Social media proves a hit for MCYS campaign

• Leo Burnett uses digital strategy
• Powers of YouTube and Facebook leveraged
• Campaign garners huge online numbers

Singapore - The online component for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and Leo Burnett's ‘Funeral' ad has recently concluded and the use of social media has proven to be a huge hit for the campaign.

As well as the popular TVC, in partnership with Fulford PR, Leo Burnett's digital strategy involved engaging bloggers and using online mediums such as YouTube and Facebook to drive home the campaign's central theme of ‘Beautifully Imperfect'. It was a new strategy adopted by the MCYS and going by the sheer numbers it attracted, the initiative certainly seems to have worked.
 
Clips of the TVC posted through MCYS' thinkfamily.com portal - and replicated via YouTube and Facebook - garnered 450,000 views since it was first posted on 2 April. The TVC was also the 19^th ‘Most Favourited' video on YouTube in the People & Blogs category for the month of April.
 
A Facebook contest was also organised to find Singapore's ten most ‘Beautifully Imperfect' couples and since its launch in early April, close to 14,000 people joined and the competition received more than 390 submissions.

"The task for Leo Burnett was to use social media to get people to not only watch the film but also discuss and debate the real issues surrounding relationships," Saurabh Varma, chief strategy officer of Leo Burnett & Arc Worldwide, said. 

"The Facebook campaign did just that. We have had more than 100,000 people who have visited us, 14,000 of them decided to become fans, 5,000 of whom told us that they ‘liked' the film. Another 5,000 had commented on how the film moved them and reminded them not to take relationships for granted."

According to Varma, the success of the campaign is a result of the unique and systematic approach to new media adopted by Leo Burnett and partner Fulford. It was a first where a creative agency not only thought the creative idea but also directly bought the media online.

The TVC did however receive some mixed feedback from the local blogging community, some claiming the ad was too similar to a scene from the 1997 Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting, starring Robin Williams and Matt Damon.

Director of the ad Yasmin Ahmad said: "The inspiration for the ‘Funeral' TVC was drawn from a variety of sources, including my own family's idiosyncrasies, such as my dad's snoring like a buffalo as I laid on his chest as a child, my husband snoring like two buffaloes, and a relative who farts loudly in her sleep, sometimes so loudly she'd wake up as a result. Certainly Robin Williams' farting joke also had a part to play as it reminded me of that relative."

Varma said: "Inspired or not, Singapore loved the film. It inspired them to discuss, debate and believe again in the things which really matter in life."

Click here for more on the comparisons between the two films.