This Could Be You

It’s hard to say something like, “once in a while a social media campaign comes along and revolutionizes the way brands engage with their consumers,” because that suggests social media has been around forever. It hasn’t. But that didn’t stop Kotex from already redefining the way a brand creates relationships with consumers in social media anyway – and on one of the most popular platforms around, no less. In fact, in my view, they’ve kind of set the bar.

A few months ago, Kotex launched a campaign called “Women’s Inspiration Day”. The idea was to find 50 women in Israel (who were very active on Pinterest) and see what inspired them. Once Kotex found out what these women really loved by following their “pins,” they created individual inspiration “packages” using what each woman had pinned on their Pinterest Boards. And then? Boom. They sent them gift boxes with every one of those inspirational items in it. Talk about personal and viral. People were pinning and blogging about it like crazy*.

Not bad, right?

Not bad at all.

Pinterest is the latest and greatest and, of course, tons of brands are leaving no stone unturned trying to see how they can best harness its powers and use it for their gain. But as many have noted, it’s not exactly built from the ground up for business like, say, Facebook is (or will be soon). This means that Pinterest is still wide open for any business to create and invent new, innovative ways to use it to engage their brand with customers in a very meaningful way.

And by meaningful I mean true. Because nowadays, more than ever in marketing perhaps, the truth counts for a heck of a lot. A truth is relevant no matter at what level you’re operating. That’s why, in the words of Eran Sion, eCommerce Director EMEA, “We discovered that it’s no longer interesting to advertise traditionally (banners, newspaper ads). In order to make people talk about your product, there should be a true dialogue between the brand and the consumer. And social media is the best platform to engage in this kind of dialogue.”

Well said.

The fact that a corporation like Kimberly Clarke initiated this campaign is beside the point. It could have been any business. It could have been another corporation or it could have been a mom and pop store around the corner from where you’re reading this online. It could even have been you (Yes, you). Brands are using social media and platforms like Facebook, G+ and Pinterest to reach out to their consumers because they want to be seen as real. Real people behind a company reaching out to real people who want to know they’re engaging with real, actual people who get them, get their needs, and get the way they think.

This initiative was by far the simplest yet — the smartest and most buzzworthy, too.

Hey, we’re writing about it, aren’t we?

Share your successes here! And let us know if we can help you kick start your social media strategy.

*Results: Almost all the recipients posted about what they got on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. There were 2,284 interactions and 694,853 total impressions for 50 boxes.