Case: Stabilo

The goal of the Stabilo community campaign was to increase knowledge of the pen brand within the target group, i.e. teen-agers and young adults, and to direct them to the correct retailers. The campaign was set in early autumn about one week prior to school start. At the same time, manga drawing displays were arranged in four cities in co-operation with a Finnish book store chain.

The Stabilo community was created in IRC-Galleria. Activating elements included Stabilo trinkets and a drawing contest open only to community members. In addition, Stabilo and publishing company Egmont Kustannus realised a Europe wide ComicCampus 2007 drawing contest for professional manga artists. The contest was presented as an independent element in the community, from which the users were directed to the official contest site.

In the member contest the competitors were to leave their own drawings to be assessed by fellow community members. The most voted drawing won the contest. The best drawings were awarded monthly. The characteristics of the community media, i.e. content and interactivity created by the users, were utilized in the contest.

The popularity of the community exceeded all expectations and, especially, the desirability of the trinkets was extraordinary. The community became quickly one of the hundred largest communities with over 5,000 members. It kept its position until the end of November.

The participant numbers of both the ComicCampus 2007 and the member contest were beyond expectations. The ComicCampus 2007 received, altogether, 126 drawings - over hundred drawings more than the year before. The quality of the drawings was high in both contests.

The knowledge of the Stabilo brand increased thanks to, above all, the several impressions of the trinkets placed on the users' own profile pages. The users wanted to display the Stabilo ad, so the trinkets made the brand clearly more desirable. In addition, the quantity of community visitors and, especially, the comments of community members contributed in increasing the knowledge and desirability of the Stabilo brand.

During autumn 2007, the sales of Stabilo's retail products have increased, altogether, by over 50% compared to autumn 2006.