In recent years, more and more brands are using their consumers to generate campaigns and products.
This is partly due to consumer expectations of brand experiences, ; and now brands are delivering consistently and pushing the boundaries of ‘an experience’.
Of late, the ‘licensed trade’ industry offers prime examples of involving consumers within their brands. Beefeater Gin have recently released a limited-edition bottle that tries to capture ‘My London’, composed from consumer photographs. The photographs construct the packaging design and are used across a separate mircosite to promote the ‘My London’ campaign and experience, showing that London clearly means different things to different people.
Another brand utilising their consumers’ to create content is Rekorderlig Cider, with their ‘Celebrate The Sun’ campaign – Rekorderligs’s first ever outdoor media campaign. They challenged cider drinkers to ‘mark the arrival of British summertime’ with inspiring photographs that capture the essence of summer in a ‘Beautifully Swedish’ style. The campaign will incorporate the use of the consumer photographs to generate Rekorderlig’s summer billboard campaign. A nice touch if your an enthusiastic-cider-drinking photographer, or just take the odd snapshot.
Consumer brands are also putting social media to use, with the likes of Mercedes utilising an instagram campaign to promote the new Mercedes-Benz CLA #untamed. Mercedes are using the hashtag #untamed to promote the uniqueness and individuality of their new car. The campaign is to collate hashtagged instagram images using the guiding principles of the creative campaign, “The natural enemy of the average.” The collation of images is to be used as a digital photo installation of extraordinary views within a Mercedes-Benz Pop-Up Store in Paris to promote the new CLA. Utilising an instagram campaign is a great way to interact with consumers and source images to ensure individuality and consumer consideration to a campaign.
However, as previously discussed social media should not be measured by last click attribution models. The brands above are all utilising social media marketing to generate overall brand awareness and engagement, which contribute to traditional elements of the marketing mix to create a well rounded campaign.
To discuss how a social media marking campaign could help your business, say hello!