As a retailer, you are always thinking about the next campaign to help improve your revenue and reach your audience, especially during this time of year. User-generated campaigns are an ideal campaign to launch during the holiday season, and many retail businesses find great success on their own.
Retail Dive reported this week that Target and Macy’s are already in full planning and execution mode with their holiday campaigns this season, leveraging tools like Facebook’s new “holiday shopping season” targeting segment that “reaches engaged users with Christmas planning and retail sales. activity.” Campaigns are also run through Instagram, expanding the reach of brands. Retail Dive reports that the new targeting segment “can be found in the ‘behaviors’ section within the ‘seasonals and events’ category and will be available from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day [for both Facebook and Instagram].”
What makes these companies’ campaigns so successful is that they have the same core focus: engaging customers across various social networks and encouraging them to be advocates for your brand, with a reward that’s personal to them. The reward may be a prize such as a trip, a free product, credit to your business, or the reward may be satisfying from a philanthropic perspective.
ENCOURAGES CLIENTS TO BE PHILANTHROPISTS
Estee Lauder launched a breast cancer awareness campaign a few years ago that has been hugely successful every year in raising money for a cure. The company uses the hashtag #BCAstrength to give encouragement to those who are fighting the disease, have beaten it, or are supporting a loved one who is currently struggling. The goal is to create a community of Estee Lauder customers who are a supportive and positive social force for those fighting breast cancer.
The positive results generated by the company’s clients:
– both old and new
– brought a new humanizing element to the brand and, more importantly, continued to raise awareness to find a cure for this terrible disease.
INSPIRE CLIENTS TO REACH A GOAL
Victoria’s Secret is known for its beautiful “angels”, supermodels who have become the face of its brand. The brand has catapulted campaigns from the audience that only their angels have obtained, one of the most famous being the “Train Like An Angel” campaign. The campaign is ongoing, but gets a big boost just before the company’s big annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
The brand has a line of sportswear that it promotes during the campaign and offers training videos on its website with the angels. Victoria’s Secret also takes advantage of the angels’ social presence, having them encourage fans on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to set their own fitness goals and share their progress on social media using the hashtag #TrainLikeAnAngel. The brand even chooses the winners and rewards them for participating in the campaign.
DO IT ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS
User-generated campaigns aim to spread your brand to the masses, but you need loyal advocates and customers to do so. Make your campaign about the audience you are trying to target. Chobani, a Greek yogurt company, needed to drive sales and turned to its loyal customer base to do so. Chobani reached out to customers across different grassroots and social media to share videos and images on why they love Chobani yogurt for their “Love Story” campaign. The campaign was so successful that the company saw a 225.9% increase in revenue between 2009 and 2010, which they credit to the campaign as the basis for the success.
Engaged customers are the foundation for catapulting a successful user-generated campaign; always be sure to address them on a personal level that makes them want to share your message. Snapchat reported in May that it has 100 million users, and 65% of them upload photos. Your audience is out there! Take advantage of what’s in front of you by creating a campaign that will make users want to share with the millions of people on social media.
What are some of your favorite user-generated campaigns? Let us know on our LinkedIn!