SPREAD The

Excitement
Presented to:
DIRECTV
Presented by:
Cre8ive Solutions

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
DIRECTVs (DTVs) Spread The Excitement Contest should promote the Refer a Friend Program
as exciting and beneficial. We suggest that this contest is strategically designed in order to increase
motivation of satisfied DIRECTV (DTV) customers. This contest will be targeted toward social young
adults ranging in age from their mid twenties to early thirties. We believe this is the best possible market
to target for the following reasons. This generation grew up with Facebook and were the first generation
to be exposed to Instagram and Twitter, so they are highly active on social media (Aquino, 2012). We
believe that this would help quickly spread the word about the Refer a Friend program and also increase
participation in the contest. Due to the fact that majority of these individuals have extended friend groups,
there is a much larger opportunity for DTV to obtain more customers. They also have previously
participated in viral marketing campaigns like the Ice Bucket Challenge and the Crash the Superbowl
contest so they are more likely to participate in a contest like the one we have designed for DTV (Smith,
2014).
DTVs main communication strategies should be directed towards social media and direct mail.
We believe that social media should be a channel that is frequently used because research has shown that
this group is more likely to value the opinions of others stated on social media (Schroer, 2013). We then
made the connection that if these individuals see their friends posting about how excited they are to Refer
a Friend to DTV, they will most likely value their opinion and also become more motivated to participate
in the activity themselves. We also suggest that direct mail is a large part of the campaign because
according to the Marketing EDGE Collegiate ECHO Challenge, 70% of DTV referrals come from this
source of communication. We also suggest the campaign is branded with a red color scheme because red
is associated with excitement (Hemphill, 1996). More of our key research conclusions are included in the
Strategic Summary Chart that can be found on page 2.

STRATEGIC SUMMARY CHART

s emotions Emotionally
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ation Y is the uses more social media

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lor red is strongly associated

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the
in emotion
all aspects
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so customers
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pondents would be on national television if given the chance (Primary Research1 ).

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ing
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(Schultz,
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Dick Cla

MARKETING STRATEGY
Campaign Goal
The primary goal is to increase the amount of satisfied customers who will successfully use the Refer a
Friend program that DTV offers. The lifetime value of a referral customer is on average $300 better than a
non-referral customer. This is a reason why we believe improving the Refer a Friend program will help
the company overall. We understand that the current referral program rewards both the referrer and
referee with $100 off of their bill by receiving $10 credits for a total of 10 months. We also understand
that the referrer may refer up to 10 friends in a one-year time span. Seeing that the awareness of the
program is high, but only 10% of customers refer one time, we aim to increase the number of people who

1 Our primary research consisted of an online survey that was shared on Facebook. The reason we chose
this means of communication is because majority of our target market actively uses this social media
website. We had a total of 12 respondents, with 10 of them falling within our target market age range.

will refer for a first time. This gives us a potential market of 18 million people. Out of this 18 million, we
suggest that DTV only targets 4 million (Collegiate Echo Challenge FAQ, 2015).
Competitive Analysis
DTVs leading competitors in the United States are Comcast Xfinity (Comcast), Dish Network
Corporation (Dish), and Time Warner Cable Incorporated (Time Warner). Comcast allows customers to
receive up to $500 worth of Visa Prepaid Cards in one calendar year depending upon the number of
referred customers that qualify. Time Warners Referral Rewards operates similarly, except the Visa Cards
are worth $75. DTVs Refer a Friend program rewards both the referrer and referee with $100 in bill
credits, while Dishs Refer a Friend offers $50. DTV offers the largest potential savings off of a bill
compared to competitors.
All of the direct broadcast satellite service providers are active on Facebook and Twitter. DTV
and Dish have the largest number of followers with 169,000 and 108,000 respectively. These accounts are
used mainly to promote television series on various networks rather than to notify users of the referral
programs. Instead, DTV, Time Warner, and Comcast permit customers to share a unique referral link via
Facebook or Twitter directly through the users account. Dish has its referral program advertised in the
middle of the homepage in bright colors making it visible to viewers. DIRECTV, Time Warner, and
Comcast, on the other hand, only have tabs for the packages offered. Television commercials and
informational flyers on bills are the primary means these companies use to market their referral programs
(Comcast, Dish, Time Warner, DTV).
Market Segmentation and Target Market Profile
The satisfied customers segment includes customers loyal to the services that DTV provides. One
of the age groups that this segment encompasses includes the technology savvy younger adults. The
young adult age group consists of majority males who like to take advantage of deals and value based
programs. They enjoy using technology including DTVs service offerings. One main benefit of this
segment is that 72% of DTV customers are satisfied (ACSI Telecommunications and Information Report,
2014). Complete customer satisfaction is the key to securing customer loyalty and generating superior

long-term financial performance. This source also states that the more competitive the market, the more
important the level of customer satisfaction. DTV has very similar competitors, so we suggest that
focusing on satisfied customers will help the company in the long run (J.D. Power and Associates
Reports, 2012).
A secondary target market consists of affiliate marketers. They take the time to look for an
incentive given and are willing to put the time and effort in to make money. A benefit of this segment is
that these affiliate marketers generally are knowledgeable about the marketplace; therefore they serve as a
credible source of information. They also are willing to spread information about the company by word of
mouth because they genuinely enjoy helping and informing people (Walsh, 2004). Another secondary
market consists of new customers. This segment includes people who have left their previous provider in
hopes of new benefits. Some of the segment is searching for specific content, such as sports or high
definition channels. Others are more concerned with the complementary technology offered. A benefit of
this segment is that more than a quarter of Pay TV subscribers are either planning on changing their
television provider or are open to change (Pay TV US, 2013).The final market consists of value seekers.
They generally do not have a large income so they are looking to spend the least amount of money while
still receiving the best possible value. According to Per Gauzente and Roy, these price conscious
consumers tend to spend more time gathering and processing price-related information. Targeting this
segment could be beneficial because the only cost associated with the Refer a Friend program is the
prospects time (Roy, 2013).
We are choosing to make satisfied customers the primary target market. To see a visual
description of our suggested target market, see Appendix A. We understand that there are no set
demographics for the Refer a Friend program. However, through research we have found that young
adults ranging from their mid twenties to early thirties would be the most successful group of individuals
to target. They fall under the age group Generation Y, which we have chosen to label as the Social Young
Adults. We understand that the satisfied customer segment includes a wide range of age groups, although
we recommend that DTVs effort should focus on the Social Young Adults specifically because they have

extended friend groups whom they keep in touch with frequently through many means of communication
(Social and Demographic Differences, 2014). This could potentially provide DTV with a larger pool of
candidates for the Refer a Friend program.
Integrated Marketing Communications Objectives
To develop the Integrated Marketing Communication Objective we used the Hierarchy of Effects
model. Out of the 18 million DTV customers we have chosen to target 4 million due to budgetary and
channel constraints.
1) To help 3.4 million people in the target market become aware of the Spread The Excitement
Contest by September 21st.
2) To help 2.8 million people in the target market gain knowledge of what is required and rewards
from the Spread The Excitement Contest by October 1st.
3) To help 1.8 million people in the target market have an interest in submitting a video for the
Spread The Excitement Contest by November 1st.
4) To help 800,000 people in the target market see the reward of the contest, being featured in a
television ad, as more of a benefit than a competitors reward by November 30 th.
5) To help 400,000 people in the target market build conviction that making a video and possibly
staring in a television ad is a worthwhile time investment by December 8 th.
6) To help 40,000 people in the target market enter the contest, which requires that they refer a
friend to DTV by December 15th.
CREATIVE STRATEGY
We recommend that the major selling idea be that people are more incentivized by emotions more
than money alone. We want to create the personal state of excitement for the Social Young Adults. The
videos should focus on people performing exhilarating acts as they exclaim, My name is [enter first
name here] and I just saved my friend and I $100 by referring them to DIRECTV. From here we
recommend selecting 5 winners, 1st place winners video will air during Dick Clarks New Years Rockin
Eve. The rest of the winners videos will air throughout the month of January. Doritos used a similar
video submission contest and it was quite successful. In 2012 Doritos sales increased by 7.49% during the
four week span of their Crash the Superbowl campaign (Schultz, 2013). We believe that if DTV uses
this model the participation rate of the Refer a Friend program will increase. We propose DTV emulates
The Ice Bucket Challenge as it is one of the best viral video campaigns in recent years (Smith, 2014).
According to Entrepreneur, The Ice Bucket Challenge was exciting and shared on many media platforms.

The Spread The Excitement Contest should contain both of these elements so it can gain widespread
popularity (Boko, 2014).
We suggest using the slogan Spread The Excitement because it incorporates the overall theme
of the campaign. DTVs target market profile is active on social media, which is a major channel in the
campaign. The goal is to have the viral aspect of the campaign catch on enough that even if some choose
not to participate in the contest, the majority will be aware of DTVs Refer a Friend benefits. In terms of
the appearance of DTVs campaign, we recommend changing the campaign color from blue to red
because of the psychological studies performed. Boyatzis and Varghese found that red is the color most
often associated with excitement (Hemphill, 1996). Not only does red create this emotional response, but
it also captures peoples attention quicker than other colors. Every piece of the media strategy should
include the same shade of bright red. This would increase contest attention through all of the channels.
We suggest that DTV use an emotional appeal, specifically the personal state of excitement
because the purpose of every piece of the campaign is to generate excitement about the opportunities the
Refer a Friend program offers. Excitement makes the customer more emotionally involved, thus
providing a reason to refer a friend rather than the existing monetary incentive alone (Jantsch, 2007). By
having the customer create an exciting video, the act of referring a friend becomes more than an ordinary
experience resulting in a dramatization execution.
MEDIA PLANNING
Direct Mail
The suggested direct mail design can be located in Appendix B. With 70% of current referrals
resulting from direct mail, DTV should utilize this form of promotion (Collegiate Echo Challenge FAQ,
2015). This is why we suggest using approximately 70% of the campaign budget toward the direct mail
piece. We propose that DTV send this to as many customers as possible, resulting in 1,384,258 DTV
customers. With such a large portion of the budget being allocated to direct mail, we believe that it is
crucial to make as big of an impact as possible with this piece. The letter will be mailed in mid-

September, two weeks after our campaign officially begins. This allows the recipients of the letter a
chance to be exposed to the idea of the campaign from our social media, announcement email, and paid
advertisements.
Direct mail needs to be approached topographically since it is impossible to determine exactly
which part of the letter the reader will look at first. To accomplish this, the letter we have designed for
DTV has three distinct pieces. When outlining these pieces, we suggest using the color red to keep the
image of the campaign consistent. As you can see in Appendix B, the top of the letter has a television
covered with a piece of reflective space paper. This allows the readers to visualize themselves on-screen,
and serves as a means to capture their attention in a way a text-only letter would not. The tag line beneath
it shows them the benefit of our campaigns promotion. In the center we have condensed the contest
guidelines into three easy steps. In addition, the first two steps show how easy it is for the reader to refer a
friend in the first place. We suggest this because not only is a referral the only way to enter the contest,
but increasing the amount of DTV referrals is ultimately the goal. We suggest the direct mail piece is
short and simple because most households scan their mail near a trashcan and will lose attention quickly
(The Direct Marketing Association, 2013). We designed this piece specifically so that the DTV customers
can quickly spot and remember the information about the contest.
We also include the corresponding website URL for steps 1 and 2. In addition, we include a QR
code so the reader can directly view our customer acquisition spot on YouTube. The direct mails
inclusion of the website, contest hashtag, and YouTube integration would guide readers to the online
portions of DTVs campaign.
Paid Advertising
Appendix C shows our suggested graphic examples of Reddit advertising and Facebook
advertising. For the suggested YouTube advertising piece please refer to Appendix D. We will be using
Reddit as a form of paid advertising. The website attracts over 10 million unique visitors every day. The
website offers extremely cost-effective advertising measures that we can target specifically towards

people interest in television. The website charges only $1 for every 1,000 unique page views. So for only
$10,000 we can make an impression on 10 million people.We recommend DTV utilizes this form of paid
adverting three times throughout the span of our contest to continually remind people how they can save
money by referring a friend to DTV. The advertisement will link directly to the contest details page so
users can find out everything they know about the Refer a Friend program and the Spread The
Excitement contest (reddit).
We recommend that DTV implement YouTube advertising into their paid advertising budget. The
thirty-second television spot that we created for DTV is described in Appendix D and will serve as an instream advertisement which plays before YouTube videos. We suggest DTV places these ads on 5
YouTube videos that appeal to the target market. For example, we suggest an advertisement before the
Mad Men trailer as the shows viewer base matches the Social Young Adults (Carter, 2012). It should be
noted that YouTube would only charge DTV if the viewer watches the full advertisement.
In addition to promoting the Refer a Friend program and the contest on the DTV Facebook page,
we also suggest using Facebooks paid advertisements. As seen in Appendix C, these ads will appear on
Facebook users screens, directing them to the contest information page where they will find additional
contest details.
Consumer Facing Acquisition Spots
We propose that DTV should use exciting examples of people announcing how they saved $100
by referring a friend to DTV in their Customer Facing Acquisition Spot. The advertisement would serve
as a way to promote the #SpreadTheExcitement contest and highlights the savings that the Refer a Friend
program offers. The suggested script can be located in Appendix D.
Existing Customer Communications
DTV already has forms of existing customer interaction that we believe should be utilized to
spread awareness about the Refer a Friend program and the contest. First of all, we suggest DTV alters
the bill they already send monthly to customers. As seen in Appendix E we suggest the front of the bill
includes a red box incorporating the hashtag and the extremely simplified message Refer a friend. Save

money. Be on TV. This is to peak the readers interest. On the second page a box includes the same three
steps as the direct mail piece, including the URL links. We propose these alterations last throughout the
span of the contest.
We suggest that DTV takes advantage of another existing customer interaction by including a
flyer in all new DTV satellite boxes that new customers receive, also seen in Appendix E. We recommend
DTV to include this flyer because it is a low cost way for new customers to be informed of the Refer a
Friend program and the contest details. In addition, it is natural for a new customer to be excited about
their new service, thus appealing to them is a great way to be consistent with the theme of Spread The
Excitement. The flyer also includes the same QR code and URL links as the direct mail. We advise DTV
to use these two forms because it is a way to integrate an additional print medium while bypassing the
great cost of direct mail.
Email
DTV currently has four million people in their database that subscribe to their emails (Collegiate
Echo Challenge FAQ, 2015). DTVs emails only talk of the benefits of their referral program and how to
sign up for it, typically on a monthly basis. Understanding this, we recommend they send emails more
frequently in order to keep the contest fresh in customers minds. In correspondence with our proposed
media plan, we recommend that DTV send out four distinctive emails over the course of the Spread The
Excitement campaign. Each individual email will have a creative subject line to entice more subscribers
to at least open the email before deleting it. Evidently, 35% of email recipients open email based on the
subject line alone (Baer, 2014). The initial three emails will have links to all of DTVs social media
channels to serve as a way to assimilate all of DTVs media into a singular network.
All of the visual examples that we suggest DTV uses can be located in Appendix F. The first
email we think DTV should send to their subscribers is called Contest Details. This email introduces
customers to the Spread The Excitement contest, and will have details on how to enter the contest. We
will include the hyperlink DIRECTV.com/SpreadTheExcitement to give our subscribers an easy way to
access the contest details homepage. Lastly, the email will contain the television advertising spot we

10

created so that the potential contest entrants have an idea of what we are looking for in their contest
video. The overall call to action of the Contest Details email is to share their contest videos with
friends, learn about the contest and the referral program that DTV offers. DTV will send out there Thank
You For Entering email to a person who has entered the Spread The Excitement contest. This email
will confirm that their contest submission was successful and will wish them good luck. The email will
also provide the link to their contest video submission on YouTube, and remind them to share it with their
friends. We hope that their friends will then be aware of and enter the Spread The Excitement contest.
Lastly, we remind the contestant that they can refer up to ten friends to DTV so that they can save even
more money off of their DTV bills.
The third email we suggest sending will be called the Last Chance email. This email simply
serves as a reminder to DTVs email subscribers that they have a limited amount of time to enter the
Spread The Excitement contest. This email also announces that the five contest winners will be
revealed on December 29th. The last email DTV will be sending out is named the Contest Completion
email. In this email we call to an end the Spread The Excitement contest. We suggest this email thanks
all contestants and reminds them win or lose that by referring their friend they both saved $100.
Website
Our suggested depictions of the DTV homepage, Contest Information page, and the Contest
Submission Form page are all shown in Appendix G. On the DTV homepage we suggest using a red
banner to capture the attention of the customers as they immediately enter the homepage. The banner
design incorporates both the DTV Logo and the hashtag for our suggested Spread The Excitement
Contest. We suggest that the homepage has an additional tab labeled Spread The Excitement contest
that brings the customers directly to the Contest Information page. We believe that all the important
information about the contest be placed on this webpage. At the bottom of the page, we recommend that
there is a here link that would bring the customer directly to the Contest Submission Form. We advise
that the link to the submission form is placed at the bottom of the page to encourage that the DTV
customers read through all the information about the contest. The Contest Submission Form should

11

include a place where the customers can put all of their personal information and their video file to
successfully enter into the Spread The Excitement Contest.
Social Media
In order to create consistency throughout all of DTVs social media platforms, we suggest they
consistently use the hashtag (#SpreadTheExcitement). By using one distinctive hashtag when making
posts it has been proven to get more engagement on Facebook rather than using three or more hashtags
(Ayres, 2014). DTVs Facebook account has 4.3 million followers. We suggest that frequent posts be
made on the DTV Facebook account using the hashtag. Appendix H is where our suggested depiction of
the Facebook page is. We suggest the DTV Facebook page also provide links to the rest of the social
media sites in order to integrate the DTV social media platform (Facebook).
As of April 2015, DTV has about 169,000 followers on Twitter. DTVs twitter is only being used
to ask its followers if they will be watching shows that will be appearing on DTVs channels. We suggest
they go beyond this by promoting the Refer a Friend program and the Spread The Excitement contest
(Appendix H). By continually using the unique hashtag, the slogan will stand out to consumers when
compared to competitors (Marie, 2013). In addition we suggest DTV update their Twitter profile to
include links to the contest homepage (Twitter).
DTVs Instagram account has just shy of 16,000 followers. Again, it seems as if DTV has taken
the same approach with all of their social media accounts. We suggest DTV carries on with the use of the
hashtag on Instagram. By using a hashtag on Instagram it allows for DTVs photos, videos, and business
name to be more easily searchable and thus DTV will gain more engagement (Corkery, 2012). In order to
gain a larger audience to DTVs contest we suggest that people post pictures or their video submissions
using the hashtag. Our suggested Instagram post is shown in Appendix F, which features a man who fits
our target market profile skydiving, the man is definitely spreading the excitement (Instagram).

12

DTVs YouTube channel currently has 30,000 subscribers and receives hundreds of thousands of
views from each video they post. We suggest DTV uploads the customer facing acquisition spot to their
channel (Appendix F).This is the video that we suggest they link customers to via the QR codes, URL
links, and other social media platforms discussed throughout the mixed media plan.
Integration Map
The integration map we have included in Appendix I shows how we suggest that all the
touchpoints of this campaign interconnect in the most efficient way possible. The map is centered on the
Refer a Friend program and the Spread The Excitement Contest. Many touchpoints lead to the Contest
Information Page, which in turn leads to the two main touchpoints previously mentioned.
Media Plan Timeline
Please see Appendix J for proposed Media Timeline. We propose that the contest should run from
September 1st until December 15th, giving it a three and a half month span of time. We suggest posting
on all social media, YouTube advertising, and the homepage banner change to run consistently throughout
the projected five month campaign. We suggest that advertising for the Spread The Excitement Contest
through the media channels specified in Appendix J should begin September 1st and end December 15th
as well. We recommend that the top five winners each receive four separate airing times for their video as
live television advertising during the month of January.
BUDGETING AND FORECAST
Please visit Appendix K for the Budget and Appendix L for the Forecast Results. We would like
to make note that in Appendix K, we have estimated no cost for DIRECTV Emails. According to the
Marketing Edge Facebook Page, a post on November 25th stated that we should assume no cost for Email
marketing.
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Stock, K. (2013, November 5). DirecTV raises prices, and more people sign up. Bloomberg Business.
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Appendix
Appendix A: Target Market Profile

16

Appendix B: Direct Mail

17

Appendix C: Paid Advertising

Reddit Advertising

Facebook Advertising

18

Appendix D: Customer Facing Acquisition Spots

Man sitting in the middle of a coach by himself

Narrator: Youve got friends.
Two friends appear on either side of man and everyone looks excited
Narrator: Youve got DIRECTV.
Shot from first-person-perspective of guy turning on television with remote
DIRECTV logo appears on the television screen
Narrator: Be a friend and give your friend DIRECTV.
Same shot as before, guy turns to the right and hands his friend the remote
Friend looks super happy
Narrator: These people did, and look at them!
Friends from video dancing excitedly under a literal rain of money
One video will be shown of us showcasing people saving money by referring a friend to DIRECTV by using the quote, MY NAME

IS ______ AND I JUST SAVED MY FRIEND AND I $100 BY REFERRING HIM/HER TO DIRECTV!
The Narrator appears on screen. He is a studious looking man, sitting behind a desk.
Narrator: Want to be as excited as them?
Camera shot of young guy looking excited.
Camera shot of narrator.
Narrator: Give your friends DIRECTV.
Shot of excited man handing a sign labeled DIRECTV to his friend
Both look eerily excited.
Camera shoots back to the Narrator.
Narrator: Send us a video of your excitement. Well put you on TV.
Shot of excited young man sitting on a television.
Shot of narrator, who is smiling for the first time.
Narrator: Now thats exciting.
Last shot is red background with white text DIRECTV. #SpreadTheExcitement.

Appendix E: Existing Customer Communications

DIRECTV Bill

19

Installation Flyer

20

Appendix F: Email
Contest Details Email

21

Thank You For Entering Email

22

Last Chance Email

23

Contest Completion Email

24

Appendix G: Website
Homepage

Spread The Excitement Contest

Contest Information Page

25

Contest Submission Form

26

Appendix H: Social Media

Facebook

27

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

28

Appendix I: Integration Map

29

Appendix J: Media Plan Timeline

30

Appendix K: Budget

31

Appendix L: Forecast

32