The creative team created nine new ways MailChimp was mispronounced – mostly comical, mostly ridiculous – all unbranded.

The intention was to create intrigue so that people would search to find out more – and ultimately discover the creative spirit of MailChimp was behind the fun and weirdness.

The nine new mispronunciations - MaleCrimp, KaleLimp, MailShrimp, FailChips, JailBlimp, VeilHymn, NailChamp, WhaleSynth, SnailPrimp – were developed as an activation in their own right.

For media, that meant taking nine seemingly disparate creative concepts, and turning it into a highly orchestrated, carefully navigated web of content experience and discovery.

MailChimp customers are small business owners or decision makers in design and creative fields: designers, developers, writers. They have a discerning eye and sharp taste, but are elusive to reach with traditional advertising.

So, we had to develop a sophisticated and integrated media campaign that would make them want to know more.

Each “Did You Mean MailChimp?” execution had a media plan that mirrored the customer journey for its category.

Our campaign, in its entirety, worked across cinema, TV, influencers, bloggers, print, outdoor, digital, social, editorial and events. You get the point. This was an integrated media campaign.

But the nine executions couldn’t live in isolation of each other. With a modest budget, the risk was a fragmented media plan would reduce the potential reach and impact. So, we created a search and re-targeting structure to tie it all together.

We re-targeted users seamlessly across video, content and social, and served them more executions from the campaign to bring them further into the fold.

We drove frequency and variety, making every message seen a chance to see the next one. And we closed the loop by directing people to a landing page with a discreet reveal that its MailChimp behind the campaigns.

70% of people who saw the campaign said it gave them a better sense of MailChimp’s personality.

The lift in key brand attribute scores was considerable:

Inspiring +25%

Authentic +19%

Cool +16%

After the campaign there was a 20% increase in awareness of MailChimp and an increase in overall affinity for the brand of +18%.

Media Results:

3.8M organic searches across MailChimp and individual campaign concepts

+29% more visits to MailChimp’s digital ecosystem

$3.52M earned media value, proving we created culture rather than chasing it