I recently returned from NYC where we were awarded the Silver Effie for the Just Dance launch campaign. I’m not going to lie – I was stupid-excited to be there. You know – the kind of excited where you try to play it cool but you can’t help but giggle like a kid. It didn’t matter that they put us in a corner table behind the wait staff and a line of Ficus trees – I could still see our work in a line up with Betty White and the Old Spice guy and it was awesome.

The best part actually came after the ceremony. The next morning, I hopped on a flight to LA to attend E3. That night, I walked into Ubisoft’s annual E3 party and dropped the 1700 pound trophy in our client’s hand. He carried it around the rest of the night like it was the Stanley Cup. Pretty great feeling.

While we don’t consider our blog a place for case studies, it’s not very often you win an Effie so here it is.

OVERVIEW
To launch Ubisoft’s Just Dance game for the Wii, we decided not to talk at our our target audiences (moms and tween girls), and instead included them in creating and expanding the campaign.
We got key influencers to become our content creators by hiring Internet-famous dancers to record and upload their own Just Dance videos on their YouTube channels. Our “YouTube famous” dancers, who appeal most to our target demos, then engaged and motivated tween girls and moms to spread the word about, and get their groove on with, Just Dance.
This strategy created an ever-expanding pool of content – and our dedicated stable of “consumer-creatives” allowed us to continually optimize the campaign by generating new videos and messaging in response to social media reactions to our content and discussions about the game.

HIGHLIGHTS
-2011 National Effie Award Winner (awaiting ceremony)
-#1 non-Nintendo Wii game of all time
-Over 3+ Million units sold
-Just over 300 solicited user videos inspired over 10,000 unsolicited user-created videos
-Videos produced, over 5 million unique views
-8th most effective TV commercial – Q1 2010
-#1 Music/Rhythm game on Wii – Holiday 2009

BACKGROUND

Category Opportunity:
In recent years the video game market had transformed dramatically. The Nintendo® Wii™ made console gaming more accessible to the casual gaming segment (aka ‘Yahoo Games Moms’ and their families). Guitar Hero and other music-oriented casual games became highly successful, due in part to their broad appeal to this previously untapped market.

Product Solution:
Ubisoft recognized this trend and capitalized on an opportunity to create a new dance title for anyone to play. They moved quickly to develop ‘Just Dance’ – a multi-player Wii game featuring 32 hit songs spanning the last five decades – just in time for the 2009 holiday shopping season. Unlike the category leader, Dance Dance Revolution, Just Dance did not require a mat; instead, it required just one Wii remote, making it the most accessible dance game on the market. And its dance moves were fun, appealing and easy for everyone to learn.

Marketing Insights:
In focus groups, the Just Dance game’s soundtrack appealed to young and old alike. People were also attracted to its rational benefits (e.g., family activity, exercise). But these weren’t enough to generate purchase consideration. It took actual group demos, people playing in social situations, which led to laughter, discussions of purchase, usage and statements of intent to share the experience.
Communication Challenges:
1. Dance means something different to everyone. No one execution, one group of people, or song could appeal to everyone.
2. The experience of the game could not be described, only demonstrated

OBJECTIVES
Just Dance was a low budget side-project with an initial launch budget of $1 – 2 million. As a result, sales expectations were relatively low. We were equipped with sales objectives and two very lofty, desired end-results:
1. Short term: Become the leader of the dance game category.
2. Long term: Establish Just Dance as the next Guitar Hero (not just a game but a pop culture activity).

In order to pull either off, we had to do more than market the game; we had to start a movement.
So we agreed to let the following metrics shape the strategy:
Sales Objectives (assigned):
1. Strong month one sales to secure holiday shelf placement
2. Meet unit expectations: 300,000
3. Replace Dance Dance Revolution as category leader

Marketing Objectives – beyond impressions (self-assigned):
1. Get consumers to create and share their own videos
2. Earn 500,000 video views
3. Develop marketing content that people would talk about

The Pipedream Objective:
Become the Guitar Hero of the dance game category

MARKETING SOLUTION
Given the communication challenges, we concluded that clever storytelling and high production value wouldn’t portray the experience effectively. And no single execution would speak to everyone. We wanted to create hundreds of online videos featuring real people playing the game and share them with the world. The problem was, we simply couldn’t create that much content by ourselves and we couldn’t leave user generation to chance.
After producing a number of videos with friends, family and a couple of online content creators, we discovered something amazing: people wanted to help us. All kinds of people, including online influencers and connectors. We realized that we could get the content we needed by simply paying hundreds of influencers and connectors to throw parties, create videos, and promote the game for us.
In doing so, we defied two conventions:
1. The way in which marketers secure user generated content; instead of using contests and events to attract submissions, we paid for them.
2. The way in which video games are presented in marketing; we showcased the social experience of the game as opposed to the use case of the game.

EXECUTION
Just Dance was as much a social experience as it was a game. So the campaign needed to be a social experience as well.

PRE LAUNCH
Creating 100 Videos in 30 Days:
We began by tapping into what was already happening on YouTube: People were recording themselves dancing – many jamming to the same songs featured on the Just Dance soundtrack. We knew these people should be our dancers, because our key audiences were already watching them.
A UGC (User Generated Contest) would have brought in video entries too, but legal restrictions regarding licensing would have made getting enough qualified submissions impossible. Instead, we reached out directly to the most popular homegrown dancers on YouTube, as well as some interesting characters we found ourselves, and turned them into real professional dancers by paying them to demo the new game.

We contacted and contracted dozens of Internet-famous dancers – some recently appearing on CNN and the “Tyra Banks Show” – and had them publish Just Dance videos on their own YouTube channels, which already had thousands of subscribers. We also set up small events with church groups, local dance troupes and organizations to produce videos. We even asked our friends and family members to join in and submit their jams.

To supplement the videos we produced, we negotiated to use “America’s Funniest Home Videos” clips – footage that had never appeared online – and leveraged the broad appeal of the franchise with our primary target audiences.

We were playing the odds, trusting that volume would provide us with enough dance-oriented videos to work with across multiple channels. This strategy also gave us relative control over content and timing.

Site Launch and YouTube Presence:
The official site was designed to serve as a sortable gallery of Just Dance demos, as well as the point of entry for promotions. We also set up a Just Dance YouTube channel to aggregate all the user videos created, both solicited and unsolicited.

TV and Game Trailer:
We utilized the same AFV videos we had already licensed in combination with the demo videos we produced to cut several TV spots and the game trailer.

Social Media:
We used Twitter and Facebook to keep conversations about Just Dance going, and even gave key influencers shwag and copies of the game in exchange for hosting dance parties and discussing online.

POST LAUNCH
Using Social Media for Insight:
Immediately following launch we began to optimize the campaign. We used community channels, mostly YouTube, Twitter and Amazon comments/reviews, to gain insights about consumer usage and reasons for purchase. We utilized YouTube tracking demographics to figure out what videos were working best for our target audiences. Then we created additional videos week over week through the holidays.

Following the Influencers to a Broader Audience:
With an average of 27,000 views per day, it was soon clear our Just Dance YouTube channel was generating more buzz and interest in the game than the official site. Ubisoft responded with a Just Dance banner takeover on the YouTube homepage, resulting in hundreds of thousands of additional views. We had established an inexpensive network of content creators who could produce additional clips quickly and upload them to YouTube within hours. We were using stats, social media and sales figures to optimize the campaign and guide content creation.

Turning Creative Power Over to the People:
Just days after launch, YouTubers were joining in the campaign by remixing our videos. Consumers began uploading their own videos. Thousands of videos. The campaign had become an experience.

Increasing TV Exposure to Boost Sales:
Two weeks into the media schedule the retail sales were so great in response to the TV that our budget was increased again and the licensing rights were renegotiated. Ubisoft expanded their media plan to include “So You Think You Can Dance” and other relevant programs. When the TV spot aired sales nearly tripled, then quadrupled a week after that. Each television media campaign delivered approximately a two to four times lift in Just Dance sales. (Source: Ubisoft research)

Driving Trial in Home:
Then we co-promoted the game with Ubisoft’s ‘Your Shape’ title to introduce ‘Just Dance’ at over 7,000 home parties, which helped generate ongoing posts, tweets and videos created by and for our target audience. Ubisoft even threw celebrity Just Dance parties, leveraging their connections with big-time key influencers to help market the game. In follow-up research over 50% of the participants of the home parties were “very” or “extremely” likely to purchase the Just Dance title. (Source: Ubisoft research)

Identifying Usages led to More Targeted Marketing:
After the holiday season we identified sub positions by monitoring social chatter about the game. New reasons and occasions to Just Dance were revealed, and we used our pool of AFV clips in combination with our own videos to create web commercials suggesting usage that could be targeted via online video media networks.

RESULTS
Sales Objectives (assigned):
Strong month one sales to secure holiday shelf placement
• Month 1 sales were 400,000 units and exceeded projections by 300% (Source: Ubisoft research)
Meet unit expectations: 300,000 total
• Over 3+ Million units sold and exceeded projections (Source: Ubisoft research)
• #1 Music/Rhythm game on Wii – Holiday 2009 (Source: NPD Unit Sales)
• #1 third party Nintendo Wii game of 2010, an industry accomplishment (Source: NPD Unit Sales)
Replace Dance Dance Revolution as category leader:
• Just Dance’s single SKU outsold the sum total of Dance Dance Revolution’s seven SKUs by 687% for the Wii in 2010 (Source: NPD Unit Sales)
Marketing Objectives – beyond impressions (self-assigned):
Get consumers to create and share their own videos
• It’s difficult to quantify the total number of unsolicited videos on YouTube as well as their reach. There are approximately 40,000 unsolicited videos on YouTube with approximately 12,000,000 additional views (search Just Dance + Wii). (Source: Agency research: 300 average views times 40,000 total number of unsolicited views = 12,000,000 additional views)
Earn 500,000 video views (the average number of views for Ubisoft online views):
• Official YouTube channel alone produced 6.1MM views and 5800 subscribers (Source: YouTube)
• Approximately 97% of those views were earned through search or related video links and under 3 percent were linked to ad buys (Source: YouTube Analytics).
Develop marketing content that people talk about:
• 8th most effective TV commercial – Q1 2010 (Source: Ace Metrix via Ad Week 4.05.10)
• “Ha ha that’s one of the best Wii commercials I have ever seen.” (Source: comment by cinemark22 on YouTube)
• “Think I need just dance for wii. Saw the commercial looks sooo cool.” (Source: tweet by soylady on Twitter)
• “Bought this game for the kids based on the commercial showing all the activity and the songs.” (Source: review by Sintillator on Amazon.com)

Just Dance Share of Voice March 19 – April 18, 2010
(Source: Radian6; filtered out Lady Gaga Just Dance conversations)
The Pipedream Objective:
Become the Guitar Hero of the dance game category
• Month 1 units sold of Just Dance outperformed month 1 units sold of Guitar Hero 1 by 400% (Source: gamrreview.vgchartz.com)
• “Since [Just Dance’s] November 2009 release it’s been the best-selling rhythm/music game for the Wii from December through February, besting genre veterans Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Dance Dance Revolution.” (Source: gameinformer.com)
• “By the time Just Dance’s first month of sales were complete it had outsold such high profile brands as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It also began to disprove the long-held theory in the gaming industry that games not published by Nintendo could never become hit titles. Flash forward one year later and Just Dance is now one of the biggest brands on Nintendo Wii and has been the number one selling non-Nintendo title 11 months running. (Source: Scott Sappenfield, Associate Director, Marketing, Ubisoft)

or View it in the Effie Showcase