Following our success earlier this year, being highly commended for the very first PR Week Global Award for Latin America, we are delighted to say that Sherlock Communications has been named as the winner of the SABRE Awards Latin America, Best Technology Campaign for our Educador Inspirador campaign for Quizlet. The same campaign also won a Certificate of Excellence for the Marketing to Consumer (New Product) category.
The SABRE Awards, delivered by The Holmes Report, are the world’s largest PR awards programme and recognise superior achievement in branding and reputation in six regions: North America, EMEA, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, South Asia and Africa.
Sherlock’s winning campaign involved to taking US tech brand, online learning tool Quizlet, and successfully launching and growing the service in Brazil. We had to make it relevant and engaging, and drive downloads from multiple audiences across the country’s diverse educational system and geographical expanse.
As Quizlet can be used by anyone to learn anything, and as access and inclusivity are values core to the brand, Sherlock achieved this goal by putting the target audience at the heart of the campaign.
We made champions of and sourced news-worthy, shareable materials from teachers and students, as well as running a wider content-sourcing and production program, identifying partners and influencers to produce regular study decks of Quizlet content, which we then promoted to press and via social media.
One example was on Brazilian Black Consciousness Day (November 20th), we marked the occasion with a Quizlet campaign that outlined the achievements of 17 Afro-Brazilians from the country’s history, often ignored in history books. Content was developed in partnership with influencers and sociologist Túlio Custódio, creator of popular website Pitacodemia, and Stefánie Ribeiro (black rights activist, and Marie Claire columnist -15k followers on Instagram). Coverage was secured on major national outlets including R7 and Catraca Livre, generating more than 16 thousand shares on social media.
We also identified and engaged a range of highly relevant online influencers and micro-influencers such as @alexeyrusso (354k followers in Brazil), with flashcards teaching key phrases in Russian for Brazilians planning to attend the World Cup in 2018. His video that explained (in Portuguese) how to use Quizlet was watched 46,500 times, while a similar video made by Brazilian vlogger @tiadoingles (English Auntie) got 20,300 views. Online channels like Matemática Passo a Passo (“Math Step by Step”; 101k followers) & Canal da Física (“Physics Channel” – 28k subscribers) hosted Quizlet tutorials for niche groups of followers. Suddenly, Quizlet had a team of well-known personalities acting as spokespeople for the brand in Brazil. Product recognition and popularity began to build.
The highlight of the campaign was the development and launch of a Quizlet-owned state and national awards program – the Educador Inspirador (“Inspiring Educator”) Awards, that searched for and recognized innovative and inspiring teachers, as nominated online by students, parents, and other stakeholders. National winners would win a trip to Quizlet HQ in California.
A custom-built microsite invited user submissions while email marketing, press outreach, and regionally targeted social media actions created widespread engagement and visibility, while staggered announcements maximised PR opportunities in regional and state press outlets. After the nominations period was closed, we initially announced the top ten educators from each of Brazil’s 27 states (compiling shortlists based on nominees’ innovative use of technology to teach; and evidence of excellence), netting extensive local media coverage.
Users then voted for winners from the top ten nominees in each state followed by the announcement of 27 state-level winners, which created yet more regional press opportunities. Each teacher received the Quizlet Premium product for their school, and a certificate, which they all photographed and posted online, creating yet more marketing collateral and user-generated content for the client.
