Company Name: GoPro
Industry: Action Cameras
Web references: Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Shorty Awards, Econsultancy, Wikipedia, INC
GoPro is a household name in the camera industry. It has grown from founder Nick Woodman’s desire to capture quality pictures him surfing to an international company that boosts revenue of $985.73 million in 2013. The success of this brand has stemmed from people’s desire to share their adventures with others. GoPro’s line of wearable and mountable cameras enables the average person to capture professional quality footage of experiences that range from skydiving to snowboarding. The accessible price point of these action cameras has placed the product in the hands of many consumers. In an interview with USA TODAY, Woodman speaks to his company’s vision of creating solutions to capture and share experiences to the world. He believes that as long as this stays true, there will always be a place for GoPro.
Consumer generated content is one the main reasons why GoPro has skyrocketed to its current popularity. The online community consistently shares videos and pictures from their cameras on various social platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. GoPro has a dedicated channel to house customer content.This content stands as a genuine testament of product capabilities and offerings, which generates more sales.
In an article by INC, Woodman states, “I think we have the most socially engaged online audience of any consumer brand in the world”. In return, the GoPro social media team engages back with the community. They are seen to directly reply with customers, creating genuine dialogue to keeps clients engaged.
GoPro proactively tries to keep users involved. One examples of this is a YouTube contest where contestants were asked to submit GoPro surfing video clips at the North Short of Oahu. The winner would get a prize of $20,000. Talk about an incentive!
This high level of engagement has not gone unnoticed, GoPro has won Shorty awards for Best Brand on Instagram and Best Facebook Page. The Shorty awards recognized that:
The company tapped into its customers to drive awareness of GoPro by entertaining a growing audience of potential customers with engaging, immersive and aspirational stories. Today, these always-on social media campaigns remain the backbone of GoPro’s online consumer brand marketing, customer engagement and retention, and emerging content distribution strategies. More importantly, the strategy has enabled GoPro to develop a social community that is one of the most engaged in the world and established the company as a leader in leveraging social media as an integrated marketing platform to drive growth rather than a medium to support seasonal and temporary campaigns.
Lessons Learned: GoPro created a quality product, which conveniently is also a social media content tool. GoPro capitalizes on their position and encourages consumers to produce and share showpiece content. This regular stream of authentic media from community members acts like a catalyst for more content and sales.
Submitted By: Stephanie Lau/ Student, Social Media for Business Performance,University of Waterloo