Members asked to help build buzz.
The Pennsylvania Institute of CPA’s image enhancement advertising campaign has gone online, designed to drive potential clients and employers to ineedacpa.org.
In addition to finding helpful financial information, they will discover newly created videos highlighting the campaign’s message. Everything about the online image enhancement campaign is new, including the need for member interaction.
In other words, the institute is asking members to create some viral video “buzz” on the Net. The Nielsen Company reports that the average Internet user spends 68 hours per month online. They are looking for information, shopping, and socializing.
To reach consumers where they spend a significant amount of time, PICPA is taking its image enhancement advertising campaign to the Web. According to Leon Dutkiewicz, chair of the CPA Image Enhancement Committee, “We wanted to do something creative and exciting. An online campaign allows us to leverage our members and the contacts that they have. It is a logical fit, plus it places us outside the typical ‘CPA box,’ which is important as we plan our strategy.”
The Pa. institute says…
The concept of a viral video marketing campaign is to deliver our message in an entertaining way, so that when people see it, they want to forward it to others. Our goal is to spur viewers to forward a link to a friend, post a link on Facebook, or distribute the video far beyond the initial exposure.”
The campaign is designed to drive consumers to PICPA’s Community Center section, which hosts the popular Ask a CPA service, free brochures, and articles on personal finance. All resources demonstrate how CPAs are trusted professionals who hold the core values of integrity, service, and knowledge.
PICPA is working with Primitive World Productions, a video services company in Philadelphia, to create the video product. The creative concept was set to spoof a variety of television show formats, using pop culture references consumers will be familiar with. The core message within the humorous packaging, however, will highlight the many different facets of the CPA profession and encourage people to recognize CPAs as a year-round financial planning resource.
In addition to asking you to help generate attention by forwarding the videos to friends and colleagues, we will secure an aggressive, online advertising campaign on a variety of Web sites. The ad placements will be more sophisticated than simply placing a PICPA banner on a select few Web sites. The campaign will use different PlCPA ads to target three different audiences: “browsers,” “hand-raisers,” and “active seekers.” The ads will change as the consumers’ exposure to PICPA changes.
Those categorized as browsers are those who are unfamiliar with PICPA. Ads reaching this group will be placed on Pennsylvania-centric sites, such as news sites goerie.com, phillynews.com, and WGAL.com. The content on the basic news sites will help build a credibility bridge for PICPA’s message. Clicking the ads on these sites will lead browsers to a page filled with PICPA information.
Those classified as hand-raisers are Web users who have heard of PICPA and may be interested in hearing more about our message: Handraisers will see ads on pages where they are looking for particular content. The Wall Street Journal finance page, for example, could be one placement. One interesting aspect of the ad placement is that even though the Wall Street Journal is a national newspaper, only Pennsylvania residents will see the PICPA ad.
The last target audience is known as active seekers. This group has already been to the PICPA Web site. Their online behavior has been tracked to record which sites and pages they have visited. The message in the ads this group will see redirects them back to our site.
The new online CPA image enhancement campaign will use technology to introduce PICPA to those who don’t know us, and reintroduce us to those who do, by supplying immediate access to beneficial information and exposure to the CPA brand. PICPA members will be vital in the success of the campaign. Watch for your chance to forward PICPA’s videos to friends, family, colleagues, and clients.
One Response to “Pennsylvania CPAs Launch Videos in Viral Ad Campaign”
Jibril Adam
That is so cool, keep up the good work PA