Company: Morton Salt
Campaign: Launch Campaign for "Walk Her Walk"
Agency mix: Ketchum (PR partner), Ogilvy & Mather Chicago (creative), Neo@Ogilvy (media buying), Code and Theory (digital/social)
Duration: November 23, 2016 - February 2017
Morton Salt teamed up with rock band OK Go to demonstrate that amazing things can happen in a moment.
Through its Walk Her Walk campaign, Morton Salt is looking to evolve its brand, using the iconic Morton Salt Girl as a symbol for creating a positive impact. The partnership with OK Go includes a new music video for the band's song "The One Moment." Morton Salt has also pledged funding and assistance to philanthropic innovators who are making a difference in their communities.
Strategy
In early 2016, Morton Salt wanted to establish an emotional connection with consumers based on the brand's values and beliefs. With help from Ketchum, Morton settled on Walk Her Walk as a creative expression which would represent the brand. Through Walk Her Walk, Morton has pledged funding to aspiring young innovators.
"We believe the Morton Salt Girl stands for forward progress, and we wanted to unleash that unstoppable spirit to spread goodness in the world," said Denise Lauer, director of communications and corporate brand strategy at Morton Salt. "Our goal is to bring new meaning to the Morton brand and to create relevance in today’s world – especially with millennials."
The campaign team sought to create a launch campaign for Walk Her Walk which would shy away from traditional advertising. The idea for a music video partnership with Chicago-based band OK Go was developed.
As part of its media outreach strategy, Morton wanted to get the attention of entertainment and music publications.
"In addition, we targeted national print, broadcast, and online outlets, as well as media based in Chicago, where Morton Salt is headquartered," explained Lauer.
As a social component to the launch campaign, Morton developed the hashtag #WalkHerWalk, which the brand would use to go along with outdoor advertising and encourage social interaction with fans.
Tactics
On November 23, 2016, Morton Salt and OK Go unveiled the music video for "The One Moment." The video was shot using state-of-the-art slow motion and takes place in just 4.2 seconds of real time. The video features vibrant colors and explosions.
Morton also executed an outdoor advertising campaign, which appeared in Chicago, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. This included interactive bus shelter advertising featuring the Morton Salt Girl. On social platforms, fans were encouraged to take a picture as the Morton Salt Girl and share it using the branded hashtag on Instagram and Twitter.
#walkherwalk how we started our day... because we know how education has changed our lives... pic.twitter.com/sn7fcLn3Un
— Keabetswe Magano (@KeaMagano) January 12, 2017
As part of Giving Tuesday, which fell on November 29, Morton released a YouTube video that announced grants for five difference-makers. The innovators’ projects include Thirst Project, which has provided more than 300,000 people with clean water; and GirlForward, an organization aimed at helping refugee girls.
Morton leveraged additional content from the influencers with a branded content series known as Walk Her Walk Talks. The series can be found on the microsite created for the campaign.
As part of the campaign, Morton launched its first Snapchat lens featuring the Morton Salt Girl.
"We also brought OK Go to a Chicago area high school music class to meet students, teach a guitar lesson, and showcase how our partner Music Unites is making a positive impact that’s felt, not just heard," added Lauer.
Music Unites is a non-profit charity organization supporting music education around the world.
Results
To date, the music video for "The One Moment" has received 40 million views across YouTube and Facebook. The success of the video helped Walk Her Walk become one of the Top 10 trending topics on Facebook the week of its release.
The campaign has generated more than 1.1 billion media impressions, measured across both social and traditional outlets. More than 10,000 social media posts about the campaign led to more than 121 million media impressions on social platforms alone.
Media outreach efforts have garnered upwards of 400 feature placements. Notable media coverage appeared in USA Today, Forbes, Huffington Post, Entertainment Tonight, UpRoxx, The Verge, Chicago Tribune, and CBS Chicago.
