The League of Interesting Men by HE Engages and Entertains Social Media Users

The League of Interesting Men is no less an interesting challenge for the target audience of HE perfumed body sprays. The target is expressive on social media and real time challenges are interesting for such an audience. The brand picked a very interesting and real time challenge to tickle the senses of the TG.

Objective

The objective is to create an opportunity for the audience to associate with HE  - the brand and create a shared value. The audience would be engaged real time that showcases what the brand values are. The content that would be generated by the users would go viral and would be interesting for the audience – breaking through the clutter and connecting with the audience.

Execution

The brand shortlisted 21 interesting activities that the participant could do daily, to make their life interesting, something on the lines of a project 365 but only for a shorter duration. One such challenge was “Flash mobs and the Harlem Shake are passé. Be interesting.

Perform a dance move, sing a song or act out a favourite movie scene, grab the moment & make it all a rage!”, some others were ‘photo bombing your boss’ to ‘painting your face in support of your favorite team’. The participant needs to submit their photos or videos on a daily basis, logging in through Facebook and then sharing it on their social pages.

Some of the photos and videos would obviously go viral, looking at the nature of the activities listed. The agency supported the activity by media spends to reach the maximum audience.

Positives

Since this was quite an elaborate activity with 21 challenges, it was sensible that the agency create a microsite and not just relied on the company’s FB and twitter handles to give out the challenges. Along with promoting the activity on our social platforms, the user generated content was used in the brand’s content strategy because it had the potential to go viral. The ultimate gratification for our audience is to be a part of the elite group of men who would represent ‘The League of Interesting Men’.

The idea was great since it was aimed specifically at men from 18-24 years of age who are the most active on social media (among men of all age groups). The focus on themselves would ensure that the content would go viral. The campaign got over 1200+ entries by October 13.

Areas for improvement

While the subject of the challenge was obviously ‘The League of Interesting Men’ it gives an impression that the participants need to be male. However there were female participants as well (as seen from their gallery of photographs and videos) and that needed to be specified clearly. Obviously females are more social of the two sexes and it would have made sense to include them outright in the campaign. Targeting females would also make sense for the brand because not all decision makers or buyers of the brand are male. Females buy these products because they want to make their men smell better or be more desirable. Including females in the challenge, would have given further leverage to the brand.

It might have also made sense to amplify the campaign using a #hebeinteresting  hashtag instead of the #leagueofinterestingmen would immediately bring the brand association to the campaign.

The agency could have used Instagram to get more tasteful and good quality entries. Maybe using the photographs of the winners often on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter – applauding the task rather than the person doing the task might be a more interesting way to get good quality images and videos go viral.

Conclusion

A great start to new brand though it had a few rough edges. The Facebook app could have been slicker and the execution a little more seamless – rather than just being in your face. Rather than just reminding people of the challenges using every medium the brand is available on social media, it might have been better if they made the whole approach conversational.  Le0t’s hope the future campaigns by the brand are a little more refined and slicker than the present one.