The key business objective was to raise awareness of the brand in Asia and establish Philips as a company that channels innovation. The ‘+’ Project, a multi-country initiative, was designed to engage stakeholders in Asia via social media and crowd source ideas aimed at improving health and well-being. A movement was initiated. The purpose of the project was to bring locally-generated ideas to life through Philips-led teams. Successfully launched in Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, The ‘+’ Project will be expanded to other Asian countries in 2013. Communication with stakeholders took place online, while existing Facebook, Twitter and online forum platforms were used to generate engagement and sustain conversation. The result was a staggering improvement in purchase intent, brand preference and advocacy.Philips aims to establish its commitment to promoting health and well-being across Asia via its innovative consumer lifestyle, healthcare and lighting products. Crucial to this was engagement with the general public to understand local health and well-being issues and initiation of a collaborative approach to meeting those challenges. Via The ‘+’ Project, Philips demonstrated an ability to respond to consumer needs by asking people to provide local insights to accelerate innovation to the benefit of the community. This “crowdsourcing" of ideas via social media sought to capture local ideas that could be channeled into improving lives. Events were staged to introduce the ‘+’ Project and act as platforms from which key opinion leaders endorsed Philips’ efforts to improve the general well-being of local people. This enabled pre-identified public influencers to send out a call-to-action to trigger submissions. Topics for discussion were created to fuel generation of ideas thus sustaining the conversation organically. Result The high awareness generated from the campaign and its crowdsourcing model via social media demonstrated brand and business results, ensuring the brand’s differentiation in a crowded marketplace. Objective 1: Accelerate brand preference & purchase intent • Brand preference in Indonesia increased by 11% (target 2%), Thailand increased by 9% (target 3%) vs 2011 (TNS) • Purchase intent in Indonesia increased by 11% (target 2%), Thailand increased by 13% (target 3%) vs 2011 (TNS) Objective 2: Create buzz and awareness • Over 1,000 ideas were “crowdsourced" in Indonesia, Thailand and over 11,000 people in Singapore participated. • Reach for the campaign registered 50 million and websites attracted over half a million views. A first for Philips, the ‘+’ Project trended at No.1 on Twitter in Thailand. • More than 28,000 conversations took place in the 2 months campaign. Coverage achieved in national news publications. Objective 3: Strengthen stakeholder relations for sales and partnership • Indonesia: Partnership with the Breast Cancer Foundation and led to leads connection to 5 hospitals; • Thailand: Exploratory talks with the Bangkok Metropolitan • Singapore: Invited to participate in the Singapore Conversation by the Prime Minister's Office.
