Third Wave Book
A best-selling effort to Inspire the next revolution in technology and entrepreneurship.
background
There are few people on earth as synonymous with entrepreneurship as Steve Case. Since founding and selling AOL in the biggest merger in history, Steve has become a prominent investor and an outspoken advocate for startups. In 2015, Steve decided to synthesize his vision for the future of entrepreneurship and technology into his first book. The first wave brought the internet to the masses. The second wave brought mobile apps and social networks to connect the world. The Third Wave answers the question, “what’s next?”
Having partnered with his firm Revolution on two successful Rise of the Rest tour social media campaigns already, Sculpt jumped at the chance to support Steve Case’s debut as a sure-to-be best-selling book author.
key challenges
- Awareness: A Medium post announcing the book was the extent to which the project was promoted. The subject matter had the power to change the world. The world just needed to know about it.
- Excitement: A successful launch campaign is influenced by a successful pre-launch effort.
- Engagement: Once the book was released, things were going to pick up fast. Steve’s team and PR firm lined up an ambitious tour schedule, and social needed to follow every move.
- Momentum: Success was not being measured in sales alone. Success meant adoption. The community had to reference the concepts. We had to ignite a movement.
brand goals
We rallied around several traction goals from the outset:
- Generate referral traffic to book retailers (sales).
- Generate widespread awareness around the book release.
- Increase attendance at book tour stops and sponsored events.
- Cultivate conversation around Third Wave themes and concepts.
- Amplify earned media impact from influencers and PR through owned social channels.
creative brief
When we were handed the assignment to launch Steve Case’s new book, The Third Wave, we only had one piece of creative for the piece:
The cover.
We developed a visual direction for social creative that would stand out in feeds, inspired by the visual elements found on the marketing site. Cohesion between social, web, and offline collateral was key to the awareness strategy.
To break through crowded social feeds, we carried their visual voice into vibrant static, looping, animated, and cinemagraph-based assets.
our approach
The Third Wave needed to feel like a movement. Therefore our social media campaign carried through across multiple channels. We deployed thumb-stopping creative across established and emerging platforms where our target audience paid attention.
Some campaign activities included:
- Developing dynamic graphic templates for swift background image and text swapping.
- Incorporating on-brand video and animated assets to stand out in crowded news feeds.
- Following a targeted segment of followers in each relevant market.
- Cross-promoting Steve Cases’s Facebook LIVE appearances.
- Tagging venues, local startup organizations, sponsors, and hosts in promo graphics at each promo stop.
- Developing graphics and sample posts for partners and influencers to share to their millions of followers.
We had full responsibility over Steve Cases’s Facebook Page, and Third Wave Book and Rise of the Rest‘s Twitter accounts to make it happen.
campaign phases
Beginning our execution two months before the book’s launch, we structured our engagement in three phases:
pre-launch awareness
Our first phase of outreach sought to introduce the topic of the “Third Wave” of the internet and generate excitement and pre-orders for the launch on April 5. Without giving away too much of the book’s highlights, we provided sneak peeks into Third Wave concepts to give a taste of what was to come.
launch & press week
For the two weeks surrounding the launch, we kicked social into high gear to maximize frequency, engagement, and excitement. Supporting Steve’s media efforts and event appearances, we coordinated with the Revolution team to give behind-the-scenes snippets of the book tour, including live video feeds with a new Facebook integration and optimizing a sizable ad spend across channels.
momentum building
Once we built a network of engaged followers, we set our sights on integrating book concepts into conversation about innovation and entrepreneurship in the future. One-on-one engagement with influencers and book readers helped continue the momentum of making Third Wave an essential character in the entrepreneurial story.
Between February and June 15th, our Facebook posts generated more than 1 million organic impressions and post engagements, our tweets generated nearly two million organic impressions, and social was the leading driver to the marketing site encompassing 54.6% of all traffic. The Third Wave hit its business goals, achieving the lucrative #1 Best-Selling Business Book of the Month title from the New York Times.
Most importantly, the tech world is still talking about “Third Wave” concepts and “Rise of the Rest” investments.
Cheers to a brighter future.
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