Oh, Instagram’s Wall, Who’s Fairest of Them All? Building a Fanbase in One of the Most Competitive Landscapes

Background Context

Advertising in Cosmetics is like swimming in a deep red ocean – it’s challenging to stand out and even more difficult to be remembered. So when Nordics, our client, reached out in October 2020, they had a challenge for us: take their social media game up a notch. They already had 7,458 Facebook fans and 1,686 Instagram followers, but Instagram was where the cool kids were hanging out, and they wanted in on the action.

Now, here’s the catch—how do you hook more followers and turn them into superfans when you’re working without a boosting budget? And to top it off, you’re up against the likes Colgate, Sensodyne, Splat and Ecodenta? Not to mention that dental hygiene products wasn’t in fact Instagram material. First answer that comes to mind is using JUJU (magic). We whipped up a strategic plan, and while we got some buzz, the engagement wasn’t as electric as we’d hoped. Time to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

Our Solution

We simply stepped on the evergreen vanity of mankind and in 2021 created a virtual competition for “the most charming smile”. Of course we didn’t want to intimidate or offend any of the Instagram users that’s why we chose a subjective criteria which was conveying clearly the message of visual attractiveness but putting it outside the super demanding standards of the network. Everybody was free to join as soon as they uploaded a picture of them smiling and a #shareyoursmile. The prize? Four lucky ladies would score a professional photoshoot, complete with the works—hair, makeup, the whole nine yards. The response was off the charts. We were amazed the speed and effort contestants put in putting themselves forward. After discussing hiring a fashion designer to dress the winners, we realized at the end that keeping it simple and natural fit the brand’s vibe perfectly. The winners received a full photo session with high-quality images for their own use, and Nordics gained the rights to use these pictures for advertising purposes. It was a true win-win situation.

Takeaway 

Traditional giveaways rarely can bring loyal users. We are all too familiar with the giveaway hunters and it’s disappointing when you see the giveaway price selling on the secondary market like OLX. That’s why we want for the user to invest something back and let that be more than 4 seconds of their time to like, follow and share. Then we increase the possibility of meeting with a true potential customer on the account of hollow traffic.

Currently, Nordics’s Instagram fanbase exceeds 4K followers and their Facebook fans exceed 10K but again – numbers are important but what stands behind them is quantifying their value.