To demonstrate the superiority of Philips products, we launched Philips_vs. A madcap experiment spanning Twitter, YouTube and the wider online community. Online influencers were invited to tweet challenges for Philips products in the most imaginative way possible. To get the idea talked about we seeded sample films across Youtube. Our “Philips vs The Sun” film went viral and was even broadcasted on a Dutch prime time talk show. We challenged the Philips Wake Up Light to wake up a farmyard rooster before the sun came up. Probably not the most scientific challenge, but good entertainment all the same.

The campaign ran across multiple platforms. When participants submitted ideas, we instantly reacted. Many challenges were retweeted to the wider community. The best ones were photoshopped to give followers immediate satisfaction whilst providing additional content. On YouTube and via Twitter, we seeded inspirational Philips_vs films. Via the end frame of these films, we drove people to the Philips_vs Twitter page. Over on Philipsvs.com, which could be launched from a URL on the Twitter profile, we explained the competition in detail. Users could also Tweet directly from this page.

The campaign was highly effective with an invested media budget of only €10K. In just 4 weeks, the Philips_vs Twitter competition received 680 entries from 3.122 active followers, all with a large group of followers (potential reach 2nd-order followers: over 15.7 million Twitter users). It's worth noting that a follower on Twitter has a much higher currency than a viewer on Youtube and is a more active advocate. The Philips_vs campaign was praised for being innovative on 200 websites/blogs in 24 countries. The inspirational videos received over 100,000 YouTube views and were broadcast on a Dutch talkshow reaching 500,000 viewers.