Case Study #2: Giving away the marketing budget generates 5.

5 million
impressions for cell phone carrier

When you get your marketing budget, you want to be prudent with how you invest the
company’s resources, especially in these difficult times.
Not Visible. The pre-paid cell phone carrier just gave the marketing budget away — like
Drake filming a music video.
I’m being a little sarcastic of course. Let me explain this unique campaign. In response
to the devastation wrought by COVID-19, the all-digital wireless carrier launched its
#VisibleActsOfKindess campaign on Twitter and Instagram. Visible surprised 1,000
people — not just their customers — by giving them $250 Amazon gift cards. Do the
math, that adds up to $250,000.
Visible partnered with several known names in various industries, like Michael Voltaggio
and P.K. Subban, to roll out the campaign.
“Partnering with some of the influential folks who participated in #VisibleActsofKindness
— such as Dan Levy, Padma Lakshmi, Emeril Lagasse — helped us reach more of the
people who wanted to tell their stories in an authentic, powerful and speedy way.
Because of our premise of wanting to extend our help when and where it mattered the
most and the desire to amplify and highlight these amazing stories, many of our
partners were quick to say yes,” said Minjae Ormes, CMO, Visible.

Creative Sample #3: Twitter post by actor Dan Levy as part of cell phone carrier’s social
media campaign
In addition to the $250 gift card, recipients received a letter that read, “In tough times,
it’s important for us to step up for our community. Thanks for sharing your story with us,
and let’s continue to spread kindness together.”
Beautiful campaign, eh? But I had to get to the bottom of it. We had just finished
creating our free template to help you win approval for proposed projects, campaigns
and ideas, and the most burning question I had was — how on Earth did you get
approval for this?
“While it was a shift in our investment strategy, it was not a departure from how we
aspire to show up as a brand throughout the year, no matter what,” Ormes told me. “So
the conversation with Miguel (Miguel Quiroga, CEO, Visible) was not a difficult one. I’m
very fortunate to have a strong relationship with my CEO based on trust and our
alignment of vision. The opportunity as a brand to earn the right to be a part of the types
of conversations and gestures happening around #VisibleActsofKindness is one that we
could not pass up, and it helped us establish some new relationships in an authentic
and meaningful way.”
A whole lot of new relationships in an authentic and meaningful way. So much, in fact,
that Visible’s social team was briefly flagged for potentially fraudulent activities on
Instagram because of the sheer volume of genuine engagement it had while monitoring
its brand and influencer partner accounts.
The campaign generated more than 5.5 million impressions and nearly 2 million
genuine, meaningful engagements in just a couple of weeks.
“Our goal was to simply show up as a brand that people would want to get to know
more because of the way in which we help people and showcase positivity. We’ve even
had people who reached out and said they switched their phone service to Visible
because of this initiative,” Ormes said.
While this article is not intended to be about COVID-19 alone, the timing of this article is
not coincidental. We are always affected and inspired by our times. Marketers have
been challenged in this time by trying to understand exactly how hard of a sell to push.
Many have chosen a similar path as Visible — don’t sell, serve. Be a force for positive
change in our world. The strategy goes like this: When the timing is right, either if they
have the need now or when the customer is ready to spend again, they’ll remember
your brand.

Creative Sample #4: Engagement by cell phone carrier as part of social media
campaign
The point of this story isn’t to encourage you to give your marketing budget away. But
right now, you likely have a CPA (cost per acquisition) number on a spreadsheet
somewhere. Are you spending that money in a way that is a force for positive change in
your customer’s world? Hopefully, this story helps spark your thinking for how you can
do that.
“I am every single day humbled and reminded that the role of marketers is to earn the
right to be in someone’s world. Since we are a new brand, we don’t get to assume that
everyone knows who we are, we don’t get to assume that everyone has a relationship
with us, and we don’t get to assume that they will automatically decide that we deserve
their attention, which means that it comes down to every single place that we show up
at and also more importantly how we show up, become proof points to the customer
that they should have a relationship with us,” Ormes said.
“I think that we all as marketers can learn something from waking up every single day
and feeling that today is another day for me to do something to earn my right to be in
your world. So how does that actually change the way for you to show up, for you to
prioritize your day, above and beyond what you are trying to sell? I know we are all
trying to sell something but at the end of the day, if you can prove that you have the
right to be in that person’s world, that will go above and beyond your product, your
brand and your company,” she advised.