Luxury crystal brand Swarovski recently managed to win many new fans when they took to the streets of London on the last weekend of September for the brand’s innovative treasure hunt using smartphones. The treasure hunt marked the culmination of a longer digital campaign to celebrate the London premiere of its first cinema spot, Discover your light.
Collaborating with location-based service provider SCVNGR, Swarovski successfully tapped into pioneering digital marketing approaches. According to Andreas Wieser, Manager Brand / Reputation Communications at Swarovski and project lead for this treasure hunt:
We have reached out to young, urban, fashionable individuals and provided them with a unique branded experience. This is the future of how brands are going to be built. In addition, this project illustrates how brand communication needs to be orchestrated across all channels to result in true value – for both the audience as well as the brand
The campaign: Using smartphones to discover London
After an official welcome from Swarovski at the Royal Horticultural Halls Lawrence Hall, some 600 Swarovski fans set out across the British capital in search of clues and puzzles that would win them glittering prizes. Participants gained new insight into the many facets of the Swarovski brand at treasure hunt’s 40 locations. while also digging deeper into London’s rich history.
Many of the tasks of the Treasure Hunt, which participants tackled using the SCVNGR app, had prominent patrons, including the Turner Prize nominee Mark Titchner and the fashion designer Mary Katrantzou. Many of the more than forty different waystations were provided as inside tips by Dazed & Confused Magazine. The well-known blog Mashable.com also reported on the event, which further raised its profile.
There were prizes aplenty. The Swarovski Stores in the area of the game field functioned as “Hidden Gems” locations where lucky winners were awarded with prices from the Swarovski collection. The two Grand Prize winners walked away with an unforgettable trip to Wattens, Austria (the homeland of Swarovski) and thus the true starting point of the treasure hunt, followed by a luxury trip to Florence, Italy.
A digital campaign to win fans and build the brand
Swarovski’s hosting of the event marked the successful conclusion of its two-month fully integrated campaign for the Discover your light spot.
Prior to the actual event the cinema spot was shown in cinemas across London; billboards, fully-wrapped taxis, print advertising, in store promotions, media partnerships with the renowned titles Grazia and Dazed & Confused and blogger collaborations. Also, the extensive use of Swarovski’s proprietary digital and especially social media channels played their part in building up momentum.
The campaign generated a massive following on Twitter and drove up the number of UK-based fans on Facebook by 30%. To quote Philipp Gamper, Manager Corporate Online Media at Swarovski and responsible for social media:
For several months we have been working intensely in the area of social media and gained a lot of experience which was helpful to deal with these channels. This campaign proves the concept of our innovative approach and underlines the opportunities in this field of digital communication
What a fascinating way to combine branding with innovative smartphone apps. Great job Andreas & Philipp!
Learn more about digital marketing
Don’t miss the digital marketing conference track at the J. Boye conference for web and intranet professionals on November 10 in Aarhus, where Philipp from Swarovski will share more details about their experiences with social media marketing.
Swarovski is a member of our European social media experts group. Join the group and benefit from the insights of experienced social media professionals whilst cutting out the time consuming digging and the awkward small-talk.
