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QUIRKY WINK LAUNCH

WHAT IS QUIRKY?

​Quirky is a community-based product development company. People can submit their product invention ideas to Quirky for free, and if the community chooses it Quirky will turn it into a real product. Quirky then promotes and distributes the products on its e-commerce platform and to retailers like Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, Best Buy & Home Depot (to name a few). The inventor then makes 10% of the revenue and the community members that contribute can also make a piece of the pie.

THE CHALLENGE

Being new to the market, Quirky faced a lack of brand awareness and a perception issue around the sophistication of its products with many consumers thinking they were just another 'gizmos and gadgets' company. Our challenge was to show people that Quirky's products were cutting-edge, game changing investments and build brand awareness that these products were invented by everyday people (our unique selling proposition).

STRATEGIC APPROACH

The launch of our new 'WINK: instantly connected' app-enabled line of products helped change that. The new line included 5 smart products (a piggy bank, dashboard, sensor, power board, and egg tray) which could all be controlled remotely by a free app we created called 'WINK'. Invented by the Quirky community and developed in partnership with GE, these products had the potential to put Quirky on the map.

With a higher price point, the strategy was to position the products as a great gift. We decided to launch the line a month before Christmas and target Christmas shoppers with the tagline 'Give the Gift of Time, Power and Money'.  

The launch campaign involved the creation of a series of playful commercials developed in partnership with GE which were released across both GE and Quirky Platforms as well as online publications and blogs. 5 tutorial videos helped build the hype and explain the products across our social media channels leading up to launch. To help get the Quirky brand on the radar of early adopters and enhance it's image as a sophisticated brand we had an interactive display at the Engadget Expand tech show in New York and hosted the Engadget Expand after-party at Quirky headqaurters with a WINK theme to build hype about the line and gain publicity. Throughout the campaign the hashtag #giftquirky allowed fans to share their favourite wink products and spread the word.

THE RESULTS

10,000+ app users in the first 2 months
60,000+ views of the branded video content
1500+ attendees to the Wink launch party event
1000+ tweets with #giftquirky within the first 3 weeks
Exposure to 5000+ early adopters at the Expand Engadget show

MEDIA COVERAGE

PACKAGING, LOGO & INVENTOR SHOOT

We developed a co-branded logo to be able to represent the new partnership bewtween Quirky and GE across all our marketing materials. A photoshoot with the five inventors ensured that we had a library of assets that we could use across our communciation channels to drive home our unique selling proposition (that these products were invented by everyday people). The new packaging stayed consistent with the Quirky brand voice and visual style guide while  seamlessly communicating the new element of app-enabled functionality.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media and blog posts helped spread the word about the new line and directed people to our e-commerce platform & in-store to Home Depot and Best Buy. The Hashtag #giftquirky was created and would be used throughout the launch activites to help consumers share their favourite products.

To increase consumer engagement we gave fans the opportunity to #Asktheinventor anything in a live tweet Q&A with each Wink product inventor.

E - COMMERCE

Banners on our homepage drove people to our e-commerce platform to buy the WINK app-enabled line.

PRODUCT TUTORIAL VIDEOS

A series of simple tutorial videos were launched on social and on our e-commerce product pages to build education around how simple the Wink products were to use and to build hype leading up to the launch.

RETAIL DISPLAYS

The wink line launched in November in Home Depots and Best Buys across America just in time for Christmas. With these products having a higher price-point than our regular products we targeted Christmas shoppers with the tagline 'Give the Gift of Time, Power & Money'.

The subheader 'Control from anywhere' quickly communicated the wireless control benefit and a QR code directed interested shoppers to product videos and reviews to encourage purchase.

QUIRKY+GE BRANDED VIDEO CONTENT

The branded videos were distributed across Quirky and GE social media and blog channels as well as online publications leading up to Christmas.

ENGADGET EXPAND 2013 BOOTH

Leading up to Christmas, an interactive booth at the Engadget Expand New York event allowed Quirky to get on the radar of early tech adopters with the launch of our app-enabled line and helped increase the perceptions of Quirky's products.

The booth seamlessly integrated with the Wink commercials with actors playing the same characters from the ads in an immersive performance style booth. Four actors laying in a bed would sit up and yell out different quotes on weather, traffic or Facebook updates. This captured the attention of passing consumers and demonstrated the capabilities of ‘Nimbus’, the smart dashboard. Another actor (a 10 yr old boy) was dressed in a suit teaching onlookers how the ‘Porkfolio’ (the smart piggy bank) worked and how to control it with the wink app. A team of Quirky staff also demonstrated how the products worked and encouraged people to submit an idea to Quirky.com.

WINK ENGADGET EXPAND EVENT

We hosted the Engadget Expand after-party and used it to promote the launch of the WINK line in our headquarters.

The event theme was inspired by the smart home and all the conference rooms were transformed into different rooms in a house that the wink products could be used in. Everything was interactive and encouraged people to touch and engage with the products.

There was a Porkfolio room where consumers could paint and decorate Porkfolio piggy banks, a black light paint splatter room, a bedroom scene set up with Nimbus’, a ‘Quirkyoke’ room where people could paint their faces with highlighter paint, a bubble room, telephone booths filled with dancers dressed as pigs, a freestyle battle between rappers and bespoke Quirky cocktails.

Guests were encouraged to tag their photos #giftquirky in the led up to christmas.

A photo booth allowed people to pose with giant cut-outs of WINK app-enabled products and share them on social media.

THE RESPONSE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The consumer response across social media showed a big increase in positive perceptions of the sophistication of Quirky products with people sharing their excitement for the products, tweeting the videos, and posting photos from the event on instagram.

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