HP Sauce is activating its UK alliance with men’s health charity Movember with a Facebook initiative – The HP Sauce Movember Challenge – running parallel to an above-the-line advertising campaign.
The umbrella objective of the good cause alliance is to help raise awareness of the moustache-growing initiative and the social media strand aims to encourage fundraising via brand led incentivisation.
The combined push marks the third consecutive year that the Heinz brand has partnered Movember.
The social media element of the activation, developed in partnership with agency We Are Social, aims to incentivise fans of HP Sauce to tackle a set of four weekly challenges.
A bespoke branded Facebook app lies at the heart of a set of four weekly tasks.
The brand is asking those who’ve registered to ‘Grow a Mo’ at Movember.com to celebrate their efforts by ‘Liking’ the page and then uploading pictures of themselves and/or by organising a ‘Mo Bro’ meet up to compare and contrast moustache efforts.
All the pictures entered through the HP initiative are being aggregated into a central and searchable photo gallery on the HP Sauce Facebook page (to ensure the platform is shareable and social), while a weekly video is uploaded to the Facebook page to explain each week’s challenge.
Every week, the sauce brand and the UK Movember team are choosing their favourite moustache-based upload, and the weekly winners will all receive a £50 top-up to their Movember fundraising account.
To stretch the incentivisation further, there are a further 500 mini ‘Kick Start £5 Top-Ups’ that are being given away to those who sign up via the branded app.
At the month’s end, an overall winner will be picked for an extra £500 donation to their Movember fundraising.
Again, a set of runners-up prizes – ranging from limited edition Movember-themed products (such as tee-shirts and cookbooks) – will also be chosen by the HP and Movember team.
The Facebook strand of the initiative runs neatly alongside a matching advertising campaign – led by a national TV spot,
and supported by an integrated ad campaign.
The good cause initiative also includes 2.5 million branded Movember HP Sauce bottles and exsperiential, real world work including giving away HP sauce bacon sandwiches at charity ‘Mo Runs’ across the country and at UK University campuses.
‘Movember is a charity that we’re extremely passionate about, so we always encourage our community to get involved with the initiative,’ says HP Sauce senior brand manager Shane Shortman. ‘People already enjoy sharing Movember photos and anecdotes on social media, and we’re giving them the platform to do this more easily, whilst rewarding them for their efforts.’
Comment
The Movember initiative, which has grown into a worldwide phenomenon in the last couple of years, typically generates substantial online buzz, so placing social media at the heart of its activation seems spot on in terms of maximising its awareness and fundraising incentivisation objectives.
Perhaps next year the brand could physically use its thick brown sauce to genuinely thicken up and bolster some of the less impressive wispy and wimpy upper lip efforts that parade the public streets this month?
Links
HP Sauce Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/HPSauceUK
HP Sauce Facebook App
https://www.facebook.com/HPSauceUK/app_682253515127994
Heinz Movember Webpage
http://www.heinz.co.uk/en/Products/HP-Sauce/News/Movember
Movember Website
We Are Social Website
http://wearesocial.net/blog/2013/10/hp-sauce-movember-challenge/
