Gazeta Wyborcza advertiser celebrates 100 years with online stories, photo competition

In 2011, we invited users to travel back in time when tire manufacturer Continental decided to use Agora to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of its presence in Poland. We asked ourselves how we could make this event look interesting not only to tire enthusiasts, but to a wide range of readers. 

 

To kick off the campaign, we created a dedicated nationwide issue of Gazeta Wyborcza, prepared especially for Continental’s birthday gala in Poland, with articles on sports, cars, fashion, and technology. The entire advertising space was filled with Continental’s advertisements. We simultaneously ran a series of articles “Pioneers of the Polish automotive industry.” Each episode was promoted ahead of time on Agora’s Web site Moto.pl.

 

To increase the awareness of the anniversary, we prepared non-standard advertisement opportunities in Gazeta Wyborcza. The well-thought-out campaign was also well-timed, making people aware of the anniversary during Continental’s sales season (changing over to winter tires). 

 

Our goal was to engage readers while increasing awareness of the Continental brand. We created a campaign to show how Poland has changed over the last 100 years and how our advertiser, Continental, has changed with it. To increase the effectiveness of ”100 Years in Poland,” different editorial teams used the promotional tools that were best suited to their respective group of users. 

 

Modern solutions, such as a functional interactive application on the Web site presenting different areas of Poles’ lives, made it possible to reach a wide group of people. We prepared a site with a dedicated application especially for this occasion – “100 Years in Poland.” It allowed users to select a decade, then learn about important events in Continental’s history against the backdrop of breakthrough events from different areas of Poles’ lives. It provided both valuable information and an emotional experience. We had 223,376 unique users, generating 621,570 pageviews. 

 

Also on the Web, the Agora Web site Moto.pl invited Internet users to participate in a competition to send in old car photos from family albums. For “Car memories from years ago,” visitors sent more than 200 interesting photographs, many of them accompanied with incredible stories. Among those, 13 people received awards; the three best entries received a set of winter tires, the others were given small gifts sponsored by Continental.

 

On a different Web site, Tuba.fm, we created an online radio channel, “Hits of the Century,” that played popular hits from the days of our parents and grandparents. After clicking the play button, users heard a message informing them that Continental sponsored the hits of the century. 

 

The campaign brought revenue for Agora, and Continental was pleased with its effects. In particular, Continental officials were impressed with the broad, multi-media character of the project. Three media channels were involved: print (Gazeta Wyborcza), Internet (Gazeta.pl), and radio (Z?ote Przeboje), which created a perfect context for the client’s communication. 

 

The campaign continues to bring revenue for Agora. After the project’s completion, Continental became our main partner in another long-term project — our EURO2012 special Web site on Sport.pl and editorial cycle in print (in Gazeta).