Exclusive | WD explains the emotional connect

Technology has been connecting the world for about a decade now, or rather more so since the last five years. It has played an important role in the day to day activities of many lives.

IT companies are innovating newer gadgets day by day with cutting edge features and ease of access to the consumers. One such company, Western Digital recently launched a new campaign ‘A Gift from the Heart’ which touched a million hearts.

Western Digital enables thousands of people worldwide to store, collect, access and use a vast and growing body of digital information. Their reliable hard drives and solid state drives marketed under the WD and HGST brands are everywhere that digital information and content is found: in the cloud, supporting your mobile digital lifestyle; in business and personal computers; in external storage devices; in the digital video recorder in your home; and in sophisticated medical, military, aerospace, automotive, manufacturing and telecommunications systems.

Apart from that WD also makes media players that enable one to enjoy digital content on the biggest screen in their homes. Their customers range from some of the largest companies in the world to individual users.

To get a deeper understanding of the industry and their campaign we at Adgully caught up with Melyssa Banda, Senior Director of Marketing Communications, WD.

Concept

Storage has become an integral part of our lives. Our memories are no longer kept in photo albums but are instead saved on our computers, mobiles phones, tablets, hard drives etc. We wanted to create a video that would explain the emotional value of storage to the audience while also communicating the basic ethos of the brand. Additionally, we wanted it to be an activity that would involve and engage our teams across various countries. With this challenge, we set out to make something that was worthy enough of the memories that our consumers create and save on our products.

The idea for ‘A Gift from the Heart’ was borne in-house and was thought over a pizza and pasta lunch by the MarCom team that comprised Web, Design, Tech Pubs, PR, Social and Content teams. The idea was created in the last week of October and our sales and marketing teams around the world supported us to capture the footage in the first week of November.

It was an example of various departments across multiple countries working synergistically to create a video that highlights the importance of collaboration, emotion, and storage.

Execution

The concept was created by the WD team and then passed on to our agency PETROL for execution. The internal team at WD worked very closely with PETROL through the development of scripts, storyboards, casting, location scouting and more. The creative is a reflection of the WD team's initial brief, executed in partnership with PETROL.

The team at PETROL developed the script in collaboration with the WD MarCom team. However, while the story is an imagination, the video features actual WD employees along with WD's President Jim Murphy, as well as its Sr. Director of Marketing Communications, Melyssa Banda. The footage from different countries was captured by the teams in the respective regions in less than 10 days and then submitted to PETROL. From there, as per the creative direction from the WD team, PETROL weaved the footage into the overarching narrative to tell the story of WD's happy holiday with actual WD employees.

The team at PETROL was briefed on the importance memories hold in our lives; everything from our parents’ anniversaries to family dinners and our kids’ first steps are captured and then saved on our devices, quite unlike how it used to be a decade ago when our photo albums were our gateways to relive the special moments and preserve our legacy. Furthermore, we wanted to establish an emotional connection between memories and our products and our consumers and our brand.

Social and Digital Presence

One cannot deny the power of social media in today’s day and age. Recent times have seen social media channels unite people across different regions on issues of common interest. They have empowered people to voice their opinions and initiate movements that impact the world positively. We have a strong presence on social media and use our region-specific Facebook pages and global Twitter handle to reach out to our consumers. Users share their valuable feedback and suggestions on these channels helping us to understand their concerns and consumer trends.

‘A Gift from the Heart’ was more than a simple advertisement that showcases the features and benefits of a product or a service. It goes beyond the barriers of nationalities, races and cultures, and projects one of the most common human possessions…our memories. We agreed unanimously that YouTube and our social media channels were the platforms best suited to showcase the video to a wider audience.

Sales Effect

An increase in sales happens because of a combination of activities and efforts put in by different teams. Good sales require co-ordination between R&D teams that develop solutions suited for consumer needs, marketing and communication teams that design plans to communicate effectively about the brand with consumers, sales and distribution teams that engage with our partners and customer support teams that work to resolve users’ issues. Hence, it would be difficult to point out the impact the video had on sales. It generated 1.2 million video views, 4.8 million impressions, has 72% audience retention and 42:1 Like/Dislike ratio on YouTube which is fairly exciting.

Brand Recall

Yes we do have a high brand recall. WD, a Western Digital company, is a long-time innovator and storage industry leader. As a storage technology pacesetter, we offer reliable, high-performance hard disk drives and solid state drives. We have been very innovative and advanced in our products, solutions, and technologies and have now been applying that in our MarCom efforts globally. By Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit