's apparel retailer Lane Bryant rolled out a new social media campaign to celebrate equality for all body types, and is leveraging a photo application to stand out amongst the abundance of empowerment messaging (see more).
Pharmaceutical brand Allergan launched a social media campaign encouraging younger women to stay in the know regarding health and wellness, leveraging well-known personalities to better reach the millennial generation (see more).
"A recent Aug. 5 report from PewReserachCenter on teens and friendships suggests that nearly 68 percent of social media active teens have experiences some form of 'drama' a term used used by teens in lieu of bullying," Mr. Becker said. "Bullying is a social cancer and geofilters and social media are a incredibly effective tools of localizing treatment.
"Budgets are not unlimited and to have the biggest impact it is important that marketers get their message, their budgets, on target as much as possible," he said. "The more waste that can be curtailed the more the budget can be amplified.
"In the case of Secret?s Mean Stinks program Secret recognizes the importance of influencing high school children at risk of bullying. By using geo-fliters they are able to focus their Mean Stink?s #Chainofnice treatment, a treatment consisting of positive actions, tools and and thinking, right where their efforts will count the most and through a medium that will help them amply their efforts through sharing."
Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer
