Andy's Answers: How Old Navy brought a social campaign to the real world - SmartBrief

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Andy’s Answers: How Old Navy brought a social campaign to the real world

2 min read

Brands & Campaigns

When Old Navy turned 20 last year, they held a celebration meant to put the spotlight back on their fans — as well as earn some real-world buzz. Using 20-foot machines in Times Square and Hollywood, they recreated rasterized images of their fans’ selfies by blowing up nearly 1,000 balloons.

How it works: Fans tweet a photo to Old Navy with #selfiebration, Old Navy’s community managers manually approve and prep the images, the machines illustrate them in balloons, and Old Navy creates a gif to tweet back to the fan of their selfie being blown up.

But to make it a success, Old Navy’s Associate Marketing Manager of Social and Digital Media Angela Scibelli says they worked across teams to develop a fully integrated campaign. In her presentation at SocialMedia.org’s Member Meeting, Angela shares these key points:

  • Influencers can be more powerful than you think. Angela’s team worked to create a party-like atmosphere around the physical spaces by bringing in social media influencers to pump up the crowd. She says that while she expected the influencers to bring a bigger digital audience, they weren’t prepared for the mobs of fans who showed up in person to meet their favorite Vine stars.
  • Keep the barrier to entry low. After doing some market research, Angela’s team knew Old Navy target audiences were already sharing tons of selfies. To get them to participate in this campaign, they piggybacked on what their customers were already doing.
  • Leverage your employees. While Angela’s team sent out email blasts to tell Old Navy headquarters employees to promote the event, she says next time she’ll include their thousands of store managers to spread the word even further.

Watch Angela’s full presentation below:

Check out her slide deck.