Background

In 2007, Capital One’s Small Business unit launched Slingshot, a revolutionary social networking site designed to engage small business owners and create an online community. It wanted the site to contain highly relevant content, with marketing materials that “recruited” new small business owners as network members.

The Approach

In the Definition process, West Cary Group (WCG) analyzed the needs of the client in order to identify precise goals. The following objectives were established:

• Make joinslingshot.com a preferred destination for small business information, resources and infotainment
• Drive incremental traffic to joinslingshot.com through the power of compelling content
• Provide content that was informative and would propel small businesses forward
• Develop content that could stand alone and grow virally throughout Web 2.0 environment

WCG’s strategy for the campaign began in the Discovery phase, with research about the small business owner segment. Data showed that owners cared about finding qualified leads that could drive their business. Also, time was extremely scarce, and they were only willing to invest it in content that was going to help them get ahead from a business standpoint. Finally, they were interested in networking with other small business owners in their communities.

Leveraging these consumer insights, in the Development phase, WCG assembled a content strategy that addressed these needs and also incorporated aspects of the Web 2.0 content. Communications solutions included:

a. Blogs capturing real-life experiences in the first days of a burgeoning business.
b. Web video in a “mini-documentary” format concerning interesting small businesses.
c. Information-packed articles concerning important issues like finance, law and technology.

During the content development process, WCG worked closely with Hawkeye Worldwide, an agency in Dallas, Texas, which provided the back-end coding and development of the Web site. The two teams became seamlessly integrated, then presented solutions to the client as a cohesive unit, as opposed to independent factions.

A key concern for WCG was the importance of branding. Even though Capital One was the sponsor, the decision was to downplay their association and brand Slingshot’s presence as its own unique entity. Careful execution led to strategic branding of the Slingshot site as a stand-alone entity, while at the same time leveraging the power of Capital One’s brand in a less visible, but resonant manner (communicated as “Powered by”).

The Impact

In the Assessment stage, WCG discovered that it had achieved quantifiable results. The initial three-city launch of Slingshot was highly successful—each site featured “at capacity” events, and the business owners were highly enthusiastic. Further, Slingshot exceeded expectations in terms of new businesses registered. Though exact numbers remain confidential, actual small business registrants exceeded the Small Business Unit goal of 2,000, and the number of new registrants topped that of scompetitor Bank of America’s small business social network during the same time interval.

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