- Craftsy - Whats your craft?

Do you miss art class from school?
Have you had the desire to make something, instead of buy it ?
Are you intimidated by projects?
Would you rather support local business then buying something from a chain?
Are you tired of cooking microwavable meals?
Do you not enjoy listening to people rant when YouTubing DIY projects? Do you want to experience, shorter and more professional videos?
Do you want to make someone a gift that is from the heart?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, Craftsy.com is a site that could offer you great utility. This multi-function service, supply site has lessons from some of the best cooks and crafters around the globe. They take impossible seeming projects and put everything together in easy kits and lessons.

www.Craftsy.com

Their main area's of focus are:

 

SEWING & QUILTING

CAKE & COOKING

YARN & FIBER ARTS

ART & PHOTO

HOME & GARDEN

MORE (Jewlery and paper crafts)

 



 

Hands full? Just a bit.... But Craftsy is trying to be the one stop shop for everything craft related.

Lofty goals for a company that is in a competitive/growing space, but they have a solid platform with very motivated users. With so many different segments of users, craftsy needs to deliver relavent messages to its user base while building awareness of the brand.

 

Competition?  Just a bit....

• Michaels: Started a partnership with CreativeBug to deliver their online DIY content.
• This content is sold in lesson form
• Have brick and mortar locations
• More info about the partnership

• CreativeBug -
• Crushing content and partnerships

• Hobby Lobby: Has a database of DIY PDF's and videos
  
  
  • This content is given for free
  • Have brick and mortar locations

• Esty -
• Online marketplace for craft goods and supplies.
• Not currently selling services

• Pinterest and YouTube
• Offer free alternatives

• CraftU
• Online class offerings just like Creative Bug and Craftsy
• Little to no social media presence

 

 

 This competition is forcing the players to get creative in differentiating themselves and below are some examples of Creative bug doing just that with live demo's and product partnerships...

Craftsy should take notice of CreativeBug's social media campaigne and try to come up with some partnerships of their own. They offer users a very diverse services, and those different segments all have opportunities for teaming up with strong brands that could help build the brands awareness and Network.

Craftsy needs to continue to differentiate themselves from that free content and distinguish themselves a more premium way to learn. They have been able to do this already by connecting themselves, with professional cooks and crafters. These relationships are what make the brand appealing, but when there is free information available to consumers you would have to consider it a threat to the company.

Has anyone used any of these before? and have any thoughts on the companies?

I'm signed up now and going to give it a try.... (Follow-up to come)
 

 

 

 

Under Armor (UA) - Stepping up the Social Media Game

I wanted to highlight one of my favorite ad campaigns I thought was really effective.  I'm going to highlight UA  that competes in the highly competitive sports apparall space. My favorite part about this campaign is how far it has evolved over time. The first few videos they launched were very basic, but as time progressed, they continued to improve their story telling and ended up getting its users engaged.

Under Armor "Rule Yourself "Campaign

9 Months ago they first launched commercials staring: Misty Copeland, Jordan Spieth, Steph Curry, and  Tom Brady. The message all the commercials were telling you that "you are the sum of your training..... Rule Yourself".

The commercial currently has over 2.4MM Views. The commercial was a very basic but cool concept, they showed each athlete practicing their particular sport, with hundreds of clones or past versions of themselves training going through the same motions. This was symbolizing the number of times they have worked on something to get it right, and when you see all of those times practicing being played at once, you have a far greater appreciation for the time these atheletes put into their sport.

The brand then ended up taking this a step further and examined what goes into a day/week of practice, because a lot of people just see the end result, and don't realize what goes into getting there. Three months ago they launched 3 new videos starting the US Womens Gymnastics team, Memphis Depay, and Michael Phelps. These videos had a slightly different quote at the end; "It's what you do in the dark, that will put you in the light... Rule Yourself". With the summer olympics coming up, I think that these were great choices and think they were all remarkably well done. Take a look:

 

 

 

5.3MM Views

 

 

2.8MM Views

 

 

219K Views

I thought they were all great, and after seeing them all I was wondering who Memphis Depay was. Apparently he was named "Best Young Player" in the world in 2015 by France Football. He is 22 years old, plays wing for the English Club Manchester United. He has also been dubbed the "New Ronaldo" because of their very similar styles of play. Something tells me, we'll be seeing and hearing a lot more of him in the years to come.

Looking at the numbers, UA was able to produce ~4X the views in 1/3 of the time with these new videos. I hope UA keeps building on this, and continues to generate more content like this. The only problem I think they have now is that they have set the bar extremely high.

Then when you look at the #RuleYourself on Twitter, there is all sorts of good stuff being posted by its users including:

Someone going 18 under par

People cutting weight:

Buying swag:

The campaign motivated people to work hard, share content and buy swag.... I think its working and can't wait to see what they come out with next.

Synchrony Financial (SYF) Social Media Overview

Who is Synchrony Finanical (SYF)?

SYF is a consumer financial services business that has a wide range of credit products, but the primary segments of its revenue can be broken down to Retail Card (Private label and Dual Card products with Lowes, Walmart, Gap, Amazon, American Eagle, ect.), Payment solutions (Large, one time buy Financing with: Yamaha, Sleepy’s, Lumber Liquidators) and Care Credit (Helps Finance Vision and dental bills). These different businesses are all financed by SYF’s Bank and even though they are different products they have the same goals for its shareholders, make money. At Year End 2015 SYF had $83B of Assets and had a Net income of $582MM. So, the company has money at its disposal, does business with some huge Brand names (Marvel, Wal-Mart, and Lowes) and just needs guidance in Digital Marketing, which would make them a primary target for any Digital marketing consultant.

Where are they active in social?
           The brands presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube comes off as very clean, direct and professional. They post a lot of pictures with great messages that are short and to the point, but they seem to be using a lot the same content on each of their platforms. They even use the same banner picture across Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.  I’m sure creating a unique experience through all of the platforms is difficult for any company because once you have some quality content to share; you want that message displayed from everywhere. SYF is starting to make good connections with different groups and social tags, however, most of its posts interact with another form of SYF’s Social Media.  If they keep creating these quality posts that are relevant to different social networks, groups and users they will increase their following over time.  

On Facebook - (3-5 posts per week)

·         Have 3,882 Likes with posts getting between 5 - 2,600 interactions (A large gap).

·         They have a Timeline, About, Complements and Concerns pg. and Photo/Video pg.

·         Have good filler content linking to relevant news articles its followers might be interested in, however, there is a lot of overlap in the filler content.

 

 

On Twitter - (3-5 posts per week)

·         They have a SYF Page and another Ask Synchrony page

·         Collectively have over 3,750 Tweets, ~6,750 Followers, & Following ~1,000

·         Unique contest with one of their clients

SYF recently started a Credit Card product with Marvel and have been doing a good job collaborating with them through social media. As you see to the right, they hosted a costume contest recently and just declared a winner. They were trying to build awareness for the new program and are advertising people to "save like a hero" with your new Marvel CC (financed by SYF). Contests are a good way for SYF to engage social network users.

 

In another post, SYF drops the hash tag #girlsthatcode, showing their support for the education of girls in tech field. This is a great message and creates awareness of a credit company to a group of people that might be a little strapped for cash because they are in school. SYF uses this post on both Facebook and Twitter, to link users of both to each of the social networks.

 

 

 

Linkedin – Post less then FB and TWTR

·         SYF’s largest group of followers, but seems to have the lowest level of engagement as far as interactions.

YouTube – 1 video every 1-2 weeks

·         Most watched video (underwhelming but informative). (Click Here).

·         SYF’s YouTube videos with Marvel “Saving the world is hard, saving with Synchrony Bank is easy” got the most collective views through the 4 video ad campaign.

 

Competition

SYF has some stiff competition on social media, but there is a lot to be learned from competitor’s campaigns. All of the posts I’ve highlighted here are from the past month, and the competition was able to get more engagement then any of SYF’s posts. Granted, these companies have had a longer time to establish their social media presence, but they still have some great ideas.  Capital one is very active on social and has recently posted a contest to win $10,000, been posting behind the scenes footage of a Jenifer Garner commercial (celebrity influencer) and have been teaming with well know travel bloggers (social media influencers).  These influencers and contests will help Capital One reach new audiences and help build the brand. SYF has already done some contests, but should look to involve some Celebrity and social media influencers in their social media marketing.

 

 

 

Another competitor is Allied Bank and they have come up with 2 recent campaigns that are doing pretty well. The first campaign I’ll highlight is one that goes the funny route, it starts off every commercial showing the following “No Branches = Great Rates. It’s a fact of life. Just like…” they then come up with funny sayings like, “how boardrooms= bored rooms, ouch” and “how grandkids = free tech support”. I found them pretty hilarious and effective. 

Allied Bank also created an app that they have been pushing, that warns people of their poor spending habits by letting them know when they start to approach a business which they often “splurge” on. I thought this was a very unique campaign because it’s addressing a fear of many of its customers. Very few people get credit cards with the intention of overspending on it, and going into debt. Everyone wants to be able to manage their spending and it is comforting knowing the bank is also trying to look out for your best interest as well. In these ads Allied bank uses some celebrity influencers to get their point across with a little humor. I think they made light of a very delicate subject, while still getting their message out there. Another opportunity is for SYF to socially post about their community service involvement (Which Citi has done below). Capital one, Ally Bank and Citi are engaging with their customers in interesting ways (all of which require a more intensive capital investment), and it’s time for SYF to join the party.

 

 

 SYF... Time to respond