{"id":4911,"date":"2013-06-12T15:57:11","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T15:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=4911"},"modified":"2014-12-20T19:17:12","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T19:17:12","slug":"vonage-takes-generosity-to-a-whole-new-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/vonage-takes-generosity-to-a-whole-new-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Vonage Takes Generosity To A Whole New Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

No matter where we come from or where we’re headed or who we are, we could all use a little more generosity in our lives, right? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if more people had “a quality that’s a lot like unselfishness \u2014 someone showing generosity is happy to give to or share time, money, food, or whatever with others?”<\/p>\n

Those of us who live, work and play in the\u00a0marketing<\/a>, advertising and branding world would love to have consumers look at us and our clients as being generous, yes? How priceless would that be? In today’s\u00a0relationship marketing<\/a>\u00a0world, especially.<\/p>\n

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\"voncup\"<\/a>Well one national brand is doing something that they hope will convey their message of generosity in a somewhat “crazy” way.<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The brand is\u00a0Vonage<\/a>\u00a0and last week, as per their press release “unveiled a new national integrated marketing campaign, ‘Crazy Generous.’ The campaign spotlights Vonage\u2019s relentless pursuit of innovation that disrupts traditional telecommunications conventions that inhibit people from connecting generously. \u00a0The campaign spotlights Vonage\u2019s relentless pursuit of innovation that disrupts traditional telecommunications conventions that inhibit people from connecting generously.”<\/p>\n

No that was not a typo.<\/p>\n

The campaign is called “Crazy Generous.”<\/p>\n

Now, you see why I said they’re taking generous to a whole new level?<\/p>\n

By the way I love the use of the word “disrupts” in the above excerpt from the release. I love anytime I hear that word coming from a brand or advertiser. Not crazy about in the context of my children, however.<\/p>\n

But I digress.<\/p>\n

The TV spot started airing last week.<\/p>\n

As you can see the “spokesperson” or Chief Generosity Officer, is not exactly what one would expect to see in this type of role. And that’s precisely why I think this will resonate with consumers.<\/p>\n

Crazy Generous is the first campaign produced for Vonage by JWT, which was brought on in January 2013 to lead creative duties. The new campaign features television, print and online advertising, as well social media integration.<\/p>\n

I had a chance to talk with\u00a0Barbara Goodstein<\/a>, CMO of Vonage, not long ago to get her take on this rather unique campaign.<\/p>\n

SO: How did you come up with idea for this campaign?<\/strong>
\n\"\"
\nBG: When JWT first presented their concepts for this campaign, they brought to us the idea of \u201cCrazy Generous\u201d and the CGO.\u00a0 We fell in love instantly.\u00a0 The elements of the campaign that resonated the most with us were the acknowledgment that people don’t want to be constrained by old, cumbersome methods for communicating and that, even with texting, emailing and social media, people still want to connect and talk, they just don\u2019t want the restraints. The connections Vonage facilitates through our innovations aligned perfectly with this message. The angle and positioning of generosity made a lot of sense for us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

SO: Why a CGO (Chief Generosity Officer)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BG: Vonage as a brand has always taken the voice of the consumer very seriously. We make it our mission to hear what people are saying and enhance our product line accordingly.\u00a0 We are able to elevate the importance of this mission by featuring the CGO as \u201cThe People\u2019s Champion\u201d throughout the campaign. So it\u2019s no longer just giving the consumer a voice, but now, we\u2019ve given the consumer a face, as well. He’s unconventional and unapologetic but a man of the people. We\u2019ll use that persona to bring the campaign to life, literally.<\/p>\n

SO: Where can consumers expect to see the CGO?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BG: \u00a0 The CGO will be on television, on the web and in social media. \u00a0YouTube,\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and Twitter will be used to build his persona.\u00a0 We are positioning him as \u201cThe People\u2019s Champion.\u201d This is an integrated campaign, and we want people to feel his presence.<\/p>\n

SO: Why is it important to have an integrated marketing campaign?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BG: The new campaign showcases Vonage\u2019s use of technology to empower people to connect in a generous manner with their friends and family no matter where they are in the world.\u00a0 We want to be able to get that message across all platforms.\u00a0 \u201cCrazy Generous\u201d is both the tag line for Vonage and our business philosophy.\u00a0 We want that to be a cohesive message throughout, and more importantly, we want it to be a message that we don\u2019t just preach, but that we also practice. This is both our brand and our foundational business belief. We want everyone to know this is what Vonage lives by.<\/p>\n

SO: What advertising\/marketing platforms will be used in the campaign? TV? Radio? Print? Direct Mail? Email? Social?<\/strong><\/p>\n

BG: The \u201cCrazy Generous\u201d campaign will appear in all marketing channels where Vonage appears. That will evolve over time. We are very visible right now in TV and online, and we will continue to evaluate the best marketing channels.<\/p>\n

Sources:\u00a0vocabulary.com<\/a>,\u00a0voncup (Photo credit: flicktoast)<\/p>\n

Named one of the\u00a0Top 100 Influencers In Social Media<\/a>\u00a0(#41) by Social Technology Review and a\u00a0Top 50 Social Media Blogger<\/a>\u00a0by Kred,\u00a0Steve Olenski<\/a>\u00a0is a\u00a0senior creative content strategist at\u00a0Responsys<\/a>,\u00a0a leading global provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions, and a member of the Editorial Board for the\u00a0Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing<\/a>. He can be reached via\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Email<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No matter where we come from or where we’re headed or who we are, we could all use a little more generosity in our lives, right? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if more people had “a quality that’s a lot like unselfishness \u2014 someone showing generosity is happy to give to or share … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,1383],"tags":[42,32,1762,480,1653,1881],"class_list":["post-4911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-steveolenski","tag-advertising","tag-marketing","tag-responsys","tag-return-on-relationship","tag-steve-olenski","tag-vonage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4912,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions\/4912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}