Cross-media Snapchat campaign

Where do schoolchildren and young people spend their time digitally these days? That's right: where their parents and teachers aren't watching them: on Snapchat. 59 percent of 14- to 19-year-old Swiss teenagers use the trendy app on their smartphones. That's where Swissmilk got them in the mood for this year's Milk Day.

Virtual center

For Swissmilk, one thing is clear: milk should continue to be popular with young and old alike. Milk Day is therefore primarily a celebration for children, young people and families. The highlight is the concert by a well-known Swiss act at the main event - this year Bastian Baker played in Neuchâtel. To generate excitement and build anticipation, Swissmilk announced Baker's gig off- and online. The poster competition, in which a hundred schools from all over Switzerland created subjects on the theme "Swiss milk. Naturally good." also attracted attention in the run-up to the event.

To better reach its target groups on social media, Swissmilk has been setting up the #agdermilch newsroom on its own website since 2015. This shows vlogs, photos and other posts from Swissmilk before and during Milk Day and bundles all social media posts from the public. Milk Day, which is celebrated in more than 100 locations from Geneva to Herisau, is thus given a virtual centerpiece.

Apron Communication

This year, Swissmilk further expanded its apron communication: The campaign, which was designed by Bern-based content agencies Klarkom and Newsroom Communication, also relied on Snapchat for the first time. Therefore, students who participated in the poster contest received an eraser with the Snapchat code printed on it, which led them directly to the messaging app. Success was not long in coming: the students became hundreds of Friends of Bianca & Manu and a dynamic exchange ensued. The snaps from the young people were extremely creative and demonstrated that this type of communication is very well received by this target group. "Important for the campaign was a meticulously thought-out content board that coordinated all snaps, vlogs and posts in terms of timing and content," says Marcel Suter, Partner at Klarkom.

Do cows actually snore?

Actor David Bühler as young bike freak Manu and blogger Kathleen Fuhrer as Bianca gave the campaign a German- and a French-speaking face. While Bianca has a romantic crush on Bastian Baker, Manu has fallen in love with the farmer's daughter Bianca. To please her, he spares no effort: he finds out about the world of cows and milk on a farm and in a dairy. In his articles, he plays the cool city dweller who wants to know whether cows sweat and snore. The story is told in countless snaps, Instagram posts and a good dozen vlogs.

On Milk Day itself at the Place du Port in Neuchâtel, the virtual world merged with the real one: Bianca and Manu had their hands full meeting the autograph requests of the youngsters. "To be successful, channels and content have to complement each other," says Brian Ruchti, executive member of Newsroom Communication, "a hip platform without a good story doesn't work."

Newsroom

In fact, in the ten days that the Newsroom was up, it received 8117 views from 6673 unique users. They stayed on the site for an average of 3:52 minutes. On social media, the reach was significantly increased compared to 2015. While the official hashtag had a reach of 15,049 unique users in 2015, this figure rose to 26,201 in 2016. Technically, the campaign relied on the proven content marketing tool from Newsroom Communication.

The milk party on the web: The Newsroom #agdermilch