Advertising Case Study

American ExpressCompany Background

American Express is a global service company that

provides customers with access to products, insights

and experiences that enrich lives and build business

success. American Express OPEN is dedicated

to helping small business owners run and grow

successful businesses.

Campaign Objective

As a company, American Express is always looking for

ways to help small businesses. In fact, OPEN’s mission

is Helping Businesses Do More Business. From that

mission, grew the idea for Small Business Saturday,

a day when Americans would be encouraged to

patronize their local businesses. Within AmEx, the

idea quickly took on a life of its own. “We recognized

the downturn had a big impact on a number of small

businesses and that what they needed most was

customers,” says John Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer

at American Express. “When this idea came about,

everyone said ‘let’s just do it.’” American Express set

out to create “Small Business Saturday,” a movement

encouraging consumers to shop at small businesses

on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, between Black

Friday and Cyber Monday—two of the country’s

biggest annual shopping days.

Susan Sobbott, President of American Express OPEN,

explains, “Small Business Saturday is a manifestation

of tremendous energy around rallying American

consumers to shop at their local stores and help

businesses do more business” The campaign had

three main goals: American Express wanted to help

Facebook Executive Summary

Client:

facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday

Objective:

Create a national movement to drive

business to small businesses called

Small Business Saturday

Solution:

A multi-layer ecosystem of passionate

Americans, support from government

officials, reasons to shop at local

small businesses, and the Facebook

community at the heart of it all

Key Lessons:

• Withagoodideaandsimple

execution, people can be

mobilized extremely quickly on

Facebook

• ThereachofFacebookisa

powerful way for brands to

pursue a common goal with their

customers

“Not only were we able to get a fan base of a million and a half people on Facebook supporting Small Business Saturday, but when you think about their friends, we’re talking about over 100 million people being

aware of Small Business Saturday. We don’t know any other way that we could have scaled that level of awareness and that level of

engagement in less than two and a half weeks.”

John Hayes

Chief Marketing Officer, American Express

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small businesses by bringing consumers into

their stores, unite U.S. consumers around a

cause they care about, and strengthen American

Express’ relationship with small businesses and

consumers. American Express had an initial

objective of getting at least 1 million fans to join

the movement on Facebook.

Campaign Approach

As John explains, “The first place we all

agreed we needed to be was Facebook—local

businesses exist on Facebook and consumers

spend an enormous amount of time on

Facebook.” Plus, American Express says Facebook

enabled the brand to target specific audiences

and benefit from the sharing that occurs

naturally on the platform.

In order to raise awareness of Small Business

Saturday, American Express launched a media

campaign on Facebook. Utilizing a series of

ad placements including Marketplace Ads

and Premium Reach Blocks, which drove to a

dedicated Small Business Saturday Page, AmEx

sought to gain maximum awareness of the

movement and encourage consumers to engage.

The Small Business Saturday Page became the

destination for all of AmEx’s marketing efforts

and the community hub for those supporting the

movement. It also quickly became the fastest

growing Page on Facebook.

The company’s activities on Facebook were

complemented by a cross-media campaign.

“We created a business system around Small

Business Saturday, of which Facebook was the

beating heart,” says Susan. “We had a PR strategy,

advertising strategy, partnership strategy and

public official strategy that was built around it.

There was a virtuous cycle between all pieces of

the equation.”

To achieve a movement of this scale, American

Express needed a simple call to action and clear

incentives for all participants. Consumers who

used their AmEx card at a small business on the

Saturday after Thanksgiving received a $25 credit,

when they spent $25. American Express provided

10,000 businesses free advertising on Facebook

and offered them in-store materials to promote

the event to their customers. “Many of them had

never advertised on Facebook before, and we

inspired them to use a new medium,” says Susan.

“Many are continuing to do that now that they’ve

experienced Facebook.”

Results

• ThepartnershipwithFacebookwassuccessful

in encouraging consumers and small business

owners to take an action related to Small

Business Saturday. Across all metrics, American

Express saw positive differences when

comparing those citing Facebook as a source

of awareness versus those not encountering

Small Business Saturday on Facebook.

• OnSmallBusinessSaturday,smallbusinesses

saw a 28 percent lift in revenue over the

prior year, compared to a 9 percent lift for all

retailers. “This was a threefold increase versus

what total retail was able to see,” says John.

“That certainly made an impact on these small

businesses.”

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• Facebookwaseffectiveindrivingpublic

opinion of American Express. Among the

general public, nearly forty seven percent of

those who cited Facebook as a source have

a more favorable impression of AmEx versus

thirty percent of those who are aware

from sources other than Facebook. Among

Cardmembers, sixty five percent of those

who cited Facebook as a source have a more

favorable opinion of the brand, compared

to forty nine percent who did not cite

Facebook as a source.

• Morethan100,000smallbusinessowners

downloaded point-of-purchase and

promotional materials from the Small

Business Saturday Facebook Page and 10,000

small businesses signed up and received

free Facebook advertising (this offer sold

out).

• Over1.4millionpeoplejoinedthe

movement by liking Small Business Saturday

on Facebook. This means the brand can now

reach over 100 million friends of those fans

with Friends of Connections Targeting.

• 41electedofficialsdeclaredNovember27,

2010 “Small Business Saturday” including

Mayor Bloomberg of New York.

• SmallBusinessSaturdayreceived

approximately 3,000 press mentions.

American Express says Facebook helped create

the community that made Small Business

Saturday credible and so successful. “Facebook

allowed us to achieve connectedness, creating

a sense of community around an effort to drive

customers to small businesses, which we could

not have accomplished in any other way,” says

John. “You don’t often get to work on a project

where you really feel like you’re making a

difference for an entire community.” In addition,

Susan says that as the Facebook community

grew, so did the movement’s credibility and

press attention.

The company credits the power of this

community and its cross-media campaigns for

enablingittoquicklycreateamovementwith40

percent awareness among Americans. “The speed

at which we could get a message in market and

iterate on it, literally in the course of a day, is not

something you can do through email, direct mail

or TV,” says Susan. “Not only were we able to get

a fan base of over a million people on Facebook

supporting Small Business Saturday, but when

you think about their friends, we’re talking about

over 100 million people being aware of Small

Business Saturday,” says John. “We don’t know

any other way that we could have scaled that

level of awareness and that level of engagement

in about two and a half weeks.”

We’ve built an engaged community around a

cause that people are passionate about Susan

says. “The million and a half fans don’t go

away—they are now a permanent community.”

John adds that as a marketer, “the challenge

for American Express is how do we engage

people and get them involved in the things we

are doing that we jointly value. When you do

that, you change the way people feel about

your brand and your company, and that is the

most important thing that marketing can do

today. That is the outcome of the Facebook and

American Express effort behind Small Business

Saturday.”

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The Future

Going forward, Susan says American Express will

be looking for additional ways to further ingrain

Small Business Saturday into the American

culture. “Facebook will continue to be the heart

of our community and we’ll continue to inspire

that community to be the evangelists for small

businesses in their communities,” she says.

She adds that after Small Business Saturday,

American Express concluded that Facebook is not

optional. “It is an essential and hyper-efficient

piece of the equation.” Internally, Susan says, “We

learned how to really operationalize social media

for a very specific outcome—the possibilities at

this point are infinite.”

American Express and Facebook will continue to

partner in their shared goal of supporting small

businesses. “This is the kind of partnership you

want when you’re developing something new and

doing something as grand as trying to inspire a

nation” Susan says. John adds, “Since working

on Small Business Saturday, there’s an enormous

amount of trust between our companies and

therefore, even a greater desire to partner

on additional projects. American Express and

Facebook truly partnered and put their assets on

the table to get the results that we achieved.”