In 2009 Thin Martian started a Twitter campaign for Universal Pictures’ release of Anvil! The Story of Anvil. Working with Universal Pictures’ PR agency, Cohn & Wolfe, they developed a highly effective viral campaign that produced some surprising results. In this insightful case study, Andrew Walker and Steve Parker talk us through the campaign and explain what they learned from the experience. Presented at Social Media Marketing 2010 (London).

1. Thin Martian - Cohn & Wolfe
„Anvil, The Story of Anvil‟ – A social media & Twitter case study

2. Andrew Walker – Thin Martian
• MD at Thin Martian @thinmartian
• Designer / Developer / Data geek
• Co-founder @Tweetminster
@killdozer

3. Steve Parker – Cohn & Wolfe
• Director, Digital Media
@cohnwolfe
• Consultant / PR / Creative
• Dedicated to creating, building &
energising brands
@parkersteve

4. Anvil, The Story of Anvil
• The brief: Launch „Anvil, The Story of Anvil‟ DVD
• The Challenge: generate interest shortly after the hype of the premiere

5. Anvil Must Rock Glastonbury!
• Create online
petition
• Highly visual
• Dynamic
• Viral spread by
connecting to social
networks
• Media currency

6. Integrated with email marketing

7. Viral : A multi-channel approach
Real World
Experiences
Central
Idea
Social Mainstream
Media Media

8. Introducing @anvilmovie

9. The process
@anvilmovie campaign was designed to explore the potential of
Twitter marketing against the following factors:
• Compare the value (reach & influence) of broadcasting
vs. conversations
• Establish relevant metrics to evaluate success
• Define the best practice for Twitter marketing

10. Twitter message reach
• Twitter reach is similar to page impressions for an advert
• But traction is higher due to inherent two-way communication
• The more interaction that takes place between the brand and users,
the further the reach will go through the network
• Interaction drives more unique people to see the message
• Self-selecting social network model means Twitter reach equivalent
to premium ad slots

11. The campaign
Campaign runtime: Jan 28th – July 28th 2009 (6 months)
Still running & driving secondary point of contact buzz
• Followers: 2,922
• Following: 2,398
• Tweets posted: 533 (av. 3 per day)
• Direct Messages posted: 218
• @anvilmovie replies & retweets: 488
• Total no. conversation partners: 247

12. Converting the results into metrics
Understanding the Twitter reach network
(direct followers & the people who follow them)
Our broadcast reach = 2,922 (our followers)
ReTweet reach = 217,143 (followers of those people re-tweeting us)
Conversational reach = 2,218,302 (2,000,000 from Coldplay)
total campaign reach = >2,438,367*
total campaign TOTS min = 3,214,158
TOTS = Twitter Opportunity To See, the instance of a branded message appearing on a
user‟s screen
*Including adjustments for probability of seeing the tweet

13. Reach - @AnvilMovie
Maximum of
2200 views
per day
generated by
twitter users
over
campaign
period

14. Converting the results into metrics
Defining reach as a % of potential reach
• Total reach of all followers = 9,163,559
• Campaign reach = 2,438,367
• @anvilmovie campaign
= 26.6% total possible reach

15. How to spread reach?
Re - tweets Number of
Tweets by
of your @messages to
messages you your account
Fast Spread Medium Spread Slow Spread

16. How to Maximise Spread
• Identify & follow key influencers in your sector
• Engage: e.g. We followed & RT @gibsonguitar – which
gets the @anvilmovie ID into search & hashtag results,
opens channels to communicate, we end up doing a live
Twinterview from Gibson UK.
(that‟s why it‟s called “social” media)
• Get influencers to re-tweet your messages (adjust PR
activity to scope Tweeters as well as mainstream media)

17. Identifying influencers (how we did it)
• Create an eigenvector based network analysis engine…
• Seed the program with your Twitter ID (or competitors…)
• Crawl the twitter link network and identify influencers
• NOT BASED ON NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS OR FRIENDS
• Very similar method to search engine page ranking algorithms

18. Identifying influencers (easy version)
• Spend a couple of weeks analysing Twitter ecosystem
around your subject area
• Follow slowly
• Follow people who chat /converse
• Create & participate with #hashtags (US / Canadian
users find UK strange for being slow to #hashtag)

19. Influencers - @AnvilMovie‟s followers
Rank Name Rank Val Friends Followers (Fo/(Fr+1)) R * (Fo/Fr)
1 Stern Show 0.013132 0 58556 58556 768.97
2 metallica.com 0.010965 0 30767 30767 337.36 Re-tweets from these people are
3 David Lynch 0.035216 20 135430 6449 227.11
4 Chris Rock 0.005904 0 31680 31680 187.03 very valuable
5 Slash 0.021089 10 74411 6765 142.66
6 The Killers 0.004234 0 30082 30082 127.35
7 JohnCleese
8 Patrick Stump
0.040482
0.00266
79
0
233813
16556
2923
16556
118.32
44.03 Measure the influence score of
9 Rob Dyrdek
10 Nine Inch Nails
0.00748
0.018311
47
17
282465
35085
5885
1949
44.02
35.69
anyone who re-tweets your
11 Jamie Oliver
12 gerardway
0.01477
0.008941
106
35
178271
71381
1666
1983
24.61
17.73
messages
13 Rob Thomas 0.013254 93 101274 1077 14.28
14 Maroon 5 0.002879 0 4731 4731 13.62
15 Music Vice Magazine
16 Adam Carolla
0.004858
0.009204
0
37
2604
50980
2604
1342
12.65
12.35
Tune PR activity in real time to
17 Rogiddy 0.011408 112 112990 1000 11.41 maximise Twitter reach – front
18 Alexander.William 0.004003 41 87562 2085 8.34
19 katakagara 0.025032 13 2969 212 5.31 page Metro less reach than
20 Mikey Way 0.007391 101 64840 636 4.70
21 VH1
22 opie radio
0.002205
0.007433
0
82
1690
39979
1690
482
3.73
3.58
mention from Howard Stern…
23 Kermode and Mayo 0.006131 39 21659 541 3.32
24 drafthouse 0.004908 4 3373 675 3.31
25 Adam Carolla 0.004132 15 9722 608 2.51
26 Hayden Panettiere 0.002933 48 37942 774 2.27
27 J-Man 0.004786 22 9593 417 2.00
28 Seattle Film 0.006979 5 1679 280 1.95
29 fys 0.003848 18 9211 485 1.87
30 Doug Benson 0.012055 271 39520 145 1.75
31 Randall W. Haws 0.031607 224 12394 55 1.74
32 Baya Voce 0.001948 4 3703 741 1.44

20. What didn‟t happen?
• Twitter campaigns don‟t *automatically* drive traffic
into YouTube, Facebook etc.
• Don‟t expect people to be won over by the same
mechanisms (prize promos less effective than offering
access)
• Didn‟t get connect organically with media outside
Twitter (still needs PR activity)
• Didn‟t get reciprocal tweeting with other brands on
Twitter – they‟ve got their goals, you have yours.

21. Twitter campaign essentials…
• Honest / transparent proposition “we‟re the PR team for
Anvil‟s UK DVD launch…”
• Actively follow, follow-back, converse, #hashtag
• Don‟t over invest in strategy – Twitter is tactical, organic,
short term / high frequency interaction
• Remember you‟re creating a channel that will last beyond the
campaign – long term ROI @AnvilforBestPic
• Get it right & expect 50% - 70% greater ROI (reach & CTR)
over ad inventory / affiliate marketing

22. Social media & mainstream media

23. Connecting fans to the live experience

24. Overall Campaign Results
• Achieved a campaign OTS of 206,447, 888
• Successfully engaged rock and film fans
• Anvil got signed for Download Festival
• Achieved campaign ROI of 1:53
• AND.......

25. ...a word from the top
“We're aware of the documentary and I've
seen the petition online, so it's definitely
something we'll consider. We have room and
there's still time. Whatever happens I hope
we can get the film for the festival, so Anvil
should be at Glastonbury in some form or
other.“
Emily Eavis, Co-organiser,
Glastonbury Festival

26. Thank you.