Instagram, Mobile Marketing & The New York Auto Show

Instagram, Mobile Marketing & The New York Auto Showhttp://tier10lab.com/2012/04/27/instagram-mobile-marketing-the-new-york-auto-show/April 27, 2012By Joseph OleshThe fuel behind any social media network is content, most often user-generated. Going into an event like theNew York International Auto Show, the preeminent mobile-based social network, Instagram, was positionedfor traffic better than any other mobile application on the market, especially with its recent release to theAndroid network the very same week.Tier10 Marketing was tasked with covering the show for the New York Acura Dealers Association (NYAA).We’d covered the North American Auto Show (NAIAS) with a good amount of success, both in the content wecreated and the traffic that content generated for AcuraSocial.com. A smart social media strategy, high-qualityphoto and video content, and an efficient content distribution stream were the primary tactics responsible forthis campaign’s success.One small tactic, though, did act as a spark plug to the buzz created by the NAIAS campaign: @NAIASDetroiton Instagram. The North American International Auto Show did a fine job promoting the week’s festivities onFacebook and Twitter, but neglected the then thriving photo-sharing, mobile-based application. So, we jumpedon it.While covering Acura’s presence at the show in Detroit for NYAA, we also covered the show at-large, all of thevehicles and manufactures, and posted them to @NAIASDetroit on Instagram. To the public user, the accountwould have appeared to be hosted by the show, as the Instagram name identically matched the show’s officialTwitter handle: “@NAIASDetroit.”

The results were modest: 148 Photos, 175 Followers that begat 1003 total “Likes.” The value came in realizing that we could leverage an emerging mobile application like Instagram to build buzz. Any digital marketer will tell you, the hard part about gaining virality in a digital/social campaign is achieving the critical mass needed to push your content to the amount of users required in the campaign’s initial moments… basically, you need a catalyst. In this case, Instagram, by way of the @NAIASDetroit handle, brought us that spark. Fast-forward to March of 2012, one month before the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS). We’re in full preparation-mode, building out an ambitious set of creative assets – original blog posts, a comprehensive infographic, and an animated video infographic, to name a few – to hit the Internet by the Show’s opening Press Day, April 4th. Running off a strategy that learned from, and improved on,the tactics that drove the NAIAS campaign, we ran an audit of the social media platform NYIAS had built tothat point. Thorough profiles had been built out for Facebook and Twitter, but again, Instagram was forgotten.(Google+ was also not built out. A huge mistake on the NYIAS’ part, but a discussion for a later time.)Tier10 Marketing Creative Director and Co-Founder Scott Rodgers, who led the NAIAS Instagram effort,helmed the account that became @NYAutoShow. This time, we hit it out of the park: 91 photos, 5,582followers that begat 26,618 “Likes,” and average of 292.5 per photo. This level of engagement figures wouldplease any digital strategist.One highlight of the @NYAutoShow feed included a visit from the New York Yankee’s Mariano Rivera to theAcura booth. Mariano, a spokesperson for the New York Acura Association, took pictures with a long line offans at the booth, many pictures eventually winding up onusers’ own Instagram accounts.Why the North American and New York International AutoShows overlooked the value an application like Instagramcould yield is beyond me. The application had been asensation for for the past six months, and absolutely on firesince being made available for the Android network… theweek of the Show!Authoring the NYIAS Instagram account allowed us to“@mention” the New York Acura Association (@NYAcura)at will. The size of @NYAutoShow‘s following lent primeexposure to the content of each photo, and caption,therein. Believing there was a certain amount ofresponsibility that went with producing content for a profilewith the New York Auto Show’s moniker, we covered theshow fervently, capturing as many manufacturers aspossible, each in their best light.BMW, in particular, made reference to Instagram on the spec-sheets beside each showcased model at theShow. The call-out, seen in the image to the right, was subtle, but still a progressive marketing move for abrand that’s seen it’s competitors (Audi) gain traction and public appeal in recent years.

Other notable brands employing an Instagram strategy are Barack Obama, Audi, NBC News, and KimKardashian. (The AdCouncil ran a wonderful piece breaking down the brand/Instagram dynamic.)In the end, the Instagram application was one piece of a greater digital content creation strategy that wasapplied to the New York International Auto Show on behalf of the New York Acura Dealers Association. Thiscampaign sought to generate blog posts, photos, videos, and graphics that drove the New York Acura DealersAssociation brand, and, outfit the members of the association with rich, sharable content for their respectivesocial media platforms.Conservative analytics show, now, for more than 24,000 photo views, 9,600 video views and a total socialengagement metric of over 94,000. (Total Social Engagement = The total “likes”, “shares”, “retweets”, “pins”,and the like.) Not a single ad-dollar was spent on this campaign, just strong creative content optimized withsocial SEO best practices.For more, see links below:AcuraSocial.comNYIAS YouTube PlaylistNew York Auto Show Video InfographicInstagram Video Guest Book at NYIASNew York Auto Show InfographicNYIAS on FlickrNew York Acura Dealers Association on Facebook http://www.Tier10Lab.com http://www.twitter.com/Tier10Lab http://www.facebook.com/Tier10Marketing http://www.Tier10Marketing.com

Instagram, Mobile Marketing & The New York Auto Show

by Molly Troha on Jul 27, 2012

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