Here at Promoboxx, we are always looking at the way favorable brands put social media to work. So we went out looking for the best of the best–how brands are pushing new products by using innovative and dynamic online marketing campaigns. In this post, we are going to break down various online marketing strategies used by three well-known consumer brands: Oreo Cookies, Kiehl’s (beauty products) and Clif Bar.
What We Like:
When Oreo runs a promotion, its visually-enhanced Facebook page centers entirely around the specific campaign. Currently, the page is focused on Oreo’s 100th birthday. To celebrate this special occasion, Oreo invites consumers who are celebrating birthdays of their own to share personal stories on the Oreo Facebook page through its Wall and Tabs. The page is even updated daily to feature a new customer’s birthday–and personal story with a photo–which keeps content fresh and readers coming back for more.
Room For Improvement:
Though we like the strategy Oreo is using to connect with consumers on a personal level, it doesn’t provide consumers with enough information about the locations that sell Oreo products, such as convenience stores and supermarkets. If Oreo combined its unique consumer focus with a direct focus on retailers, these campaigns would be more successful because consumers–who are already engaged with Oreo’s Facebook promotions–could be connected with possible purchase locations. By making the page more actionable, Oreo could take its consumer-focused content to not only increase brand recognition, but help drive sales in the process.
What We Like:
Instead of focusing on a single social network, Kiehl’s leverages the most effective attributes of several sites to create a rock solid campaign. In its current promotion, Kiehl’s is celebrating the launch of a new collection by inviting consumers to enter a sweepstakes to win $1,000. The sweepstakes announcement appears on a customized Facebook app, but consumers must also like the brand on Pinterest in order to enter the contest. By using Facebook to generate widespread interest and leads, Kiehl’s is then able to engage interested consumers on its visually-appealing Pinterest board. Entrants are asked to create a board of their own with some of their favorite beauty product images– a great tactic for generating consumer-centric content while boosting user engagement with the brand.
Room For Improvement:
Kiehl’s campaign integrates two networks, but it’s still a bit disjointed and confusing–you must first visit Facebook then be redirected to Pinterest to complete an entry. With a platform like Promoboxx, brands are able to manage how consumers and retailers enter and share campaigns across multiple channels (including website widgets, email, Twitter, Facebook and soon Pinterest). Also, much like Oreo, Kiehl’s ignores the most important element of the sales chain–the retailers who market and sell their products on a daily basis. If participants in the national promotion could post pictures related to Kiehl’s while at the same time find out where these products are sold nearest them, both retailers and brands will benefit.
What We Like:
In our opinion, Clif Bar’s social strategy is the best example of effective online marketing. The brand has done a great job of aligning its active tone with strong feelings and images, such as nutrition, adrenaline and extreme sports. Clif Bar accomplishes this powerful alignment using user-submitted images inscribed with Clif Bar-branded text that are posted on the brand’s Facebook page.
In addition to breathtaking visuals, Clif Bar takes its Facebook page to the next level with its own, self-hosted Meet the Moment campaign. Under this campaign, which lives on Clif Bar’s own site, users can add photos of amazing moments, which Clif Bar then promotes on its Facebook page. To enhance the campaign’s distinct nature, Clif Bar has even created a custom domain (MeetTheMoment.com) where all of the campaign’s images are displayed–alongside Clif Bar’s existing web content and links to purchase its products.
Room For Improvement:
Though Clif Bar’s current strategy is competitive, it could still be improved. For one, Clif Bar is only devoting some of its posts to this campaign, rather than fully integrating the promotion into a Facebook Tab or standalone Facebook app. Sometimes these posts get lost in the shuffle, which can decrease the campaign’s effectiveness.
Finally, similar to our other examples, Clif Bar leaves one of its greatest sources untapped: the retailer. When you consider where Clif Bar is sold–everywhere from from supermarkets to outdoor sports stores–there lies a huge opportunity to promote local marketing strategies. Retailers have close-up, face-to-face access to the active consumers who make the incredible moments in these pictures, and their influence should not be ignored. By incorporating online marketing tools, such as those provided by Promoboxx, to involve retailers in the co-marketing process, Clif Bar could extend this promotion to unify the most important elements of its sale’s chain–its national brand, retailers’ local channels and actively-engaged consumers.
As you can tell, brands are focusing on consumer-generated content, which easily conveys a story while engaging individual consumers. It’s also clear that online marketing is most effective when brands use multiple social channels to create a unified, yet multi-faceted campaign. In the end, this strategy can be amplified when brands collaborate with local retailers to reach consumers on a local, more personal level.
