Our creative strategic solution was Twelpforce: the first-ever, digitised, volunteer army of Best Buy employees available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on Twitter. Not to push products. Or sales. But to provide 'twelp'. The impact of this new approach to customer service quickly validated itself as other brands began creating replica Twitter service programmes of their own.

With Twitter as the campaign hub, online banners drove users to the Twelpforce page to get more information, or the specific product pages on BestBuy.com. Broadcast spots provided reach and drove awareness of both the Twelpforce and products that would satisfy their Back-to-School needs. All spots were tagged with the Twelpforce URL.Channels of media focus included social, shopping comparison, tech, mobile, broad reach, lifestyle and news. We needed a broad mix to reach parents as well as students and to drive awareness of the Twelpforce while driving product sales.

Since the launch, Twelpforce has answered thousands and thousands of tweets, landed Best Buy in the top 25 social brands of 2009, and helped drive over-all customer complaints down by nearly 20% from last year.During the campaign, the Twelpforce responded to over 20,000 questions and has over 16,000 followers. The Blueshirts also played an integral part in this campaign with over 2,000 employees participating.

In terms of products, laptop sales beat Best Buy’s forecast by 40%, proving that knowledgeable and readily accessible employees lead to an increase in purchases by consumers who feel smarter about their tech decisions.