Challenge: Premium bicycle manufacturer Titus Cycles seeks to engage consumers with a photo contest with a unique angle.
After its first year on Facebook, premium bicycle manufacturer Titus Cycles had gathered 1,300 fans around its fan page. It was a good start, but Titus CEO Mike Gaumond wanted more.
Titus had been considering a campaign in which a fan would design and receive a branded tattoo in return for a $6,000 mountain bike. However, the company lacked the technology or in-house expertise to execute the campaign.
"The original plan was to host the promotion on our own website," Gaumond said. "We didn't have the backend technology and sophistication to spread virally. Bulbstorm did. We knew the party was on Facebook, so we took our party favors and joined in."
Solution: Bulbstorm's application for Facebook promotions enables Titus to drive engagement among a broader set of consumers.
With Bulbstorm in the mix, the campaign evolved. Now, fans would submit their designs for branded tattoos on Facebook, with the best tattoo artist receiving the mountain bike – and the tattoo. And how would the top tattoo be selected? Well, ask the fans, of course!
To extend the contest to fans unwilling to design and receive a tattoo, Bulbstorm technology allowed consumers to also engage the brand by rating and commenting on designs. Interactions were incented with points redeemable for Titus merchandise. (This was key as photo and video contests often fall flat due to the high barrier to entry.)
By partnering with Bulbstorm and hosting the contest on Facebook, the brand was able to drive higher re-engagement as fans returned to interact with new content and to see how their own submission stacked up in voting. Plus, conducting the judging or voting portion of the contest on Facebook (rather than at corporate HQ) enabled consumers to more deeply interact with and share branded content.
Thus, Gaumond was able to add genuine fan engagement to his initial goals of doubling the size of his fan page and generating 12 tattoo designs. This approach positioned promotional components of the campaign for success:
- Media coverage: The innovative twist on Facebook photo contests drew the attention of two dozen cycling publications and blogs. The promotion was also recapped as a case study in PR Week.
- Targeted Facebook ads: The combination of compelling content with pay-per-click Facebook ads targeting mountain biking enthusiasts drove significant and cost-effective traffic to the fan page.
- Fan engagement: In addition to standard text updates, Titus posted the best designs to Facebook photo albums. This drove over 8,000 photo views and carried the contest into fans' news feeds.
More engagement was driven by the real-time leader board within the Facebook application itself. The artists behind top submissions drove traffic into the promotion as they lobbied their hundreds of Facebook friends to vote for their content. Of course, these friends were likely to share the fans' passion for mountain biking.
For example, contest winner Greg K. of Boone, N.C., received 3,000 votes and 87 comments on his tattoo!
"The top four or five participants were active everyday recruiting people to vote for their designs," Gaumond said. "They really spread the contest and our brand message by mobilizing their friends to enter."
Results: Thousands engage around user-generated content on Facebook, while Titus earns valuable PR with a buzz-worthy event.
Within weeks, the brand's Facebook presence grew from 1,300 to over 6,000 and eclipsed that of its biggest rival – a competitor 10 times its size by revenue. By asking consumers for their input (in the form of a tattoo design or a simple vote), Titus created a deeper engagement between fans and the brand.
Contest winner Greg K was clearly engaged as he sat to receive his branded tattoo. Other fans spent hours designing and submitting nearly 200 tattoos, each of which could be repurposed as user-generated marketing content. And still others browsed, rated and commented on submissions.
Plus, by putting the spotlight on the fans, Titus created a readymade spokesman in contest winner Greg K. When Titus posted photos of Greg's tattoo appointment to Facebook, hundreds of fans commented and liked the content.
"The campaign far exceeded expectations," Gaumond said. "We're new in social media marketing, but we're breaking new ground in the cycling industry by engaging with consumers."
