VerizonUp/stage:
The upstage is a multi-channel social campaign that lets the Verizon consumer feel like a member of a bigger community and connect over a common love for music. The idea of the Upstage competition uses city pride to drive the Verizon Up program the loyalty program for Verizon customers.
Focus: Strategy, Art Direction, Concept Development
Team: Sur Govindarajan, Qi Zheng, Elizabeth Shieh
Recognition: Gold - First Place Team Winner
Client: Verizon
Duration: 4 days
Role: Graphic Designer
Challenge
Only a small percentage of subscribers have enrolled in the Verizon Up program. Most people don’t know what Verizon Up is, including current Verizon customers. Now, Verizon partnered with a range of music artists like Justin Timberlake, Luke Bryan, X Ambassadors, and more to drive awareness of their Up loyalty program. Using Verizon’s incredible access to music artists, this project aims to create an awareness-driving campaign for Verizon Up, teaching people about the program and ultimately motivating them to enroll.
Solution & Goals
Our goal for this project is to promote Verizon's loyalty program VerizonUp through a social media competition Upstage. By creating a multi-channel social campaign, Verizon consumers will feel like a member of a bigger community and connect over a common love for music. The idea of area code will amplify their cultural identity by going back to their origin. At the same time, it drives envy for prospects that have not enrolled in the program.
Research
Kick-off Meeting
Our team started this project by holding an initial meeting to clarify the project plan, deliverables, and deadlines, as well as to discuss how we should collaborate throughout the project.
Secondary Research
We started by reading the article by Glenn Peoples titled “What Do Consumers Really Want In A Premium Music Service?” to understand the underlying demand of premium users. According to Glenn, users want to join the premium service in order to be in the elite program.
Ideate
Brainstorming
We started our ideation stage by questioning how we can bring a strong bond to the people in different communities. Then we moved to brainwriting. Each person in the team spent about 10 minutes writing down their thoughts on cards or papers simultaneously. Once we done writing, we shared our ideas with the team, and we were open to further feedback and invited others' opinions. After discussion, we decided to use the area code to form cohesion in the community. According to the article by C. Brian Smith ”Home Is Where the Area Code Is“ people want to keep their area codes to honor a moment in time. Also, for people who move to a different place from their childhood, area codes are the only thing that ties them back home.
New York City Area code
212 / 917 / 347 / 646 / 718 / 929 / 332
Persona
Target Audience
Music Fans: Current Verizon customers (enrolled in Up & not enrolled in Up)
Older millennials: those who have a stable income
Insights
“ Besides when going to work, people often don’t leave their neighborhood. ”
“ People feel proud and attached to a music artist from their neighborhood. ”
How?
How might we use Verizon’s strength of having the best network to get to the deepest grassroots and create a local, musical experience?
Movement
We want to start a movement for VerizonUp by going local and working from the ground up by reaching the audience at the origin of their area code.
Like music, belonging to a specific area is very much like being a part of that tribe. When we think deeper we are all a part of a tribe right here. By holding intimate mini-concerts where local artists perform, we help connect people with specific area codes to the artists that are from the same area code. All the tickets for this concert will be available inside the app.
How does it work?
Notification / Invitation
1. The user with specific area codes will find out about the local concert through an app alert, email, and text messages. They will be invited to make a song with a local artist in the same area. The invitation will direct users to the Verizon app.
Get your Tickets /Make your Song
Once in the app, the user will also be able to submit their word to use for their area song, which leads to a local intimate event with the local artist. For example, the user from the 917 area code will be able to play the area song made with words contributed by fellow 917s.
Also, the user can download the ticket for themselves as well as any friend that they want to take. It will target more than just the Verizon customer, but also invite people who are not enrolled to be part of this event.
Upstage competition
Now we want to keep the buzz going by starting an Upstage competition between different areas. We will ask the people to share clips of them singing/playing their Area Song on the social media platform. The area with the highest number of social media posts with their area hashtags will be the grand winner. The reward for the winning city is that the celebrity artist will sing their area song at his/her concert. The winners will also get special credits in the Verizon Up program, applicable to the other celebrities’ concerts.
The idea of the Upstage competition uses city pride to drive the Verizon Up program. It will not only raise awareness of Verizon UP but also give a platform to the local artists who are otherwise eaten up by record labels. This micro-to-macro movement will lead to increased subscriptions and shares. At the same time, it also amplifies ups presence inside out forming an authentic network of users, who take pride in not just having the network, but being the network, to not just use up, but own it. This will give new meaning to going local by amplifying their cultural identity and belonging to their neighborhood.
