Patagonia & Instagram

Patagonia is very unique in the way that it uses its Instagram platform not only to promote its products, but to also spread awareness about social and political issues. Patagonia is well known for their environmental conservation efforts. Following with this mindset, the company promotes a brand culture in which they would rather repair old Patagonia attire than sell a customer new products.

Having established itself as an environmental company, it is clear to see why they take such great stands against anti-conservation efforts, such as the Line 5 Pipeline and the Trans-Pecos Pipeline. In order to promote their agenda, they post pictures with bold, white letters across the image very clearly describing what their message is. It is in this clear, defined language that followers and viewers are able to fully understand what they are promoting. In the comment section of the image, they post additional information about the cause and tell the viewer that more information is found in Patagonia’s Instagram bio.

In addition to standing up for certain causes, Patagonia ensures that they are also active in promoting their political agenda. Numerous Instagram posts feature the same black-and-white images with bold, white letters across the image telling their followers to go vote. In one specific post, they tell California to “vote yes on the plastic bag ban.” When the presidential election results were finalized, they began to post more quotes with the same black-and-white background. These quotes emphasized the importance of preserving the environment for generations to come. There is no doubt that Patagonia was disappointed in America’s choice of a president, as it has become evident that Trump will decrease environmental regulation spending.

Not many companies openly confess their political affiliation. However, Patagonia’s follower-base does not seem to mind that it is such an opinionated company. Patagonia has over 2.2 million followers, and counting. The company does an exceptional job of balancing visually appealing lifestyle images with social and political content. Patagonia is one of the few companies that can pull off such a feat. 

Camelbak & Instagram

With many familiar with Camelbak’s unique water packs and bite values, there is no question as to why they have close to 45K followers on Instagram. Unlike many consumer product brand’s Instagram pages, Camelbak focuses on providing consumers with the content that best appeals to them. Based on their general posts, it is clear to see who their target audience is - young, active adults who are ready for the next great adventure.

One of the most noteworthy things about Camelbak’s Instagram platform is that they do not blatantly promote their products to their followers. Instead, Camelbak’s Instagram posts consist of breathtaking images from around the world, images from their consumers finishing races, and the occasional repost from their fan-base. By interacting with their consumers and reposting their images, they are actively engaging and creating a wonderful consumer-to-business relationship.

One of their most active Instagram campaigns involves “Pack Hacks” in which they repost images from their followers who use their products in unique and interesting ways.  One of the most recent “Pack Hacks” consists of a dog Halloween costume made up of black cut-out wings attached to a black Cambelbak water pack. Another featured a water pack containing a beer can and ice with the caption suggesting why they produce the packs with such large openings.

Overall, Camelbak has done an absolutely incredible job of promoting their products in a non-intrusive way on their Instagram platform. By providing consumers with content that interests them, they are promoting positive interaction between the brand and the customers. Many consumer product brands could stand to take a lesson from Camelbak. 

Dunkin' Donuts & YouTube

Dunkin’ Donuts has utilized its YouTube platform unlike any other. Not only does it serve as a stage to publish relevant content that directly advertises its products, but it also actively promotes consumer content. The consumer content generally takes two forms – celebrity-featured music videos and how-to cooking videos. This blog post will focus on the former

The most recent music video campaign features Odell Beckham Jr and his “Runnin’ on a Cold Brew” videos. The nature of these videos highlight Dunkin’ Donuts new Cold Brew products. These videos are considered content marketing because they offer the consumer relevant and interesting content that is also used to actively engage the consumer with branded products. The catchy tunes and interesting story line of the video serve as the interesting content that draws the consumer in. The product is introduced with the refrain “runnin’ on a cold brew” which implies that it is the Dunkin’ Donut Cold Brew. “Runnin’ on a Cold Brew” has accumulated over 1.5 million views in a little over a month since it was published.

This is not the first time that Dunkin’ Donuts has used a celebrity-featured music video to create relevance of its products to its fan base. Last year, it introduced a four-video, Summer-long campaign featuring both Rob Gronkowski and David Ortiz. These “Gronk and Big Papi” videos featured four different genres – rock, electronic, salsa, and country. These humorous videos were successful in attracting viewers and starting the conversation about the brand. The most popular video got over 1.4 million views.

Dunkin’ Donuts has been incredibly triumphant in creating consumer content for its followers and viewers. By creating interesting content, consumers do not mind interacting with the brand and might instead actively seek the content out. It has used YouTube in an ingenious way to engage consumers and promote its new products. 

Want to check out "Chillin' on a Cold Brew"? Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydRHJm50gfQ 

Georgia Football & Instagram

If you have ever been lucky enough to attend a University of Georgia football game, you might have noticed that the scoreboard will occasionally showcase certain Instagram posts taken by fans earlier in the day. To the average eye, this can be just a fun and creative way to make the fans feel special during the big game day. But, to a marketer’s eye, this is a very simple, but clever marketing campaign that the UGA football department has chosen to implement.

Just by tagging UGA Football into one's pictures or using a special hashtag from that day’s game, a fan instantly enters themselves into the drawing to have their photograph on display for thousands of likeminded fans. Not only does this act as a way to personalize the tens of thousands of fans that walk into Sanford Stadium on any given Saturday, but it also unites the entire Bulldog Nation.

By simply motivating its fans to tag them in their posts from game day, UGA Football is essentially receiving free advertising at virtually no cost. When a fan posts a picture, their whole intended audience will see the image. If UGA Football happens to be tagged in it, the fan’s follower will be reminded that there is a UGA football game later that day and might tune in. It also creates an incentive for the follower to attend a Georgia Football game themselves. If they see that Georgia fans are having an amazing time at the games, they might become inclined to come to the next one.

On the surface, the Instagram posts that are displayed during breaks in the game might seem like a commonplace thing. However, it is easy to see how this is a brilliant initiative from a marketing standpoint. 

umano & Instagram

umano, an Athens-based clothing company, is slowly but surely taking Instagram by storm. With just over 5,000 followers, they have been able to successfully promote their small clothing company not only in the Athens area, but throughout the country. umano was founded by two brothers who just so happen to have graduated from Terry. Their strong family bond is key to the identity of the brand as Alex and Jonathan work together to make the majority of the business decisions.

The company has taken on a similar business model as Toms. But, instead of donating a pair of shoes to those in need, umano donates a backpack full of school supplies to children in need throughout the world. Not only are children a key focus for their give-back initiatives, but all of the artwork on their t-shirts are created by kid artists. One can only imagine the amount of positive impact that is made in a child’s life when their artwork is featured on a brands clothing line. It truly is incredible. Instagram has been a key social media tool to promote the new artwork that will be featured in the latest clothing line.

While the artwork on their clothing can be a tad bit outrageous at times, umano sticks to a strict color scheme of white, black, and grey. While many might find this restrictive, the company believes that their colors will always be in style, no matter what trends are happening. umano’s Instagram page illustrates this concept exceptionally well with their strategically placed promotional posts.

While umano is a growing company, it is still very much an intimate company with employees that work closely together to create the masterpieces by hand. umano has used Instagram in an ingenious way to showcase just how closely the employees are involved in the production process of their clothing line. From screen printing to hand-selecting the artwork, it is easy to see how umano has made such an exceptional name for itself.

KJP & Tumblr

 Kiel James Patrick’s Tumblr, Azimuth Circle, offers an “unabridged, photographic tale & life of New Englanders Kiel James Patrick and Sarah Vickers.” Continuing with the same marketing approach as their Instagram page, KJP does not seem to primarily promote their products on their Tumblr blog. While they do have the occasional direct product promotion, they typically showcase “lifestyle” imagery designed to make one live vicariously through Kiel and Sarah’s photographs.  KJP fundamentally promotes a Northern, preppy lifestyle. Through this mantra, they make sure to reblog images pertaining to this ideal – like images of John F. Kennedy.

While most brands would shy away from boosting other company’s products on their social media outlets, KJP does not appear to feel the same way. In keeping with their philosophy of promoting a preppy lifestyle, they have reblogged images that directly promote other brands - such as Patagonia, Gucci, and Yves Saint Laurent. In doing so, they demonstrate that their brand is of the same caliber and quality.

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While Sarah Vickers does not have a Tumblr, KJP makes sure to reblog from her personal blog. The majority of their direct product promotion originates from posts that Sarah has made on her own blog. In reblogging these posts, consumers are able to get more of a complete understanding of everything that KJP stands for and what their company’s purpose is. Sarah Vickers is a huge part of the KJP brand. Without her blog posts on KJP’s Tumblr, followers would miss a tremendous part of what the brand is as a whole.

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KJP & Instagram

Today’s post starts a three post series diving into how Kiel James Patrick has revolutionized the idea of social media marketing through three different outlets – Instagram, Snapchat, and Tumblr. KJP is best known for its bracelets although they do make and sell a wide variety of other products, including pearls, jewelry, boat shoes, apparel and other accessories.

I first became intrigued with the brand when I came across a short, stop action video (https://www.instagram.com/p/BCy1rloLcuh/?taken-by=kjp) of Kiel organizing his immense closet when I was browsing through the discover feature on Instagram. Since that fateful day back in 2014, I have been a follower ever since and have even broadened my following horizon to include Tumblr and Snapchat. I could probably write 20 different blog posts about this brand and the picture perfect life it conjures for its consumers, but I’ll try to keep my gushing to a minimum.

With over 490K followers on Instagram and almost 6,000 posts, it is safe to say that KJP has really established itself in the Instagram community. Unlike most jewelry and apparel brands, they keep their direct product promotion to a minimum. Instead, they typically post pictures of Kiel and Sarah (his wife) living their daily, picturesque lives with a few products strategically placed. They have done an incredible job of really capitalizing on the idea of selling an experience, rather than a product.

From posting pictures of their newest family member – a Golden Retriever puppy named Bennie – to having bonfire nights in front of mansions with their friends, KJP and company have forever altered the standards to which companies should connect with their fans and consumers on social media.