Sobu is the recommendation platform of Swiss Post. It works on the principle of "buy - share - profit". As a registered user, you can earn money every time you make a purchase through recommendations by sharing the online purchases you have made on your social networks. When friends store at the same online store, you get a credit. As a rule, this is 5-10 percent, with each store determining the amount of the credit individually.

A business idea with potential

Sobu has been around for almost three years. But until now, almost no one knew about the platform. "Last year, we had an awareness level of 0.6 percent - even though we are the largest recommendation platform in Switzerland with 120 stores and the business idea is ingenious," Roberto D'Elia, Head of Sobu at Swiss Post, is convinced. "True, neither peer-to-peer nor affiliate nor cash back is anything new," he admits, "but this is the first time these three trends are being combined in Switzerland, and social media is also being incorporated." A gfs survey last year showed that the business idea, with 1.2 million users, actually had more potential than it was currently exploiting. "That led us to launch a broad-based campaign across all channels instead of communicating exclusively through the online channel, as we have done in the past. We also want to reach these 1.2 million users," says D'Elia.

Real ambassadors

The advertising agency was commissioned with the first major advertising campaign for Sobu across all channels. "The challenge was to explain the complex, innovative product in a campaign," says Creative Director Frederick Rossmann, describing the initial situation. "You can't avoid describing the entire Journey - but how do you do that? We finally had the idea of working with real ambassadors who use the platform themselves. These demonstrate the huge potential of social media for Sobu on- and offline during the course of the campaign."

Casting à la DSDS

The first phase of the multi-stage campaign started back in May 2015, when ambassadors for Sobu were sought via online channels and print ads. Over 300 people put themselves forward for the public vote. 30 of them were then invited to a live casting in the second stage to prove their talent as ambassadors. "A celebrity jury, which included The Bachelorette's Frieda, got to grips with the participants à la Dieter Bohlen," says Werbeanstalt managing director Reto Dürrenberger. The casting was finally won by Pascal, Nicole, Sandra, Denja and Joël. For them, the battle now goes into the next round. Their goal: to get as many people as possible to shop in the same online stores. The winner will be the one who has earned the most money with Sobu by the beginning of December.

Films as the centerpiece

The five ambassadors are now getting a lot of support. The nationwide campaign for Sobu was launched on Thursday. At the heart of the campaign are five TV commercials - one for each ambassador. They can be seen throughout Switzerland on the country's largest TV stations. The advertising agency has tailored the five spots specifically to the five ambassadors: dancing, singing or shouting, in them they take their posts out into the real (offline) world to really promote their online purchases. "The surprising thing is that the people in the spots are not actors. They are absolutely real. What they show in the spots, they have also done in real life," Rossmann emphasizes.

"The ambassadors are now responsible for the micro-campaign, so to speak," explains the creative director. To this end, they have a Facebook profile, which makes them public figures (so they get celebrity status), and a small budget for further advertising measures. In addition, they can rely on the support of the advertising agency: The agency's experts advise them when needed. "However, there is no compulsion to discuss measures with us. The ambassadors are free to design their own campaign as they wish. In return, they receive a small sack money from us," says Dürrenberger.

There is hardly any spamming

Do you like real friends spamming you with ads? No - but that doesn't happen either, D'Elia assures: "We can rely entirely on the customers for that. They are selective about what they post. Because otherwise they quickly have no friends and thus no way of earning money. Experience shows that customers share a maximum of 2-3 products from a shopping cart of 10. If they share, it has a high impact for that."

The campaign will last until the beginning of December 2015, and whoever has earned the most money by then will emerge as the winner and be paid ten times their winnings. The cash back is a central element of Sobu. However, the ambassadors' main motivation is probably not the money, but the publicity. How else do you get your own TV commercial?
 

Sobu is the recommendation platform of Swiss Post. It works on the principle of "buy - share - profit". As a registered user, you can earn money every time you make a purchase through recommendations by sharing the online purchases you have made on your social networks. When friends store at the same online store, you get a credit. As a rule, this is 5-10 percent, with each store determining the amount of the credit individually.

A business idea with potential

Sobu has been around for almost three years. But until now, almost no one knew about the platform. "Last year, we had an awareness level of 0.6 percent - even though we are the largest recommendation platform in Switzerland with 120 stores and the business idea is ingenious," Roberto D'Elia, Head of Sobu at Swiss Post, is convinced. "True, neither peer-to-peer nor affiliate nor cash back is anything new," he admits, "but this is the first time these three trends are being combined in Switzerland, and social media is also being incorporated." A gfs survey last year showed that the business idea, with 1.2 million users, actually had more potential than it was currently exploiting. "That led us to launch a broad-based campaign across all channels instead of communicating exclusively through the online channel, as we have done in the past. We also want to reach these 1.2 million users," says D'Elia.

Real ambassadors

The advertising agency was commissioned with the first major advertising campaign for Sobu across all channels. "The challenge was to explain the complex, innovative product in a campaign," says Creative Director Frederick Rossmann, describing the initial situation. "You can't avoid describing the entire Journey - but how do you do that? We finally had the idea of working with real ambassadors who use the platform themselves. These demonstrate the huge potential of social media for Sobu on- and offline during the course of the campaign."

Casting à la DSDS

The first phase of the multi-stage campaign started back in May 2015, when ambassadors for Sobu were sought via online channels and print ads. Over 300 people put themselves forward for the public vote. 30 of them were then invited to a live casting in the second stage to prove their talent as ambassadors. "A celebrity jury, which included The Bachelorette's Frieda, got to grips with the participants à la Dieter Bohlen," says Werbeanstalt managing director Reto Dürrenberger. The casting was finally won by Pascal, Nicole, Sandra, Denja and Joël. For them, the battle now goes into the next round. Their goal: to get as many people as possible to shop in the same online stores. The winner will be the one who has earned the most money with Sobu by the beginning of December.

Films as the centerpiece

The five ambassadors are now getting a lot of support. The nationwide campaign for Sobu was launched on Thursday. At the heart of the campaign are five TV commercials - one for each ambassador. They can be seen throughout Switzerland on the country's largest TV stations. The advertising agency has tailored the five spots specifically to the five ambassadors: dancing, singing or shouting, in them they take their posts out into the real (offline) world to really promote their online purchases. "The surprising thing is that the people in the spots are not actors. They are absolutely real. What they show in the spots, they have also done in real life," Rossmann emphasizes.

"The ambassadors are now responsible for the micro-campaign, so to speak," explains the creative director. To this end, they have a Facebook profile, which makes them public figures (so they get celebrity status), and a small budget for further advertising measures. In addition, they can rely on the support of the advertising agency: The agency's experts advise them when needed. "However, there is no compulsion to discuss measures with us. The ambassadors are free to design their own campaign as they wish. In return, they receive a small sack money from us," says Dürrenberger.

There is hardly any spamming

Do you like real friends spamming you with ads? No - but that doesn't happen either, D'Elia assures: "We can rely entirely on the customers for that. They are selective about what they post. Because otherwise they quickly have no friends and thus no way of earning money. Experience shows that customers share a maximum of 2-3 products from a shopping cart of 10. If they share, it has a high impact for that."

The campaign will last until the beginning of December 2015, and whoever has earned the most money by then will emerge as the winner and be paid ten times their winnings. The cash back is a central element of Sobu. However, the ambassadors' main motivation is probably not the money, but the publicity. How else do you get your own TV commercial?

Text: Simone Isliker