Sony goes social for Cyber-shot

Singapore - Sony Electronics APAC has launched a Cyber-shot T2 campaign encouraging regional users to upload their pictures on a Flickr group created to facilitate the contest.

The Qais-developed campaign was launched in late November 2007. Named, ‘Catch the image, Keep the image, Free the image', it made use of online social media to promote the camera's imaging, storage and upload functions.

"Sony has produced a camera for the web 2.0 generation. We structured the campaign and communication strategy around this by putting the online community at the core. The microsite conveys all of the key benefits of the product, but we also wanted users to experience ‘freeing' their photos with Sony through Flickr instead of centralising it within a campaign gallery by Sony," Qais Consulting VP for strategy and ECD, Joe Zandstra, said.

Since its launch the microsite has drawn over 90,000 visits, with over 2,800 Flickr submissions. The agency deployed social marketing specialists to reach the opinion-leader target audience group - seeding information on the camera and contest in photography and hardware forums as well as community sites in Singapore and Malaysia. To determine word-of-mouth efficiency, user response and conversions were tracked by channel. A contest manager managed daily enquiries and feedback from members and participants, ensuring frequent conversation and encouragement between the brand and its users.

Two users will be selected tomorrow through votes for a three-week face-off.