Toshiba - We Love Stories

As one of the world's leading technology companies, Toshiba have a need to constantly push the boundaries of customer percpetion of their brand across a wide range of product types from tablet pc's and mobile, through laptops into TV and home entrtainment.

After the success of a pilot competition at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in 2010, Toshiba asked cScape to develop a new viral promotion contest which would be extended to students at celebrated film schools in Munich, Lodz and Brussels.

Solution

Toshiba have always represented innovation and accessibility and wanted to drive home this message by partnering with cScape to create the We Love Stories project and build the Toshiba brand as an enabler of cutting edge creativity. The challenge was to develop an online community of amateur film makers and storytellers around a competition to create a short film representing Toshiba values.

cScape created, promoted and managed the We Love Stories 2011 website, through which we highlighted the exceptional quality of last year’s winning entries, displayed the new submissions and showcased the beautiful, ambitious and hilarious videos from this year’s finalists.

To enter, students were asked to come up with a pitch for a creative viral that would entertain and engage viewers with the Toshiba brand. They uploaded their proposals to all the social sites after which they were given a profile page on the We Love Stories site. They had to get as many votes, Facebook Likes, tweets and other social shares as possible so that judges could assess the viral potential of the submissions. cScape created a strong community around these submissions, promoting them on Facebook and Twitter and through the We Love Stories blog. We were also asked to join the judging panel alongside leading figures in the film industry across Europe, including Nik Powell (Director of the NFTS, co-founder of Virgin and Palace Productions).

Outcome

The standard of entries was exceptional. Six finalists were chosen and given a €5000 production budget to turn their ideas into a creative viral video by May 2011.

The multichannel presence across the web site, Facebook, Youtube channel and Twitter drove interest and  encouraged an audience of tens of thousands from across 36 countries to view and vote for the shortlist for judging. The project culminated in a glamorous awards ceremony at the NFTS campus in September with the presentation being given by Nik Powell and the head of Toshiba Europe. Brand awareness and reputation were significantly raised across the target audience and a new generation of young film makers have been given a chance to have their work seen on a world stage.

Go to the We Love Stories website to see the 2011 submissions and the six finalists. You can also watch the videos produced by the 2010 finalists.