social media case study Archives

Tag Archive for: social media case study

Social Media: Week-in-Review, April 20, 2013

April 20, 2013/by Corey Padveen

In case you missed some of the topics we covered this week, here is the social media week-in-review!

The 2013 CMO Survey: Marketing and Social Media Highlights

The February 2013 CMO Survey revealed a few astonishing facts and figures related to both social media marketing and marketing in general. This post highlights a few of those key findings and explains what they mean to social media marketers everywhere!

How Social Media Can Help Your Business [INFOGRAPHIC]

Social media can be one of the most crucial elements to the success of your business. How, you ask? This infographic does a great job of highlighting how social media can help take your business to the next level.

6 Blogging Tips for Maximum Engagement

Blogs are a great way of attracting an audience and showcasing your expertise, but if you are not properly engaging that audience then you are missing one of the greatest benefits of having a blog! These 6 helpful blogging tips will get your audience engaged and boost the effectiveness of your blog.

Case Studies: Harley-Davidson

Harley-Davidson is known for having one of the most active social media programs out there. On the local level, however, it takes some ingenuity to take advantage of all that social has to offer. This week’s Case Studies looks at how a local dealership leveraged the power of social and mobile marketing to boost sales and traffic around the holiday season.

Social Equity: Blogging and Your Business

Blogging was one of the first forms of social media marketing, and it remains one of the most powerful. That holds particularly true when you consider the value it adds to your business. Find out how blogging generates Social Equity for your brand in this week’s Social Equity segment.

Have a look through some of these great articles and enjoy your weekend!

Case Studies: Harley-Davidson

April 18, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Harley-Davidson is known to have one of the most active social media programs of any major brand, but the use of mobile marketing by Route 66 Harley-Davidson was exceptionally impressive.

At Christmas time in 2011, the local Oklahoma Harley-Davidson dealership, Route 66 Harley-Davidson, decided to launch a social media campaign, designed by 7 Media Group, that took advantage of the growing number of mobile users. The holidays are always a time for marketing innovation and that has been especially true with social media. And the 12 Days of Christmas campaign by Route 66 is a perfect example of that.

The Campaign and Goals

Route 66 had a very specific goal in mind: they wanted to maintain visibility with current customers and generate increased revenue by attracting a new customer base during the holiday season. Sounds simple enough. After all, the holidays are a great time for promoting your products since consumers are out looking to buy. But when every brand from Wal-Mart to Microsoft is promoting holiday specials, and your brand is known as a luxury item that not everyone can afford, you need to find a way to compete.

Route 66 decided they would take advantage of social media and promote a 12-day SMS campaign to their fans, followers and customers. Essentially, Route 66 created a Call-to-Action (CTA) encouraging users both in-store and online to text RT66 to a designated number. If they did, they would receive twelve days of discounts, whereby the dealership offered a 20% discount on different items each day.

For Route 66, the holidays were typically slower. People seemed to forget that there is so much more to the Harley-Davidson brand than just motorcycles. So Route 66 decided to do the most obvious thing with a social media twist: remind them!

The results were outstanding. For the items being promoted in the campaign, sales skyrocketed. For example, one of the promotions was for T-shirts. On that particular day, sales were 250% more than a normal day of business. On Helmet Day, the single-day sales equaled the previous week’s in their entirety. Furthermore, there was an increase in dealership traffic as a result, and that could easily turn into new customers down the road.

The Lessons

There are a few important takeaways from the social media and mobile marketing techniques used by Route 66.

Always Use a Call-to-Action

For Route 66, it was simply encouraging social media users and customers to opt-in. Where was the incentive? They were receiving discounts. Your CTA’s should be direct, clear and require little from the customer, regardless of what your campaign is.

Campaigns, emails, posts, and anything else you can think of with CTA’s often see at least twice as much engagement as those without. Don’t rely on people to take that next step on their own – help them out!

Cover All Your Bases

Route 66 engaged customers and fans both in-store and on social media. Why? Because choosing one or the other no longer applies when you want to have a successful campaign. As the promotion approached, Route 66 needed to ensure that every avenue through which they could engage with their audience was covered and covered thoroughly. So next time you are putting together a campaign – regardless of its nature – be sure you reach out to your leads on every avenue and do it often.

Keep Them Coming Back

Route 66 had twelve promotions over twelve days leading up to Christmas. (The campaign ran from December 12-24.) Users could opt-in at any time, and the campaign was promoted simultaneously with the live event. Don’t stop promoting your campaigns once they have started. People hate the idea of feeling like they missed out, and if you can put together a longer campaign that gives people a chance to take advantage of your offer, you stand to generate a much greater return than if you create a campaign that is somewhat exclusive.

Keep It Simple

Sure, a fancy, multi-layered campaign might wow your audience, but what it has in flash it lacks in simplicity. Simple is good. People like the idea of taking one step and reaching the finish line. Making your clients jump through hoops creates a disincentive to participate. Do you think Route 66 would have seen the same success if customers had to go online, create an account, fill out a survey, print coupons and, after all that, be in the store on the right day to redeem it? Probably not. This is a method that deters a lot of people and can be much more expensive. So, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and ask yourself, really, if you would participate in the promotion.

By engaging an audience on social media and creating a simple, straightforward campaign, Route 66 was able to do exactly what they set out to do. The goals were clear from the start and the methods were easy for both Route 66 and the customer. The results speak for themselves.

Have you tried your hand at a mobile marketing campaign? Was it successful? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Case Studies: Heineken

April 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media helps brands understand what their clients want, and few examples of that are better than Heineken’s limited edition bottle redesign.

Social media is an excellent avenue when it comes to engaging with your fans, and if you can find a way to get their input, all the better. Late in 2012, Heineken decided to redesign their trademark bottle for a limited edition set to celebrate their 140th anniversary. Now, if we have learned anything from the numerous redesigns of the Facebook page, it is that, for the most part, people do not like change, particularly when that change involves something as timeless as the Heineken bottle. So how do you ensure that the backlash will not be severe, particularly when it is in celebration of your brand’s 140th year in business? Turn to social media.

The Campaign

Mark van Iterson, Heineken’s Global Head of Design and his team decided that they would create a limited edition Heineken bottle that incorporated past designs and contemporary twists to mark the company’s 140th anniversary. However, instead of using a small team of in-house designers, van Iterson decided to reach out to Heineken’s massive social network (measured as the top beer on social media by L2 Think Tank) and offer fans a chance to redesign their favorite beer’s bottle.

Tens of thousands of submissions came pouring in from all over the world, and five finalists were chosen for a vote. However, to further promote the efforts of those who contributed, Heineken plans to showcase 30 designs at the Milan Design Week (April 2013) and produce, promote and sell the limited edition winning bottle at the end of this year.

The Lessons

Social media is such a powerful tool when it comes to crowdsourcing. Heineken recognized that and used social media, Facebook in particular, to put together this campaign. A lot of intuition went into effectively executing this campaign, and marketers should be aware of the goals and lessons this case study showcases.

Know Your Goals

Campaigns are fun, and some can be extremely successful. But in order to know whether or not your campaign was a success, you need to know what your goals are. For Heineken, the obvious goal was using their fan base to source a new design for a limited edition bottle. In an interview with ChiefMarketer.com, van Iterson states: “The goal is twofold. For us at Heineken it is fantastic to get ideas and designs that we didn’t think of ourselves. This unlocks huge creativity, and certainly will bring surprises, excitement and very fresh concepts. For a progressive brand like Heineken, always striving to innovate, improve and find fresh ideas, this is a great source.”

But what about the less apparent goals? Heineken gained a lot more than just a few bottle design suggestions. They gave their fans an opportunity to feel like they were important to the creative process. As we have noted in the past, engagement on social media builds your brand’s image. For Heineken, the goal here was to boost engagement with their fan base by offering them the opportunity to, in a way, join the Heineken team – and they succeeded.

Ask Your Audience

When it comes to social media, one of the reasons why people follow, like, or become fans of a brand is because they are already customers. In the beer world, there is plenty of competition, so when you have set of customers, your goal is to keep them coming back. How? Engage with them on social media.

Heineken had the opportunity to reach out to their audience for input when redesigning their bottle and the response was staggering. People are on social media to talk, so instead of sitting in silence, talk with them!

The New Survey, Poll and Focus Group

Why do programs succeed? Why do they fail? What would improve a program? Traditionally, these were questions answered by focus groups or surveys. But that’s marketing in the past. Social media is the new survey, poll and focus group, all in one place. Heineken capitalized on that fact and saved tremendously on both the cost of designing the bottle in-house and the potential cost of the bottle flopping in an unappreciative market.

Social media is a place where people lie to their friends and tell the truth to strangers. Do what Heineken did and take advantage of that.

Have you launched any campaigns asking your audience to participate? Tell us about it in the comments below or on Twitter!

Case Studies: Gillette

April 4, 2013/by Corey Padveen

With the strategic use of YouTube, Gillette managed to capture and engage an entirely untapped demographic.

In 2010, as the World Cup approached, the marketers at Gillette were wondering how they could capitalize on the growing use of social media and garner a new client-base. Through the strategic use of YouTube, coupled with a global initiative, Gillette managed to engage with a population of new and future customers (males under 25 years old) in Italy.

Let us first take a look at an overview of the campaign, followed by some statistics and, finally, lessons for social media marketers.

Gillette’s ‘Future Champions’ Campaign

In Italy, Gillette launched the ‘Future Champions’ campaign in association with its global ‘Gillette Champions’ initiative. The global campaign featured a wide variety of media for advertising, extending anywhere from television to social media. The ‘Future Champions’ initiative in Italy was aimed at a younger audience, hoping to capitalize on a relatively untapped market of new and emerging clientele (with regards to shaving – hence the focus on males under the age of 25).

Effectively, Gillette focused its efforts on the booming popularity of social media (YouTube, in particular) to market to this demographic, and the results were outstanding.

Campaign Statistics

YouTube alone reached 10% of their total audience, and all of their online and social media efforts reached 31% of their total audience reached. (It is important to note that this does not factor in those who were reached by YouTube, online and social media and other forms of marketing. That number was significantly higher.)

On YouTube, 62% of those reached fit the demographic Gillette was targeting (males under 25). Furthermore, the graph below shows how the campaign influenced intent.

YouTube was also the most cost efficient form of advertising. On average, reaching 1% of the target demographic on YouTube was over 7 times cheaper than reaching that same number on TV. Lastly, YouTube helped Gillette reach an audience that would have been lost without social media. 35% of those who were exposed to the brand’s campaign on YouTube had no contact with the television campaign.

Lessons for Marketers

Considering Gillette managed to reach a huge proportion of their target demographic and appeal to those individuals, persuading them to buy, it is no wonder that this is an excellent Case Studies. This was no accident, however. The marketers at Gillette did their research and knew exactly what they were doing, and these lessons are some that should be adopted by all marketers, social media or otherwise, when constructing a campaign.

1. Know Where Your Audience Is

With regards to social media, this refers to knowing in which network your target audience is having a conversation. For marketing in general, it means which medium (i.e. TV, radio, print, social media, etc.).

The marketing team at Gillette knew the power of social media, particularly when a target demographic is under the age of 25. We have posted about social media demographics on our blog, and firmly believe that in order to be successful, your understanding of social media and your strategy when it comes to social marketing needs to go beyond simply having great content. You need to know where your audience is and when they are around in order to ensure that they see your content. Gillette understood this and it was a major factor behind their success.

2. Use Every Avenue at Your Disposal

One important thing that the campaign’s statistics showed was that adding YouTube to the mix of media used did not cannibalise other forms of digital advertising. In fact, of the 31% of people reached through YouTube and other online forms of advertising, there was an overlap of only 7%.

It is important to note that when you are trying to get a message out to your fans, followers and leads, you need to be aggressive. There are hundreds of millions of conversations taking place on social media at every moment of the day, and if you want to be heard, you need to be loud.

Do not confuse “loud” with careless, however. You need to make sure that your strategy is executed in such a way that you do not turn people off to your product. But market research, as done by Gillette, will help ensure that your message is both heard by everyone you wish to target and will help avoid redundancies in your marketing efforts.

3. Create a Marketing Hybrid

There were two major findings in the study: first, television alone was tremendously expensive and reached a massive audience (71%). Second, YouTube alone was extremely cost efficient but reached a smaller audience (17%). Together, however, they reached nearly the entire target audience and were quite cost efficient.

The takeaway here is that conventional forms of marketing still work, but they are no longer enough. In order to be successful, you need to create a hybrid marketing strategy that take the tried, tested and true media and incorporates the new, booming and efficient media. Together, the old and new cover all of your bases.

Remember, there are more cell phones in India than there are functioning toilets, so in many cases, the new has far surpassed the old in terms of reachability.

These three lessons are crucial to the success of a marketing strategy. Through the use of YouTube, Gillette managed to reach a huge proportion of their target audience, increase brand awareness and engagement, and increase intent to buy. What’s more, a huge proportion of this success can be attributed directly to the use of social media and, above all else, YouTube. The marketing team at Gillette understood their audience and marketed for them, not simply to them. This ultimately proved to be the most successful step taken.

Which of these lessons do you feel is most important? Why? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Case Studies: Burt’s Bees

March 28, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media selling is all about engaging with your audience, and Burt’s Bees has managed to build an engaged Facebook audience of 1 million fans and convert quite a few of them into paying customers.

Facebook was one of the first social networks that businesses sought to take advantage of. As a result, Facebook adapted and created pages. Burt’s Bees, the notable personal care product line, saw Facebook as the perfect medium in which to engage with their audience, and the result has been a growing, highly engaged audience that converts to paying customers.

How did they do it? Burt’s Bees uses Facebook as a place to not only build an audience and share great content, but promote their products in a fun, engaging way that does not turn people away from the brand, and actually converts them into customers.

Selling on social media is a tricky grey area. People do not necessarily want to be bombarded with promotional content, but at the same time, many people follow a brand because they either use it, their friends use it or they want to keep up to date with specials and promotional offers. Burt’s Bees recognized this fact and modeled their Facebook marketing and sales strategy accordingly. In this Case Studies, we aim to showcase the lessons social media marketers can extract from the Burt’s Bees brand in order to build an engaged audience on Facebook and convert that audience into paying customers.

1. ‘New’ is Intriguing

People are often curious about new products. There’s a certain mysterious quality about ‘new’ that tends to intrigue people. Burt’s Bees saw this and capitalized on it when it came to Facebook. One of the most prominent features of the Burt’s Bees Facebook page is their promotion of new products in fun and engaging ways. For example, one of the main ingredients differentiating their products is Cupuaçu. Nothing special about that. But when they wanted to emphasize the benefits of the new product, they took to social media to promote it by creating a video wherein they interviewed New Yorkers, asking them to try and pronounce the word.

The video is short, funny and the word stays on your mind. And there is little more than a branded sign off at the end. However, Melissa Sowry, Social Media and Content Manager at Burt’s Bees stated, “Through Facebook, we can introduce new products more interactively than in print or banner ads…and provide a space where [our consumers] can connect with one another.” So, what is this new product? People might like the word and the video, but they were starting conversations to find out more.

Lesson: Find a creative way to introduce new products and your audience will engage with your brand to find out more.

2. Social Media Selling

Burt’s Bees has integrated “Buy Now” buttons into their content and features coupons for Facebook fans. The result? Dramatically increased sales through social media.

Unlike many brands that may feature a product and a link to a store, Burt’s Bees allows users to click through to an e-commerce site from a product post that already has the product in a shopping cart. This may take a little customization on the part of the Facebook page and app designer, but any hurdles (e.g. clicking to the store, finding the product, adding to the cart, checking out, etc.) you can eliminate from the buying process means higher conversions.

Lesson: Help facilitate the buying process for your fans and you will see your conversions skyrocket.

3. Engaging and Influential Content

In addition to fun content like the video post above, one of the cornerstones of Burt’s Bees success on Facebook has come from their ability to engage with their fans in conversations. In an interview with eMarketer, Sowry said, “We also create opportunities for consumer education around skin care, for example, and sampling offers. We ran successful sampling programs on Facebook for our relaunched body lotions and new tinted lip balm.” Furthermore, the brand also asks questions and directly responds to user comments.

An active Facebook page is one thing, but to be engaging directly with your social media audience (particularly when that audience is nearly 1.5 million people large) will mean a returning audience, and that makes the social media sales process that much simpler.

Lesson: Engage with your audience and your products will sell themselves on social media.

4. Educate Your Audience

Burt’s Bees has increased their conversions on Facebook through education. By educating their fans on products and informing them as to which product best suits their needs and why, people want to buy from Bert’s Bees, and they don’t need to do too much research on their own.

The easier it is for a lead to learn about your product, compare it to the competition and ultimately make the decision, the higher the likelihood that you will see social media conversions when it comes to sales.

Lesson: Social media selling should be more about teaching people why your product is the best as opposed to simply telling them.

Burt’s Bees is one of the few examples out there of brands that has mastered social selling. It is not an easy task; not by any means. People do not necessarily want to be sold, but if it is done in the right way, your fans are more than open to the idea of buying from you through social media.

With regards to social selling, Facebook has been around a long time. But people still seem to struggling when it comes to engaging with their Facebook fan base and converting those fans into dollars. Burt’s Bees is a great example of social media selling done right.

What is your Facebook strategy with regards to social selling? Have you seen positive results? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Case Studies: KLM Airlines

March 21, 2013/by Corey Padveen

This week’s Case Studies focuses on one of the most socially innovative airlines around: KLM.

When it comes to social media case studies, airlines often prove to have some of the most impressive, influential and trendsetting results. Yet, despite all of the data that supports the adoption of innovative social media marketing initiatives for airlines, few seem to be as willing to go the distance as KLM.

KLM’s social media program is brilliant…and they know it. When it comes to converting social media fans into paying customers, KLM is among the most successful brands around. In fact, on the KLM Facebook page, there is a section that breaks down their social media campaigns, explains how they went about executing them and posts the results. Effectively, they are their own Case Studies as to why social is important to business. But our focus is a little deeper than that when it comes to our weekly case study. We aim to pull out the lessons marketers can learn from the KLM social media program as a whole.

The Campaigns

Featured on the KLM Facebook page are seven of their most successful social media campaigns. These campaigns include everything from “KLM Surprise” whereby special gifts would be presented to passengers who checked into flights using Foursquare or Twitter, to the “KLM Tile & Inspire” campaign whereby Facebook fans were asked to convert their Facebook profile picture into a Delft Blue tile and complete that tile with an inspiring message to be used as part of a mosaic design on a KLM aircraft that would travel across the globe. Below are two videos breaking down these campaigns.

KLM Surprise

KLM Tile & Inspire

Each campaign was equally inspired and generated similar results. For the two campaigns above, KLM reaped some considerable social benefits. The breakdown of the two featured campaigns by the numbers is below:

KLM Surprise Analytics

Foursquare	17.528 followers
Youtube	154,722 views
Twitter	1.597 followers
Tweet reach	2,6 mln

KLM Tile & Inspire Analytics

Created tiles	120.000
Number of countries where tiles were created	154
Views of the 2 videos	1.3 million
Number of destinations the 777 flew to	23

While the analytics are impressive enough as it is, the fact that KLM went on to further convert many of these fans is all the more notable. But what we wish to focus on is what KLM did that was as innovative and bold as it was simple and calculated.

The Lessons

Be Bold (But the Right Way)

KLM has had far from a conventional approach to their social media program. From presenting new meal options using Facebook videos that introduce the “chefs” (the “KLM A La Carte” campaign) to the controversial “KLM Meet and Seat” campaign that gave passengers the ability to preview their seat mates based on social profiles, KLM has dared to be innovative with each of their social media campaigns. But it is important to keep something in mind: the marketing execs at KLM knew exactly what they were doing, and these risks were as calculated as any.

By understanding the lead to conversion process, the KLM executives were able to put these campaigns together using careful market research, amalgamated and improved data from their own failed exploits (discussed below), and a clear understanding of the sales process for both the customer and the brand. You don’t garner new customers from social media by doing the same thing as everyone else (hence, the “Be Bold” part of the lesson) but you certainly won’t find them if you scare them away (and that covers the “Right Way” aspect). So keep in mind that for a social media campaign to work, you need to impress your audience and have the data to support your seemingly daring decisions.

Never Be Afraid to Try Something New

Social media is still in its infancy, and social media marketing even more so. There is no shortage of innovation out there, and with the ever-changing landscape of social media, you should never be afraid to be first to market. Your first-mover advantage will be huge when people see you doing something that no one has done before. KLM understands that and they have capitalized on it at every turn.

The airline only jumped into social media in 2009, but in these short few years they have managed to try their hand at virtually every campaign available on social media. Whether it is a Facebook campaign, a Foursquare promotion, a YouTube contest or a Twitter “Live Reply” campaign wherein the airline responded to user tweets using up to 140 REAL people to spell out the message, you should never be afraid to try something that has never been done before. When it comes to social media, people want something they have not yet seen.

Try, Fail, Fix, Repeat

No one knows failed experiments better than KLM. Sure, they might have the budgetary luxury of making these mistakes, but over time they have learned exactly what they should not be doing in order to perfect their social campaigns. And on a smaller scale, you should never be afraid of the mistakes you make when it comes to social media. As we noted above, this is an incipient form of marketing; people are bound to make mistakes. But when you do, note your errors, redraft your campaign taking that into account, and start again.

For KLM, one of their big blunders came in 2011 when they offered a promotional gift to the first 50 male and first 50 female “Likers” of a post. Within minutes they had 1,500 “Likes” and no way of knowing which came when. Oops! But what is important is that KLM recognized their mistakes, fixed them and, more importantly, accepted their failures. And that brings us to our final lesson.

Humility is an Underrated Trait

People appreciate humility. It is a humanizing trait, particularly when it comes from a company as large and reputable as KLM. That is why the last important lesson to pull from KLM is that, while you might be a big brand, social media is a place for you to simply be a voice in the conversation. While an image needs to be maintained, you can be a little less corporate and little more fun when it comes to social (respecting professional boundaries, of course). As we never tire of pointing out, social media is about exactly that: being social. Not only does KLM have a post on their blog detailing some of their yearly bloopers, but they also make an important point in their step-by-step guide on running their social media program:

“Not that campaigns always need to be global and spectacular. Many of our establishments have successfully launched their local pages, and we’ve learned that the power often lies in simplicity — like showing the interior of a cockpit, or thanking someone for notifying us about broken lighting on our KLM sign. Our creative editorial board delivers a daily dose of captivating, engaging posts through our various channels.

Social campaigns have won us several awards, but it hasn’t been one success after the next. We’ve certainly had our share of bloopers. But rather than hushing them up, we decided to make them public and take them as a learning experience. And as it turned out, people liked us even more for it.”

Well said.

What lesson do you think is most important in the case study of KLM? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Case Studies: Kotex

March 14, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The use of Pinterest and social media by Kotex proved to be one of the most successful and innovative social media campaigns run to date.

With the major announcement yesterday that Pinterest would now provide analytics to its business users, we thought an appropriate Case Studies this week would involve the use of the social network. And what better Pinterest-themed Case Studies than its use by Kotex last year to celebrate women’s inspiration.

The Campaign

As the world of social media exploded with the introduction of Pinterest last year, the first network of its kind, dominated almost entirely by women, Kotex and their social media marketing team had the brilliant idea to run a social media campaign centered on the women of Pinterest.

The brilliance lay in how they decided to design the program. Effectively, Kotex sought out the 50 most influential women they could find on the social network after reviewing thousands of accounts and their followers, and began searching through their boards to determine what inspired them. After that, they put together customized gift boxes inspired by these women’s boards, and reached out to these influencers on social media to share these gifts with them. They asked for only one thing in return: to repin the gift.

The results were far greater than what Kotex could have hoped for. Not only did nearly 100% of the 50 women comply with the simple request, but they went above and beyond. These women posted pictures of each component of the gift on both Pinterest and Instagram, made comments on Twitter, Facebook and reached out to their extended networks to tell them all about this wonderful gesture by Kotex.

By the end of the campaign – well, the end of Kotex’s analytics of the campaign, without measuring the extended secondary reach that the virality of the campaign created – Kotex had measured over 2,200 interactions and nearly 700,000 impressions. That’s quite the reach from contacting only 50 people directly!

Take a look at this video for a more comprehensive breakdown of the campaign:

The Lessons

There is a lot we can learn as marketers from this campaign. But when we consider the fact that this social media campaign relied heavily on a viral effect, we think the best lessons to pull from the Kotex Case Studies relate to the importance of influencers.

Find Your Influencers

Kotex knew their demographic and the audience they could reach, but they knew that referrals are so much more powerful than direct marketing. It was for that reason that the marketing executives at Kotex went looking for their social media influencers on Pinterest.

These were women who had a reach far beyond that of Kotex alone. And they were women with an audience that filled two vital criteria: the audience was made up of the right demographics and the audience was highly engaged with these influencers. When you can turn influential people into brand advocates, you can rest assured that you are going to generate quite a bit of new business. But in order to find these influencers, you need to keep this next lesson very much in the forefront of your thinking.

Influencers Can Be Anybody!

The women to whom Kotex sent gifts were not on any Forbes power list, they were not First Ladies and they were not Manhattan socialites – they were normal. (Well, that is not to say that these other women are not “normal” but you know what we mean.) These were every day women who happened to build a large and highly engaged following on Pinterest by simply being active and posting content their followers loved to share. It took a lot of insight for the marketing executives at Kotex to understand this.

When it comes to social media, industry influencers are no longer part of a closed off group comprised of the economic and social elite – anyone and everyone has the ability to be an influencer. Marketers need to keep this in mind.

Small Gestures Go A Long Way

The gift baskets sent by Kotex did not include fancy electronics, or high-priced jewelry. They were simply made up of small knick-knacks that Kotex knew these women would love because they did their research. Kotex could easily have sent them gift certificates for a lifetime supply of Kotex products, but rest assured, the returns would have been far fewer.

The reason why there was such a high response rate and such a viral effect was because Kotex customized these gifts to the tastes of the recipients. They did not need to include lavish, overpriced items because they knew that what they had included was worth much more. A little research into their industry influencers resulted in the numbers you see above. So remember, a little thought can get you a lot further than the easiest option.

Create Limitless Campaigns

Kotex asked these women to do one thing: repin the gifts. A simple request. But the beauty of social media is that these women decided, on their own accord, to take the Kotex campaign to the next level, and involve virtually every avenue of social media they had access to. Kotex created a campaign that had an inherently viral element to it; by giving these women individually-inspired gifts and making them feel unique, it was only a matter of time before they shared the experience with their communities. Furthermore, Kotex did not give these women an ultimatum. The gifts were not a bribe, they were simply gifts with one small request. Giving these women the freedom to do what they wished with regards to sharing the gifts and experience with their communities led to them immediately taking the opportunity to boast about how special they felt thanks to Kotex.

Don’t Hope to Go Viral – Work Your Way There

Kotex was lucky that the campaign was as innovative and original as it was. At the time, Pinterest was the newest, hottest social network and Kotex was the first brand to take advantage of it in the way that they did. First-mover advantage worked wonders for the Kotex brand, but we cannot all hope that our social media campaigns will go viral the way the Kotex campaign did. So, when putting together your next campaign, reach out to your influencers, but don’t neglect the average customer or social media fan. After all, by targeting influencers, the ultimate audience whom you hope to reach is the average user, so make an effort to reach out to every person you can. Brand loyalty is brand loyalty wherever you find it.

The Kotex example is one of the finest uses of Pinterest and social media to date. As marketing on social media continues to evolve, it is certain that we can expect other campaigns to catch on as virally as this one did, but with regards to the use of influencers, it is hard to think of another example as perfect a Case Studies as this one.

How are you reaching out to your influencers? What methods do you use to determine who your industry influencers are? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Case Studies: Old Spice

March 7, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media turned the Old Spice brand into a personality with which people were eager to engage.

In the last few years, Old Spice has become a crowned jewel of social media. Their campaigns consistently skyrocket and the brand has developed such a distinct personality that anyone familiar with the brand can recognize one of their campaigns almost immediately. What is most fascinating about their branding, you ask? Well, perhaps it is the fact that, unlike Rome, it was built in a day. (Well, not a day, but you get the idea.)

In today’s Case Studies, we aim to explain how Old Spice used social media to quickly (and quite successfully) create a virtual personality that led to the explosion of their brand in new markets and demographics.

The Background

In 2010, Old Spice created the character that has widely become known as “The Old Spice Guy” and the campaign developed an instant following. When a second commercial aired with the same praise and hype, Old Spice decided to go the social media route, and did something brilliant: they never broke character.

Slowly, the proliferation of the Old Spice brand on social media began to pick up steam, and, as if by divine intervention, Old Spice did not seem to slip up in any of their steps along the way, creating a set of guidelines that any marketer should adopt when attempting to create a social media personality for a brand.

The Lessons

Be Original

People are always intrigued by something they have never seen before. Until their campaign, no one had ever seen a brand persona like the one Old Spice had created. Of course, since the dawn of marketing there have been mascots and spokespeople, but never a brand personality so bold that clients and fans were eager to engage with it.

Originality is much easier said than done, of course. It is not every day that you are going to wake up with an idea that no one had ever thought of before. Countless brands have attempted to do what Old Spice has done in the last couple of years, but few have been successful. But thinking outside the box is exactly what made Old Spice so successful, and that is the first step to creating a winning social media campaign.

Be Consistent

The second, and possibly the most important step that Old Spice took was maintaining brand consistency across every channel onto which they expanded. Have a look at the Old Spice Twitter account. You’ll notice that the witty, charming and larger-than-life personality they originally created a few years ago exists there as well. The same holds true for their other social media channels. Brand consistency is one of the most crucial aspects when it comes to developing brand loyalty. After all, how can fans recognize your brand instantaneously if there are major differences between your channels?

So remember, once you have that winning edge, maintain it on every level of your marketing, particularly in social media where you will be engaging with your audience. Which brings us to the next takeaway…

Never Stop Engaging

Commercials are one thing, but ongoing, personalized and genuine engagement with its fan base is what led to the ongoing success of Old Spice’s social media efforts. As with any campaign, Old Spice knew that eventually fans would move on and grow tired of the standard promotional commercials. So what did they do? They (once again) never broke character and engaged with their fans through personalized responses (whether they were tweets, videos or posts) in a timely and comedic fashion.

This kept fans coming back, asking questions or making comments in the hopes that “The Old Spice Guy” would respond to them. What did this mean for the Old Spice brand (as a company)? It meant increased brand loyalty through the strategic use of social media. As we noted above, people fell in love with the personality Old Spice had created on social media, and this kept them coming back to the brand on social media, and anxiously awaiting more content. As far as the business side of things was concerned, it meant a very quick 107% increase in sales.

Avoid Selling on Social Media

Last but certainly not least, Old Spice avoided selling their product on social media. Of course, posting commercials that are meant to advertise the product is different, but as far as engaging with fans goes, Old Spice kept to entertaining and shied away from selling. People like personalities, not salespeople, and Old Spice recognized that. And it was the right thing to do. After all, the personality they created took care of the sales, which is clear in the numbers above.

Old Spice showed that creating a personality on social media that engages with its audience (Old Spice was engaging with fans that ranged anywhere from celebrities to Twitter users with less than 100 followers) can build brand loyalty faster than any other form of marketing. Listening, engaging, consistency and originality were the four cornerstones of the success of Old Spice on social media. This is not to say that any idea is going to skyrocket the way Old Spice’s campaign did, but it never hurts to try something and see what happens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z10Hrsx7FBY

Which of these lessons do you think will be most helpful in building your next campaign? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Case Studies: Ford

February 21, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media can generate quite a bit of success for your brand, and for Ford, their strategy and the lessons they pulled should be adopted by any brand looking to succeed on social media.

At a recent conference, Scott Monty, the Global Head of Social Media for the Ford Motor Company gave a presentation detailing the success of Ford’s social media campaigns in recent years entitled, “Social Wheels in Motion: Ford’s Lesson in Social Media.”

Of course, with so much success in social media over the last few years, Ford was bound to pull away a few key lessons that any brand should adopt with regards to their social media program. Below are the five top lessons you can pull away from Monty’s presentation and apply to your social media program today.

Stand By Your Product and Let Your Audience Share

In 2009, for the launch of the Ford Fiesta, Ford allowed a number of social media influencers to drive the Fiesta and share their experiences online. The videos and blogs were posted in real time, with no editing or filtering by Ford. The confidence Ford had in its product resulted in a great deal of success on social media. The campaign resulted in nearly a hundred and fifty thousand requests for more information about the new car. What’s more, more than 80% of those asking to find out more were new Ford customers!

Lesson: If you have a good product, let your influencers tell your social community about it.

Commit to Your Social Media Presence

Running a successful campaign is great, but your social media presence cannot be relegated only to when an official campaign is underway. In order to find success on social media, you need to be committed to your program. Ford created a hub wherein Ford users could engage with the brand in real time. This phenomenon is referred to as social care, and it is a social form of customer service that nearly a third of social media users prefer to conventional customer service options (i.e. phone).

Lesson: Make a point to stay active on social media, because Ford has shown that consistency pays off.

Integrate Every Form of Media

Disjointed campaigns will result in confusion for your audience. Different channels and department working on different campaigns and promotions will mean a diluted audience responding to a multitude of campaigns as opposed to a convergence on one major one.

For Ford, they approached their 2010 Explorer campaign this way, integrating every form of media in order to drive the most traffic at the launch. The result? The day of the launch they received 100 million social impressions and 400 million browser impressions.

Lesson: Integrate all of your media under one roof to drive every potential lead to the same place.

Build a Personality for Your Brand on Social Media

As much as people might like a brand, they want to engage with something more. Your audience wants to engage with a personality. For Ford, this realization came when they were looking to rebrand the Focus. So, how did they create a personality? They created a sock puppet mascot named Doug. The goal was to engage with a younger audience and find a new customer-base for the rebranded Focus. The results were impressive, and Ford saw a spike in interest in the Focus with a 61% consideration rate. Not bad considering most people tried to avoid the Focus even as a rental prior to this rebranding.

Lesson: Build a personality for your brand and engage on a human level with your audience.

Find Your Audience Where They Are Talking

One crucial element that marketers often forget is that they need to be going out and finding their audience where they are as opposed to waiting for their audience to find them. Ford realized this and took action. When building a program last year, Ford created a video and distributed it among every one of their followers most popular networks. The results were quite successful, with the video receiving over 1.5 million hits.

Lesson: Find your audience and engage with them where they are, and not the other way around.

How can you apply some of these lessons to your social media strategies? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!