LinkedIn And System1’s Partnership Bears Fruit In The Successful ‘Plant’ Campaign Focusing On Career Growth

Growing an execution from germination to 4.6-Star creative execution

The world’s largest professional community, LinkedIn, is celebrating the success of its seven week-long integrated TV-led ad campaign ‘Plant’. The ad charts Vik’s hunt for a new job using LinkedIn as his source of contacts, support, and training. At the start of his journey, Vik owns a rather bedraggled houseplant, which he tends throughout the various phases of his search. The plant’s gradual recovery reflects the many small but progressive steps Vik takes on his road to a new job. In the final scene, we see the fully recovered plant in Vik’s hand on his first day at his new company. The team at LinkedIn worked closely with System1 at every stage of the creative process, from the initial idea through to the final film. The strong commercial results are testament to the close working relationship between client and agent, and the effectiveness of System1’s ‘Test Your Ad’ solution.

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Darain Faraz, Director Brand Marketing at LinkedIn says: “During the pandemic we have seen extraordinary engagement on the LinkedIn platform and there are countless examples of how the community has supported members through very challenging times. The ‘Plant’ campaign mirrors that, using Vik’s job search and his care for his initially unloved plant ‘Robert’ as a metaphor for the green shoots that are starting to emerge. By working with System1 from the inception of the concept for ‘Plant’, through to script, storyboard, and soundtrack testing, we have been able to refine and strengthen the film, producing a 4.6-star creative execution that has really delivered for the brand. Run in the UK, US, Australia and Germany, the ad has delivered strong results for short-term sales activation and long-term market share growth”

From Script to Storyboard, Soundtrack to final execution

In the project brief, LinkedIn asked System1 to provide practical guidance for ways to improve the creative. The agency’s Test Your Ad solution is rooted in the belief that campaigns with an ‘emotional’ strategy are nearly twice as likely to deliver large profit gains over the long-term compared to those that do not.

In tests, the script scored Moderate to Good, with Happiness, the main emotion, driven by feelings of positivity and hope. The ad scored highly on Brand Fluency as the LinkedIn brand was prominent from the very first scenes, and central to Vik reaching his goal of getting a job. Respondents made emotional connections with the storyboard, with the only negativity coming from the length of the ad. As a result, System1 suggested changes to the length and identified the areas to focus on to elicit the desired emotional responses.

LinkedIn also changed the soundtrack in response to feedback from Test Your Ad. The Dan Auberach music they finally selected not only performed well for driving Happiness, it also rose to the top 50 in the Shazam Charts after the ad was broadcast! At the end of the ad, two different conclusions were trialled, with a clear winner identified and adopted as the final frames.

Ben Walton, CCO at System1 says: “The ‘Plant’ case study is a perfect illustration of the success of our partnership with LinkedIn. It underlines how working with our Test Your Ad solution early to hone a campaign can really reap rewards. Starting at the original Plant concept, we were able to break down each element of the execution to understand and enhance the impact of key emotional cues. Analysing the emotional responses to the ad second-by-second meant we could make recommendations for improvements to the messaging, ad length, and even the soundtrack to drive home the key brand messages. Not only has the final execution delivered excellent results in-market, it has also earned global recognition from AdAge having been selected for their Editor’s Pick.”

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