When do you reach for a glass of chocolate milk? Maybe you pour a glass for the kids at dinnertime, or grab a glass with an afternoon snack, but you probably don’t break out the milk after your workout routine, do you?
Refuel wanted to change that, and decided to use influencer marketing to get everyday milk drinkers to “refuel” with milk after working out with a unique ‘Got Chocolate Milk?’ campaign.
Who could influence milk’s audience? How about 14-year football veteran Hines Ward? The former wide receiver for the Steelers was training for IRONMAN, a 140-mile endurance course that includes swimming, biking and running.
Refuel followed his training journey, which included refueling after workouts with chocolate milk, to show just how advantageous the drink could be.
Here’s how the campaign worked, and what you can learn from it:
Encouraging athletes to apply
Everyday athletes could apply to join the training journey by submitting a video explaining what motivates them, why they’re interested and how the competition and chocolate milk could help them reach their goal.
- Why this is a smart move: The campaign could have followed Ward alone. After all, the former football star is certainly an “influencer,” but the campaign needed a more relatable component. Not every IRONMAN participant is a high-performing NFL star, so adding two everyday athletes helps the masses connect to the campaign.
The lengths of the marketing campaign
Cameras followed Ward and the two contestant winners through grueling training. Working with eight-time IRONMAN Championship winner, Paula Newby-Fraser, videos show how their workouts and diets work together to prepare for the massive race.
The brand uses every facet of media to promote the campaign. YouTube is full of videos like this eight-minute clip where Ward starts his training. The videos are shared on social channels, well-designed images are created as Facebook cover art, a TV commercial is produced and press releases are sent to media outlets everywhere.
- Why this is a smart move: Each marketing channel provides access to a different audience. Facebook fans might not be YouTube subscribers and vice versa, so by using all channels the campaign gets maximum reach.
Plus, this campaign is a big undertaking. If you’re committing to a large campaign, you want the world to see it. What better way than to break the campaign into small nuggets of media that are best suited for each platform?
Playing the long game
A lot of marketing campaigns are “smash and grabs.” In other words, they’re short-lived efforts that make an effort to grab as many potential customers in a short amount of time. We’re not knocking them. On the contrary, a weeklong social contest or a holiday promotion can be effective marketing tools, but there’s value in playing the long game.
The campaign follows Ward for a year. A full year. It focuses on training videos, which are all part of a documentary series. That’s a series commitment. But the brand gets some serious marketing material out of the deal.
- Why this is a smart move: The brand was able to engage its audience with every training session. This kind of engagement keeps a brand top of mind. Plus, this kind of repetitious, yet new, messaging is a great way to increase brand awareness.
While Refuel won’t release any sales numbers based on the campaign, research shows sales did increase year over year during the campaign.
