GOOD LUCK: Targeting the Younger Generation (B) [1]

At the meeting on 31 July 2015, the management eventually decided that Facebook would be the best channel for their marketing campaign to attract younger generation to watch the promotional videos. Jody had also contacted Facebook before to pay for banner ads appearing on the sidebars when users are using Facebook, which would lead to the micro-movie posted (see exhibit 1).

Marcus was unsure if this strategy is effective:

I understand that, technically speaking, it is possible to increase the number of people reached by putting the banner ads. However, is this truly cost-effective? I think we should do a pilot test to gauge the effectiveness before making a decision to have a full launch of the marketing campaign.

Fiona agreed:

Indeed, it is useful to have a pilot test. Besides, we also have to take into consideration the budget of the company. In the beginning of the financial year, this marketing campaign was not included in our proposed budget. If we decided to launch the marketing campaign in a large scale, the estimated budget will be around HK$400,000. Hence we need to seek approval from Marcus.

Jody added:

How about we use the first video for the pilot? If it is proven to be unsuccessful, we can use another social platform or other channels for the formal launch of the second video to ensure the best result.

After another round of discussion, the team all agreed on the idea of pilot test and began the preparation.

Pilot Test

Fiona decided to use the first micro-movie as a pilot for 30 days. They expected 1,200 clicks per day through Facebook banner ads. From her experience, Jody knew that advertisement clicks usually hit the peak after 10pm as people are free by then to scroll through Facebook. Thus, on the evening of 4 September (Friday), they uploaded the first video online on the GOOD LUCK page, and started to buy the service from Facebook for banner ads.

The initial response from the Facebook users had made the team very excited as numerous users Liked and Shared the video, making it almost viral. As time passed, data related to the clicks on the banner ads was collected (see exhibit 2). On 3 October 2015, the last day of the pilot period, Fiona was rushing back to her seat for work when she bumped into Marcus at the office.

Marcus asked:

How is the pilot test going? I really hope that it is going well because I personally like this campaign a lot. Is it possible to have a range, in which we can be quite certain that the mean click per day we will have in the future? This kind of data should be very useful for planning.

Fiona immediately went to discuss with Jody and asked if the mean clicks per day was more than 1,200 clicks.

Launch of the new promotional campaign

In the end, the team was glad to know the pilot test had an excellent result. Statistical analysis proved that Facebook advertisements were a very effective way to boost views and attract audience. Following the trend, with the approved budget from Marcus in the meeting on 9 October 2015, the team formally launched the second video on 23 October 2015. 90 days after the launch, the entire campaign was over.

Exhibit 1 The cost for boosting the Facebook post through banner ad

Daily budget	Estimated people reached
HK$39	900-2,400
HK$78	1,400-3,600
HK$120	1,900-5,000
HK$160	2,300-6,100

Exhibit 2 Data collected for click rates

Date	Click rates
4-Sep-2015	1,069
5-Sep-2015	1,308
6-Sep-2015	1,829
7-Sep-2015	1,390
8-Sep-2015	1,841
3-Oct-2015	1,496

(The full data set could be found in Sheet Click rate of datafile B.xls)

Source: Created by case authors

Tasks:

Assume that you were Jody Lam, the new marketing executive of GOOD LUCK.

Before the meeting on 9 October 2015, you have to answer the questions from both Marcus and Fiona, supported by statistical results.

[1] The case is developed solely as the basis for class discussion. It is not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management.

DataFile(clickrate):

Date	Views
4-Sep-2015	1,069
5-Sep-2015	1,308
6-Sep-2015	1,829
7-Sep-2015	1,390
8-Sep-2015	1,841
9-Sep-2015	1,450
10-Sep-2015	1,653
11-Sep-2015	1,078
12-Sep-2015	1,062
13-Sep-2015	1,827
14-Sep-2015	1,758
15-Sep-2015	1,594
16-Sep-2015	1,498
17-Sep-2015	1,959
18-Sep-2015	1,952
19-Sep-2015	1,906
20-Sep-2015	1,344
21-Sep-2015	1,113
22-Sep-2015	1,196
23-Sep-2015	1,589
24-Sep-2015	1,789
25-Sep-2015	1,797
26-Sep-2015	1,651
27-Sep-2015	1,086
28-Sep-2015	1,211
29-Sep-2015	1,892
30-Sep-2015	1,621
1-Oct-2015	1,725
2-Oct-2015	1,441
3-Oct-2015	1,496