Overview
BMW Portland features an extensive selection of new BMW models and high-quality and certified pre-owned BMWs. BMW Portland is also a source for BMW trained service technicians, original BMW parts, and approved BMW accessories. In April 2013, BMW Portland launched the first BMW Portland Art Initiative & Design Contest. The winning design would then be applied to a 2013 BMW 605i Coupe, unveiled leading the 2013 Grand Floral Parade in Portland, OR. The artist would receive a $2,500 cash price along with a $2,500 scholarship or donation to a nonprofit of the winner’s choice. An ongoing social media campaign was developed to encourage entries for the contest.
Challenge
Anvil’s campaign for the BMW Portland Art Initiative & Design Contest required optimized use of budget, yet expanded utilization of creative content across social media channels, including platforms previously untapped.
Strategy
A campaign specific to the BMW Portland Art Initiative & Design Contest was developed with an emphasis on targeting would-be contestants wherever possible.
- Development of content calendar to outline creative content throughout the campaign.
- Creation of accounts on visual-heavy social media sites such as Pinterest, Behance, and Dribbble.
- Ongoing engagement related specifically to the campaign on popular platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
- This included use of a custom application on Facebook directing users to enter the contest.
- Ongoing engagement to emphasize the visual. Content utilized included display of historic BMW Art Cars to inspire potential entries.
- Ongoing engagement featured highlights of the judges in the contest.
- Use of StumbleUpon advertising, a platform which caters well to pages with strong visual content such as the contest entrance page.
- Strategic use of promoted posts on the Facebook platform.
- Launch of highly focused Facebook pay-per-click campaign.
Results
Engagement increased across all platforms, with posts exposed to thousands of users. BMW Portland received numerous retweets, Facebook post comments, re-pins, and more.
The numbers below examine data between April 8 (the beginning of the campaign) through June 8 (the day of the Grand Floral Parade) as compared to the previous period of February 5 through April 7.
- 4,089% increase in visits to the BMW Portland website via total social referral
- 1,670% increase in visits to the BMW Portland website via Facebook
- 417% increase across additional referrals from social platforms such as Reddit, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest
- 4591% increase in total Facebook page reach
- 91% increase in new BMW Portland Facebook page likes
- 420% increase in “People Talking About This” on Facebook (the number of people sharing stories about the BMW Portland Facebook page)
- 542% increase in the total number of stories created about the BMW Portland Facebook page
- 338% increase in total engaged BMW Portland Facebook page users
In the words of BMW Portland:
“We were absolutely overwhelmed with the quantity and quality of the entries. With so many great designs to choose from the judges had a difficult task selecting the top three winners … We look forward to sharing the winning designs and many other entries on the BMW Portland website and our Facebook page.”
*This campaign was run by Formic Media, which has since merged with Anvil Media.