You may have noticed late last year House of Fraser’s poorly-timed #Emojinal campaign, which sought to re-brand the retailer as an emoji-laden tween-fest, completely transforming their Twitter timeline into what was mostly gobbledegook.
The campaign sparked widespread confusion across the Twittersphere, with many wondering whether the department store giant had been hacked and taken over by some over-excitable adolescent trolls. Turned out that the campaign, which went down like a lead balloon among consumers and critics alike, was an effort from House of Fraser to connect with a younger, more digitally engaged audience. Suffice to say, it failed dramatically and its business suffered for it.
Yet, had HoF soft-launched their emoji campaign on Instagram, they may have had a little more luck.
Corporations are beginning to migrate from Facebook to Twitter in terms of their brand marketing, but they’re already a step behind small to medium enterprises, who are already utilising the recent monetisation of Instagram to their advantage.
Amy Coles, head of brand development at Instagram, recently listed five small UK-based business who were making a name for themselves on Instagram with creative, engaging, current and original campaigns on the platform. Examples included Hiut Denim, based in Wales, who chose to post images of their employees wearing their product, rather than models, and Shore Projects, who tapped in to the hipster market by pairing their watches with tweed and plaid cuffs, inviting their followers to do the same with a hashtag. Meanwhile, a company called Wool and the Gang somehow made knitting cool again with consistent colour palettes, pairing knitting with a fashion and lifestyle focus.
Coles noted that a quarter of internet usage is spent on Instagram or Facebook, and over half of Instagram users follow at least one brand on the platform. With Instagram becoming the most frequented social media platform for teens and young adults, it’s blindingly obvious that companies should be taking advantage of a huge untapped market who are not only susceptible to brand awareness, but are keen to hunt down cool, authentic and aesthetically stunning brands.
While many British SMEs have already started traversing these murky waters, it seems that larger corporations are less susceptible to change, preferring to stick to Facebook and Twitter. The ability of SMEs to mould themselves to the market and adapt their brand to trends serves as a major advantage in the battle for a new generation of consumers.
Meanwhile, the biggest and most prestigious brands are still producing train wrecks like the #Emojinal campaign. It’s time to adapt, and fast, in order to snap up those young, new recruits who could become lifelong brand ambassadors for your products.