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How should brands leverage social media? We’re faced with this question daily — it is without a doubt one of the most common themes across nearly every industry. This fall, Backbone Media helped Eddie Bauer run a successful Facebook campaign that serves as an excellent example of how to harness the power of social.
Eddie Bauer had two overarching goals: To increase the audience for brand content (via more Facebook fans and email list subscribers) and boost fan engagement with the brand – and by extension, viral and social brand exposure.
To accomplish these goals, Backbone facilitated a partnership between Eddie Bauer and the Sun Valley Resort to create the “Epic Sun Valley Giveaway,” a co-branded Facebook sweepstakes application. Our friends over at Black Dog Digital designed and developed the application, and contest prizes included a head-to-toe ski setup from Eddie Bauer, two 2-day lift tickets and a two night stay in Sun Valley . The app ran from October 15 through November 1, 2012 and was supported with a combination of organic content and several forms of paid Facebook advertising.
The result? In just two weeks, we saw a 47% increase in the Eddie Bauer fan base – over 36,650 new fans. Their email list grew by 6,824 email addresses, and the number of people talking about Eddie Bauer increased to over 46,579 – a 1,236% increase (measured by # of shared stories about the EB page). Larger fan base? More emails? Engagement with the brand? Check, check and check.
Why does this matter? For starters, the Millennial generation typically values social recommendations above all else. In a recent study, 84% said that social opinions influence their purchasing decisions. When fans engage with the brand – liking, sharing and commenting on Eddiue Bauer content – their friends register those implicit social recommendations. With larger fan base, this becomes even more interesting: Eddie Bauer can now connect with the friends of their fans, increasing the total reach of their Facebook page content to over 8.4 million people.
Social media is exciting arena that allows brands to give massive scale to word of mouth marketing. From SmartWool’s Strip to your SmartWool and Fanalog apps, to New Belgium’s Shift campaign, and dozen of others in between, we’re excited about the work we’ve done this year, and can’t wait to see how the medium evolves in 2013.