11:46AM April 12 2011
Keeping ahead of the trend
As a beauty blogger and avid Twitter user myself, I am bombarded with hundreds of press releases, Facebook updates and tweets every single day about the ‘hottest’ fashion items or the newest ‘must-have’ mascara. When creating ideas for clients the main challenge we face is how do you make sure your campaign stands out and offers something different and innovative for your target audience. Why should somebody buy your latest products, when there are so many others.
The brief from Biotherm was to be creative and create buzz and awareness about their newest skincare range – Skin Ergetic. Aside from beauty lovers, we looked at targeting people who the skincare range may appeal to – busy mums, tired fitness fanatics and stressed-out housewives. Taking control of Biotherm’s UK Twitter profile, @BiothermBeauty we monitored for such users across the Twittersphere, mentioning tiredness and being busy or stressed with their daily routines. We then contacted them to offer samples of the serum, day cream and night cream to help them (hopefully) feel refreshed and rejuvenated for the days ahead. Creating brand ambassadors and discussions online (positive or negative) is vital in generating sales of beauty products, as research has shown women tend to research online and buy offline.
We also monitored the blogosphere and targeted key bloggers who fitted our target users – busy mums, tired fitness fanatics and stressed-out housewives. Recent research has shown women are just as likely to trust the beauty product advice from a parenting, health or lifestyle blogger, as from a beauty and fashion blogger.
The million dollar question – how do we measure the ROI for this activity?
Our random acts of kindness activity was very well received by Twitter users who we targeted and exposed the brand to over 175k Twitter users in total. Followers of @BiothermBeauty increased by over 400 in a matter of days. But for us it’s not about the numbers – this sort of activity should not be judged on old PR statistics, pieces of coverage and ROI alone, but awareness of the brand, buzz and positive endorsement online which is invaluable.
As reported by Charlotte McEleny (@charlottemc) these ‘random’ acts are a great way to utilise social media, creating a great PR story in the process and the opportunity to generate content, as well as source new brand advocates – if carried out in a sincere way. An easy mistake to make would be using this idea to try and grow a brand’s online presence by increasing follower or fan numbers, so brands need to make sure there is not an obvious promotional ploy behind the campaign or you are too intrusive. KLM used Foursquare to track down as much information about the person as possible from their social media accounts, and then found them at the airport to deliver an appropriate gift. KLM have shown great personal attention and thoughtfulness but brands intruding too much in consumers’ personal social space may not be appreciated!
Moving forwards, RAOK are a great way for a new brand to raise awareness of themselves, who may not have vast amounts of budget. The process can also be applied to any industry – FMCG, fashion, beauty, travel and even B2B brands. Our campaign was also featured as a case study in the March report for the global consumer trends firm, TrendWatching which you can read here!
If you have any thoughts/comments on the campaign let me know on Twitter – @nataliekitcher.
