Read Case Five: LG Mobile/LE Electronics MobileComm USA “Before you
text, give it a ponder”
BOOK: Consumer Behavior 11 ed, authors Leon and Joseph
Case Five:LG Mobile/LG Electronics MobileComm USA: “Before you text,
give it a ponder”
Primary
Agency:Young & Rubicam/VML
Contributing
Agencies:TRU, MindShare, Smith & Jones
Strategic
Challenge
Mobile textual harassment is no joke
For teens, texting is like talking; it’s
intertwined with the way they communicate and socialize. LG’s research revealed
that what adults and the media think of as “mobile bullying” is a behavior so
ingrained in everyday teenage life that it is seen as a normal and expected
part of communicating. But mobile textual harassment is in truth an enormous
problem affecting millions of tweens and teens. Forty-one% admit they have
sent, received or forwarded a text with rumors about someone that were untrue.
Four million say they’ve received a threatening text, while more than 10
million teens also report having sent a “SEXT” message. Five million confess
they have been pressured by a boyfriend or girlfriend to send a text with a
naked photo. And an alarming 60% of kids who say they have been bullied
electronically have never told their parents about the incident.
An opportunity to deliver the LG brand promise
by shifting teens’ attitudes
Cell phone misuse is expected to escalate as more
kids get phones with web access and data plans become more affordable. While
today the issue has garnered a lot of media attention, at the time of this
effort no cell phone carrier, manufacturer or other commercial voice in the
U.S. had become an advocate against the behavior.
At the heart of the LG brand essence “Life’s
Good” is an overt commitment to make a positive impact on the world.
Encouraging teens to text responsibly was an ideal opportunity to continue
delivering this promise, and most important, the right thing for LG to do as a
technology leader. Although LG had a noble goal to help reduce mobile bullying,
the advertising agency realized that it could never expect to stop the
behavior, given its prevalence among youth. But, an effective campaign could
change kids’ attitudes about the seriousness and importance of the issue. The
campaign’s objective became to raise consciousness about a behavior that was unconscious.
The Adverising Agency—team agreed that if the
campaign successfully changed attitudes, attitudes, it would have a positive
impact on LG’s business.
Strategic challenge: How could LG Mobile
help change teens’ attitudes about mean texting?
Objectives
The
goal was to create a campaign whose positive impact on teens’ attitudes about
mobile bullying would also drive LG Mobile’s brand perceptions, relevance and
consideration among the target audience.
Taking
into account that LG had never developed this type of campaign before, it was
difficult to set benchmarks, benchmarks, but LG agreed that success would be
changing attitudes by 15% and brand relevance and consideration by 10%. LG also
aimed to increase brand equity and engagement and generate earned media.
1TRU/LG Texting Education Survey, 2010
2LG Family Texting Study, 2009
3TRU/LG Texting Education Survey, 2010
4LG Family Texting Study, 2009
5I-Safe America Cyber Bullying Survey
2003–2004
The
campaign had two types of objectives:
- I.Benchmark-Based
- • Attitudinal
Shift—Change teens’ attitudes and perceptions about mean texting.
Grow +15% based on pre-campaign in-market survey benchmark. - • Brand Relevance
and consideration—Increase by 10% based on pre-campaign in-market
survey benchmark.
336 337
- II.Other performance
indicators - • Brand Value
(equity)—Increase equity of LG Mobile among teens as a socially
responsible company. - • Brand
Engagement—Motivate teens to interact with the LG brand. - • Earned Media
(and press coverage)—Given that the effort would have minimal media
investment ($1.7MM), LG wanted to generate unpaid media to achieve
greater awareness of the issue and momentum around LG Mobile.
·
The Big Idea
·
Motivate
teens to think about the personal consequences of sending a mean text.
·
Teens
won’t stop texting
·
LG’s
research . . . research (July 2009) revealed teens felt it was “ok” to share
gossip because when they took a photo of a popular kid in a compromised
position they were simply reporting on a truth, just like journalists. They
were not able to consider the victim’s feelings but all could describe a
situation where they had sent a text they wished they hadn’t. A time when
sharing a text had personal consequences for them. Maybe it backfired. A girl
wants to please her boyfriend and sends him a topless picture of herself but
the guy then decides to pass it around to his friends when they break up. This
they understood and wanted to avoid.
·
For
the campaign . . . campaign to be successful, successful, it had to raise . . .
to raise awareness about the personal consequences of mobile misuse. misuse.
The big idea was to . . . to motivate teens to think of the personal
consequences of sending a mean text, which text, which the advertising agency
articulated . . . articulated strategically as “think before you text.”
Instructions:
Read the case and provide an answer to the question at the end of the case
(Strategic challenge: How could LG Mobile help change teens’ attitudes
about mean texting?). Your
answer to the question should be 500-700 words, be in APA format, use outside
research and represent overall college level work. Please use the APUS library
in addition to just the book to find references to back up your answers to
these questions
