Challenge
The President’s office wished to use social networks to extend President Shimon Peres’s vision to younger audiences both in Israel and abroad. We faced a number of challenges at the onset: How can we forge a connection between a 90-year-old world leader and the Facebook community? How can we differentiate our Facebook Peres from all the news feeds that already follow his daily activities? How can we present such an iconic statesman as approachable and accessible? What can we do to make the launch of our brand stand out in a saturated, competitive arena where high-budget brands eat small new brands for breakfast?
Strategy
With almost no advertising budget, we decided to integrate an online-offline advertising strategy to generate maximum awareness and viable viral potential. The basis for our concept was to establish Shimon Peres’ profile as a personal “user experience” with emphasis on “Shimon Peres, the person” rather than “Shimon Peres, the President.” On the one hand, we wanted to engage users on a large scale, and on the other, we wanted to convey fresh nationalistic ideas, and not repeat those already prevalent on Facebook. We commissioned a remix video by well-known Israeli music producer Noy Alooshe to relay the President’s strive-for-peace message in an unexpected and innovative way.
We wanted to echo the concept we used online also in the offline campaign, so we arranged a meeting through the President’s office between two prominent world leaders from two very different but equally influential entities, Shimon Peres and Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. The meeting was broadcast live from Facebook’s headquarters in San Francisco, featured an interview with Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, and Zuckerberg posted the video of the interview on his personal page to launch the President’s campaign
We wanted to echo the concept we used online also in the offline campaign, so we arranged a meeting through the President’s office between two prominent world leaders from two very different but equally influential entities, Shimon Peres and Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. The meeting was broadcast live from Facebook’s headquarters in San Francisco, featured an interview with Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, and Zuckerberg posted the video of the interview on his personal page to launch the President’s campaign
Results
The campaign enjoyed national and global media exposure of 218 posts per week, and 50,000 people instantaneously friended the President on his new Facebook page. Above all, the campaign positioned Shimon Peres as leading political figure on social networks.
The campaign won the Israeli Roaring Lion Award for Campaign of the Year 2013.
The campaign won the Israeli Roaring Lion Award for Campaign of the Year 2013.
