Straight Outta User-Generated Content
What constitutes a successful social media campaign? In my opinion, the successful campaigns are the ones that creates user-generated content. We have all witnessed a viral campaign or two, but my favorite thus far has been the “Straight Outta Somewhere” (SOS) campaign that was created to promote the movie, “Straight Outta Compton,” which premiered in 2015.
This campaign was created by “Beats by Dre partnered with Universal Pictures to promote Straight Outta Compton, a film about Beats’ founder [and N.W.A. group member], Dr. Dre, and his life and career in Compton.” This film was named after the popular song that elevated the group’s fame and kick-started a nationwide censorship by being “one of the first records to receive a Parental Advisory Label.”
“Straight Outta Compton” was being promoted through many mediums, but what stood out to me was when it became a meme for social media users. This is what made it genius: it was user-generated content that went viral beyond the movie’s marketing expectations. Earl Hwang, a PMG Social Media Supervisor that helped Beats by Dre create the campaign, remarked that “it was really surprising” to see brands take part in the viral sensation.
The main goal for this campaign “was to start a global conversation that would generate interest in the film before its release in August 2015.” I believe another goal was an increase in website traffic for the film and its affiliates.
Deep Patel, a serial entrepreneur and writer for Entrepreneur Magazine, wrote that in order to have a successful viral campaign, the organizers must master the target audience, select the appropriate social media platform, partner with a social media influencer and create media attention among other suggestions. Most importantly, the organizers will need to use key performance indicators (KPIs), which are “measurable value[s] that demonstrate how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives” to measure the campaign’s success.
Target Audience
The SOS campaign was successful because it was personal. It was “where people all over the world could align with their roots and show the world pride for where they call ‘home.’” The target audience for this campaign was anybody who had a social media account. Usually, we are advised to have a more defined audience, but this campaign is an exception to that rule. Scott Mendelson, a Forbes staff member, commented that the campaign went beyond the audience demographics that would attend the movie. There were world leaders, celebrities and every day people participating in this campaign.
Appropriate Social Media Platform
Still going against the grain, the SOS campaign became viral on all social media platforms. The KPIs to measure success on each platform would be to look at engagement metrics, which includes, tweets/retweets, new posts and trends. The campaign “simultaneously trended No. 1 two days in a row across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and, during that time, there were an average of 15,000 #Straightoutta tweets and retweets per minute. According to Twitter, there have been more than 400,000 Tweets mentioned #StraightOutta” within an 8-day time span.
Partner with a Social Media Influencer
As previously stated, there were “many high caliber celebrities, both the White House and UNHCR used it to comment on current events.” Having an influencer will bring awareness to the campaign, which is a KPI to measure its success. The campaign was did something better than paying someone to promote the movie — they were able to get influencers to organically participate in the campaign. “Celebrities like Jennifer Lopez have created their own memes, leading to big spikes in activity.” Companies and major brands participated as well.
Create Media Attention
Trends bring media coverage. The viral meme “was covered in over 100 major news publications and blogs (e.g., CNN, MTV News, Fortune, and BuzzFeed) as a clever marketing effort that not only pushed the Straight Outta Compton film into mainstream culture, but also ‘took over the Internet.’” The measurable KPI is tracking and calculating “the earned media [that] reached more than 1.2 billion people worldwide.”
Overall, the campaign was a rousing success. It was accessible for celebrities, brands and users to join in on the conversation, getting them to promote the movie and Beats by Dre. It shows that sometimes you have to make it about something that people take pride in — and that’s home (or memes).
