The world stood still and watched with horror as 15 year old Pakistani education activist, Malaya Yousafzai, was rushed to a British hospital after an assassination attempt by the Taliban.
What does this have to do with social media?
Malaya’s experience was a shot heard ’round the world and was one of the catalysts for a documentary called Girl Rising. The 100-minute film showcases 9 girls’ stories, from 9 different countries and their struggles just to get an education. When the people behind Girl Rising started to look at ways in which to market the film, they went directly to the grass roots. There was no way they would be able to compete with the budgets Hollywood documentaries had at their disposal. Producers chose to circumvent the traditional route of theatre distribution and rely entirely on social media tools to build a community and spread their message. As of March 3, 2013, Girl Rising has more than 245,000 fans on Facebook, more than 32,000 tickets pre-reserved and 500 screenings have been requested nationwide.
This kind of distribution and promotion–the Hollywood 2.0 route–is ground-breaking for smaller projects.
For more details, see Daily Beast’s coverage on the filmmakers, the movie, and their marketing efforts. The official trailer is available here.
Pinterest is on the lips of every company with beautiful or creative products. When Lowe’s was faced with the desire to engage their one million Facebook fans on their Pinterest boards, they went to where the people were.
By using a custom Pinterest Tab on their Facebook Fan Page, Lowe’s is able to automatically pull content from their Pinterest boards and fans can see the many Lowe’s ideas and products, all without having to leave Facebook. In just nine days, Lowe’s saw a 32% increase in engagement with their followers on Pinterest. Now, almost a year later, the company has 2.1 million fans on Facebook and 3.4 million followers on Pinterest.
Lowe’s has been actively cultivating the audience of mostly women, ages 25-34, who spend the majority of their webtime on Pinterest by posting product images tied to home décor and do-it-yourself project ideas since October 2011. Followers are also encouraged to “pin” their own product pictures (with pricing), video clips and ideas on any of the 25 boards created by the company.
Other retailers and brands tapping into the Pinterest audience include Whole Foods, Nordstrom Bergdorf Goodman, HGTV and Real Simple Magazine.
The Gap is giving its Facebook fans an easy way to convert any photo from their profile into a printable postcard ready to send to their friends and family during the 2012 Christmas season. They are doing this to build brand loyalty and create an emotional connection to the Gap brand. They are giving away 1,000,000 postcards to their fans. Two per person.
One of the largest airlines in the world, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, is also considered one of the best in converting “Likes” into paying customers. Part of their marketing success is their willingness to take bold yet calculated risks. They are able to do this because they understand the customer buying journey. The touch points along the journey a lead or existing customer takes as they experience the KLM brand and then, how KLM works to improve each touch point along the path.
They began in social media the summer of 2009. Since then, they had a few failures along with great successes. One of their more controversial and successful campaigns is their Meet and Seat initiative. See below video. It’s a way for you to see who you may be sitting next to days before you board the plane.
Seven Social Media Campaigns Documented
To read the case studies of each campaign, go to their Facebook Page and click our social journey. They provide details about each campaign and insight into what made each one successful. They also did a 4 part series about their social media strategy. Part 3 of the series talks about some of the campaigns. Skip 1, 2, and 4. Weak on substance and depth. Not worth your time to read unless you are new to social media.
Ben and Jerry’s, headquartered in Vermont, is the best among their competitors at integrating their social marketing into the fiber of their operations. It’s not a bolt on to the marketing department but at the core of their strategy and embedded into their operational and CRM software. The secret ingredient – they have a well thought out editorial calendar and experienced community managers creating and curating their digital content.
The Mexico division of Nike launched a unique social commerce campaign called #makeitcount. See Facebook app they made for it. Anyone with Nike shoes equipped with the wireless sensor that tracks your physical activity can win a pair of new shoes if they walk/run more than anyone in a given 15 day time period. You join the Nike auction and bid against others, not in dollars but in miles walked. At the end of each auction, a new auction starts and you have the opportunity again to win.
Great example of how a brand understands the rules of great marketing – to stick to their core story and brand promise which is about selling “performance” not shoes.
The Children’s Place, a trendy children’s clothing chain, had an online party hosted by Denise Richards and other celebrities to celebrate their one millionth fan on Facebook. Their goal – to increase the lifetime value of thousands of their customers using social media.
.
To promote the party their primary expense was in the famous talent they hired to host the party. Most all other promotion was done through teaser posts to their existing 975,000 Facebook fans the week leading up to the party. They attribute most of the success to the gifts and discounts offered to entice people to signup to attend.
Results From Campaign
The campaign lasted one week and culminated in a one hour chat party to celebrate breaking the one million mark.
72,473 clicked to register to win one of 375 gifts and get a 20% coupon
48,245 people finished the registration process
During the week prior to the party they got 21,116 new fans
10,000 unique authors contributed during the one hour chat
FanFeedr, a sports news site, discovered the secret formula to getting 10x higher click through rates than typical Facebook ads. Their company aggregates, organizes, and then publishes content from over 10,000 sports related sites each day in a format their visitors love.
This case study covers a number of the ads that yielded high returns. Their primary objectives in using Facebook ads are:
New Zealand fashion week, similar to New York’s fashion week, created a successful multi-platform social media strategy that helped grow attendance and revenue during the entire week of the event. Fashion weeks are a way to bring the top designers, retailers, socialites, and those just passionate about fashion together in one place to party and do business.
Yahoo! Movies, a division of Yahoo! wanted to get a bigger piece of the multi-billion dollar movie going pie by the summer of 2012 through their Facebook page. Their goal is to become the source for movie goers who love to research, be in the “know,” get VIP passes to early showings, and communicate with other movie aficionados.
They get 24 million visitors on their main website but lack that kind of traffic on Facebook where they see untapped potential to grow their brand.
Joint Venture
Their campaign strategy was a joint effort with their offline partner, Regal Cinemas, who put up banners in theaters promoting the Yahoo! brand along with a QR code pointing to an offer most movie goers couldn’t refuse – free popcorn. People who did a social check-in via their Smart phones and liked the page got the popcorn. Offer applied online also. They would just redeem the popcorn when they arrived at the theater.
The Results From Campaign
1.2 million new Likes on their Facebook page
200,000 Check-ins
1.4 Million minutes spent on Yahoo! Movies Website
$1,000,000 of popcorn given away
Let’s Test Their Million Dollar Spend
They say their long-term goal is not about the “liking” it’s about building an audience of repeat visitors who will engage and make Yahoo! Movies their online source.
The great part about case studies like this is that you and I can take a peek behind the curtain and see if this is hype or really working. Below are the objectives/goals they hope to achieve now since the campaign began a few months ago. I encourage you to go to their Facebook page and see if the goals below are being lived out.
How Yahoo! Measured Success
Target a Season – focus on summer movie season
Hit Fans From All Angles – Reach fans online and offline
Relevant – Reward movie goers and capture “Likes” in return for continued activity on their Facebook page
Connect More – Interact with more movie fans via their website and Facebook page
Become The Movie Source – provide great content to keep fans coming back to their page regularly
My Take
I would question their last two goals – connecting and becoming the source. Out of the 2.15 million fans, they are not averaging the comments and interaction I would expect to consider this successful. It’s about amazing content and some of their biggest days of activity are based on movie blockbuster debuts or contests/giveaways they may be doing in a certain month. Their ratio of commenting back to people is very low and not that of a Sage archetype or the “in the know” type of a person I would expect running the page.
To view the full case study on SlideShare - go here. What do your think? Was it successful?
One of the largest airlines in the world, 
Key Points
The Mexico division of Nike launched a unique social commerce campaign called #makeitcount. See 
