Organization name: Lowe’s Companies, Inc.
Industry: Retail home improvement and appliance stores
Company Contact: Tom Lamb, Lowe’s Senior Vice President of Marketing & Advertising
Web references: Lowe’s
Description of how social media is used for business performance:
According to a release from advertising giants BBDO, Lowe’s is the second largest home improvement retailer in the world. As a part of the “Never Stop Improving” brand campaign, Lowe’s continues to dedicate resources and creativity to keep its brand fresh and modern and its followers wanting more, through the creation of visually stimulating content.
“Never Stop Improving’ is not just a tagline – it reflects our customer’s mindset about their homes and their lives,” said Tom Lamb, senior vice president of marketing and advertising for Lowe’s in the campaign’s launch announcement. “Never Stop Improving is our promise to them that we will constantly be innovating and improving at Lowe’s so we can satisfy their ever changing needs. Our new campaign is our brand promise and our rallying cry for employees as we bring a continual stream of innovations to market over the next several years, like MyLowes.”
The company’s #fixinsix vine video campaign, started in 2013 and is comprised of a series of six second Vine videos with tips, tricks and DIYS to help people discover new ways to improve their homes and their lives.
“By targeting the individuals we deemed most likely to benefit from (and enjoy) our six-second tips, we seeded the Vine videos into the Twitter community in a way that felt less like advertising, and more like sharing interesting content. And based on the audience’s response, that’s exactly how it was interpreted. ” says the BBDO’s release.
BBDO goes on to explain that “instead of forcing people to view an ad, we gave them something they wanted. And they rewarded us by sharing the Vine videos across Twitter, Facebook, and of course, Vine itself.”
Visit Vine to view #fixinsix examples
Lessons for others:
- As the demand for social content becomes more and more visual the popularity of moving image within social mediums is only increasing. Vines, much like each video, are quick and simple.
- Vines can be shot in house with very little expense or experience. Lowe’s investment was only $5000.
- “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million.” Troy Olson, Digital Advertising Manager, and Jeff Loquist, Search Marketing Manager, for ShoppersChoice.com.
- Use your imagination, look for free or inexpensive apps to help with the video editing process, talk to your team to find content ideas. My organization uses vines to film ‘behind the scenes’ footage of upcoming marketing and communications efforts. This allows us to create our own mini “trailers”, building layers within our social marketing efforts, cross-marketing with more traditional forms of outreach and communications and helps to build excitement and momentum for upcoming releases or events.
- Content is king.
Other resources:
Lowes’ Stop-Motion “Fix in Six” Vine Videos Teach You Quick Diy Repairs
Fix in Six Vines
Best Vines of the year: Lowes ‘lifehacks’ tops 6-second video ads
Lowe’s “Fix In Six” Vine Campaign Wins O’TooleBox Advertising Award
Lowe’s Fix in Six
The Beginner’s Guide to Vine
Video Content: 6 Easy Ways to Use Vine for Marketing
How Brands Are Winning With Vine Videos: 10 Examples
Take Your Content Marketing to the Next Level With Vine
Submitted by:
Jane Dawkins, Marketing Communications Officer, University of Guelph
To contact the author of this entry please email at: jdawkins@uoguelph.ca
If you have any concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Programme Director, Social Media for Business Performance.