Reels of Joy: Experimentation, Insights & a 3000% Follower Surge

Our client, a budding product-centric wedding brand, aimed to offer an intuitive and personalized experience in a hyper-competitive industry. Despite having a wide range of excellent products and tools, the brand’s social media presence was not prioritized, resulting in a disconnected customer experience. Spark Social was brought in to create a cohesive narrative across different platforms and re-think the way the brand engages with its audience.

The Challenge

In a world reshaped by the pandemic, businesses from every corner of the globe confronted a maelstrom of challenges. Among them, the wedding industry stood out as particularly hard-hit. Already known for its competitiveness, the wedding sector found itself navigating even choppier waters, and for businesses in this arena, the pandemic wasn’t just a disruption; it was a call to rethink and reinvent how they operate in an increasingly crowded market.

Recognizing the need to engage effectively with both a B2C and B2B audience, we needed to create a tailored approach that both attracted and resonated with the target consumer market (B2C) but also to captivate potential brand partners and investors (B2B), a challenge in and of itself.

The Goals

Amid a demanding landscape, establishing clear and distinct objectives was essential for guiding our social media strategy effectively. Our goals were multi-dimensional and included:

• 1. Enhancing Joy’s Digital Footprint: This involved expanding the brand’s community on platforms such as Instagram, with a specific focus on surpassing the following of our principal competitor.
• 2. Differentiating Joy in a Competitive Market: Despite some competitors enjoying a following up to 40 times larger, we needed to carve out a unique space for Joy, setting it apart in the industry.
• 3. Maintaining Adaptability in Strategy: By closely monitoring the increase in brand mentions we would be able to respond dynamically and refine our strategy on the move.

Harnessing Growth and Flexibility: Our Strategic Approach

Our team embarked on a journey to not only expand the brand’s reach but do so with a versatile and adaptive strategy. Our focus was clear: to grow the brand while maintaining flexibility to experiment with various content styles, growth techniques, media forms, and narratives.

A key element of our approach involved updating our posting cadence, allowing us to leverage new social media features as they emerged. A notable example of this was our prompt adoption of Instagram Reels upon its launch, positioning us as pioneers among our client’s competitors in experimenting with this feature. This initiative resulted in a staggering 3000% increase in follower growth month-over-month within a year of consistent posting.

Initially, the brand’s content strategy predominantly featured couples, aiming to harness the natural storytelling appeal of social media. However, through meticulous content testing, it became evident that such content underperformed in comparison to wedding inspiration posts with concise, impactful copy.

Collaborating closely with the client, we devised a segmented strategy, tailoring content to the platforms where it resonated most effectively. This led to the creation of specific content pillars for each brand outlet.

This adaptability proved to be a linchpin in effectively addressing the distinct market demands of both B2C and B2B clients. Our strategy’s success underscores the importance of agility and responsiveness in the dynamic landscape of social media marketing.

The Results

Within the first year of implementing our strategy, Joy saw a 2.9K% growth in followers, which was just the beginning of their success. Instagram, known for its fierce competition and ever-changing algorithms, saw a 770% growth in engagement, increasing following from 2,500 to 60K.

Alongside experiencing growth on our client’s cornerstone accounts, we consistently outperformed our competition, maintaining a monthly engagement rate that was four times higher than our client’s top-performing competitor.

Our Pinterest strategy was particularly effective, leading to a 71.5% traffic increase to key pages, and growing their audience from a modest 300 to over 850K monthly viewers. The standard of our product photos earned shared and recognition from top industry media outlets, partners, and influential blogs.

Whilst the pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to brands worldwide, our team was quick to pivot, adjusting our content strategy to remain relevant and engaging amidst the uncertainty. This agility allowed us to maintain a steady 20% MoM growth, a notable feat as many of our competitors faced negative growth during the same period.

Moving Forward

The success of this campaign stems from a blend of strategic planning, creative flexibility, and a deep understanding of our client’s target markets. As we continue to work with Joy, we look forward to continue engaging with our audience in meaningful ways and helping their clients and vendors create magic at every wedding.

About Spark Social Agency

Spark Social Agency is an award-winning, boutique social media agency, delivering the creativity and agility you’d expect from a small studio with the impact and ROI you’d demand from a big-name agency.