The start of the school year can be a stressful time, full of separation anxiety and fears of the unknown. It’s no day at the sandbox for kids, either.
This August, Crayola engineered a social-media campaign that let mommies get together on Twitter to share ideas for fostering inspiration and imagination in their youngsters. Social marketing agency Mr Youth put the company together with the Girls Night Out Twitter meetings run weekly by MomItForward.com. Crayola sponsored four consecutive GNO sessions in which participants could share creativity tips and stories with other mothers, blogger experts and Crayola representatives.
“In the past, moms would reach out to us through e-mail or our 1-800 number to tell us stories or to ask about new products,” says Crayola marketing EVP Sharon Hartley. “But we wanted to give them a real-time forum to dialogue with us, so we started looking at social media.”
Crayola took ownership of a languishing fan-created Facebook page in July. The company then used the Twitter meetings to build fan sign-ups from 7,000 to over 11,000 by offering GNO participants the chance to win a $200 basket of Crayola products each week of the promotion for becoming Facebook fans. During the Twitter parties, participants could also visit Crayola on Facebook to download a coupon for products.
“Twitter and social media as a whole can help us touch consumers in many different places,” says Stacy Gabrielle, Crayola manager of consumer activation. “By generating followers on Twitter, we’ve led that many more people to be our fans on Facebook.”
— Brian Quinton
Network
