EXPOSE YOURSELF
NSAC 2022
Webster University requires a capstone course for all Advertising & Marketing majors where students compete in the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition. In 2022, the NSAC was hosted by Meta. We were tasked to create a campaign to sell the Meta Quest 2, a virtual reality headset, to students aged 18-24 and make the Meta Quest 2 a “college essential” - a seemingly bold ask for a gaming console.
I knew I would want the chance to compete in the NSAC twice, so I joined a small team of fifteen students as an art director. I anticipated sitting on the sidelines and helping out where I could so I could learn how things worked, but quickly developed a passion for creating a marketing campaign. As an art director, I helped with the creative direction of the campaign and assisted with many late nights helping put the plans book together for the competition.
Media Planning and Budget / Art Director
Silver-level Integrated Advertising Consumer Campaign at the St. Louis American Advertising Awards
Highest placing campaign of all Missouri schools
Third place in NSAC District 9
Most Creative Campaign award
the ask
We were presented with a brief from Meta asking us to bring the Meta Quest 2 to college students, aged 18-24. Brands are desperate to reach this competitive market and leverage their nearly $600 million in spending power.
main quest
Sell 100,000 headsets amongst students 18-21 between the months of September 2022 to December 2022.
side quest
Increase positive brand sentiment by 50% for students 18–21 years old.
the problem
We quickly identified that there was a strong disconnect between the brand itself and their target audience. The Meta brand, alongside the Meta Quest 2, has high awareness, but low trust amongst consumers and low desirability. We conducted multiple coast-to-coast focus groups with digital surveys, day in the life interviews, ethnographic shopper studies, shopper intercepts, and secondary research. We talked to transfer students, frat boys, theater kids, 17 year old prospective college students, ivy-league savants and, yes, even grumpy seniors. All conversations helped us synthesize three research insights:
1) Gen Z does not stan the Meta brand. For them, the brand falls into the “techno-typical” category that our target finds exhausting. On top of this, 18-24 year olds do not trust Meta in terms of data privacy. Furthermore, Gen Z tends to confuse Facebook and Meta as one.
2) Our focus group participants were largely disinterested by Quest 2’s social aspects. They already have established social outlets on platforms like Xbox and Playstation.
3) Gen Z values honesty - brutal honesty. Joking about individual and societal problems doesn’t just unite Gen Z with universally relatable experiences: it can actually be therapeutic.
the audience
Through our research, we were able to identify the target that we should be focusing on - women and LGBTQ+ college students aged 18-21. We call them the Reality Rookies. This target provides the biggest return, with LGBTQ+ gamers spending 8% more a month on games. Nielsen data shows that LGBTQ+ households are 25% more likely to own a game console than the general U.S. population and are 91% more likely to plan on buying a new one in the next 12 months.
LGBTQ buying power is higher than non-LGBTQ purchasers, yet brand’s ad spend is lower towards that demographic creating the perfect opportunity to sell. And although gaming marketing is predominantly aimed at men, the majority of daily gamers are actually women, leaving another huge gap in marketing.
The brief gave us the general target of 18-24 year olds starting college, but these two more groups represent a missed opportunity and a largely untapped market by the gaming industry, which Meta is uniquely positioned to capitalize on.
Men and traditional gamers have already established communities and brand loyalty on other platforms, which offer competitive multiplayer action games that Quest struggles with. However, story-driven games are more popular with women, and simulation games are more popular in the LGBTQ+ community, both of which Quest has in spades.
buyer’s journey
Interrupt our Reality Rookies in their tracks: They’ve grown up around polished, modern tech to the point that its normalized. “Sleek” and “refined” are OUT. Goodbye Techno-Typical. For Meta to capture Reality Rookies’ attention, we must seriously interrupt their normal lives with saucy, interesting content that redirects their perception of the Meta Brand.
Exhibit the Quest’s value: Quest isn’t just another gaming console, it’s a lifestyle. The Metaverse isn’t some Wall-E/Ready Player One dystopian nightmare. It's a place to explore and enhance your IRL self.
Indulge Reality Rookies with accessible opportunities to try the Quest: Our target is brand-conscious, and a little scared to commit; they won’t purchase a product this revolutionary without a trial phase.
Expose: Once we expose the value of the Quest to our Reality Rookies, we’ll be able to put more headsets on more heads.
campaign budget
A month into the creation of the campaign, we still had a vacancy on our team - no one had stepped in to work out the budget and the media planning. I had no clue what that entailed, so I offered to do it with enthusiasm.
I quickly discovered that my personal budget, which is derived off of “feelings”, is not the same as a $10,000,000 campaign budget, which is “math”. Up until this point, me and “math” were not friendly. Regardless, I was determined to prove to myself that I could tackle any aspect of marketing and show up even when something makes me uncomfortable. I have so much gratitude for my big time marketing friends out in the real world who were willing to sit with me over hours long Zoom calls and crammed in the corner of coffee shops to show me examples of their media plans and point me in the right direction to discover how much our campaign tactics would actually end up costing us.
kickstart with a kill
On September 1st, Meta will interrupt social feeds everywhere with a PR stunt attracting 1.2 billion impressions.
Reality Rookies hear so much marketing noise everywhere, so in order to interrupt them in their tracks, we have to go big. Our first target for our campaign is the meat-smoking, Sweet Baby Rays-loving Mark Zuckerberg.
News, so silly it’s memeable, will emerge of Zuck’s demise. He passed doing what he loved: eating a rack of Sweet Baby Ray’s ribs. But wait! There’s been Zuck sightings in the Metaverse! The first Reality Rookies that expose Zuck in Horizon Worlds will get an invite to our Campaign’s most exclusive events.
Our target loves to meme Mark Zuckerberg. The Zuck gets Reality Rookies talking. His buy in plus our outrageously campy social media campaign to follow will clear the stunt as brand safe.
Smaller brands with less recognizable CEOs, such as Taco Bell, have amassed up to ten billion impressions with smaller stunts, such as the Taco Bell Hotel. With Mark Zuckerberg being the epicenter of meme culture, our projection of 1.2 billion impressions airs on the conservative side.
exposed on main
Our advertising series Exposed on Main excites and delights Reality Rookies by interrupting their feeds and revamping Meta’s stale techno-typical brand voice. These ads meet our target where they are, whether that’s TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Hulu, or even these YouTube pre-roll ads.
Our Reality Rookies repeatedly told us that even if they did have a Meta Quest, they wouldn’t feel comfortable taking it in public — “it’s awkward, it’s too clunky”. This is an issue. Over 50% of leisure time is spent in public. These ads use a tongue in cheek approach to encourage our target to do it in public.
PRETINDER
Pretinder, hosted by Nev Schulman from Catfish, blurs the line between URL and IRL by having contestants interact via their Meta avatars in VR “Meta Dates.” From game nights and streaming movies to morning workouts and socializing, Meta Dates demonstrate the various ways that Quest fits into daily life beyond just gaming.
Does the love interest match their avatar? Are Meta Dates enough to form a genuine connection? Our Reality Rookies will be the judge of that, as they vote on the Oculus app for the best couples to stay, keeping this tactic digital, trackable, and interactive.
exposure labs
Online shopping may seem like the popular choice these days, but that’s no excuse to neglect the important in-person retail experience. And nothing captivates a shopper more than the current Meta Quest displays…
Well… maybe not exactly. Enter Exposure Labs: an exciting interactive retail experience like nothing Meta has ever done before. We know that Reality Rookies need to see it to believe it. Our Exposure Labs will give Reality Rookies the perfect place to expose themselves to the Metaverse before they buy. And once they experience all they can do in the Metaverse, Reality Rookies won’t want to go back to campus without a Quest 2.
meta mondays
Reality Rookies radiate some chaotic energy, as they’re adjusting to many changes as college freshmen. But one thing that’s stayed the same since high school is dreading Mondays.
Well, sorry to throw more changes at you Reality Rookies, but Mondays don’t suck anymore. Every Monday throughout the semester, Meta will travel to a university in one of our college marketing cities to give students the chance to expose themselves to various events ranging from concerts, Drag Shows and VR Carnivals.
Now that Mondays are no longer flops, Reality Rookies can start their week with a W, as each Meta Monday is a chance to win a Quest 2 or other freebies offered through the Oculus app.
We’ll keep campuses on their toes with our innovative digital billboards teasing the event and slowly exposing new details as the date approaches.
expose your noods
Another tactic that we developed was the “Expose Your Noods” collaboration with Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese, a common staple found in dorm rooms - perfect for our 18-21 year old college student target. Each box of Mac ‘n Cheese would contain a code for a chance to win a Meta Quest 2. The could would be entered into the Oculus app, encouraging app download and interaction amongst our target.
expose the lows
Reality Rookies are sick and tired of watching perfect celebrities living their perfect lives that we all know are fake. The Expose the Lows social campaign is here to expose the raw and real, making social media casual again.
Influencers will partner with Meta to wrap up their 2022 by revealing their messiest memories on TikTok, Instagram reels, and Facebook with the hashtag #ExposeTheLows.
On our Expose the Lows landing page, users can select camera roll photos or social media posts of their realest moments, which will generate a video compilation on Facebook or Instagram.
In tune with keeping it real, the social campaign will wrap up with influencers sharing New Year’s Reverse Resolutions in December. Your 2023 goal is to work 5 days a week? Well, Gen Z’s 2023 goal is to get dragged out of a bar at least once.
measurements
Our goal is to put 100,000 headsets on the heads of students aged 18-21 within the campaign’s four-month duration.
We won’t stop there. The Expose Yourself campaign will increase positive brand buzz within our target market. We’ll evaluate the Meta Brand health score using Kantar. At both the midpoint and after the campaign, we’ll measure brand buzz by tracking positive social attribution, creation of organic content about the Quest via hashtags and mentions, surpassing the current brand activity.
conclusion
We’ll tell you what to get excited for — Meta finally receiving the reality check it needs. Reality Rookies are critical of Meta and won’t respond to techno-typical marketing. But with Expose Yourself, Meta will show Reality Rookies that there’s a Quest-shaped hole in their lives.
Reality Rookies feel pressured to meet others’ expectations before they truly even know themselves. They need a safe space to expose themselves to new things and discover who they are. Given that Gen Z witnesses a major historical, potentially world-ending event every other day… what better time to live without regrets?!
The truth is Meta Quest 2 provides the perfect platform for this; this fact just hadn’t been properly exposed, until now.
It’s time for Meta to have its main character moment. A moment where everything changes. Where the everyday becomes extraordinary. We’re putting it ALL out there. It’s time to go there.
