Objectives
- Identify and drive awareness for the best performing keywords, primarily variants on the terms “loom band” and “loom kits”.
- Use blogger outreach to drive quickest exposure in a limited three-month timeframe.
Challenge
Since the summer of 2012 one of the most popular craft crazes sweeping the globe has been “loom bands”, i.e. tiny plastic bands which can be looped together to make bracelets and other items using a purpose-built loom. Their popularity increased in the UK when celebrities such as David Beckham, Harry Styles (of the boy band One Direction), and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, were seen sporting loom bands in various incarnations.
In June 2014, Hobbycraft wanted to leverage the celebrity publicity to drive visibility for the loom band products they sell.
The challenge lay, in large part, in that the term “loom bands” itself was highly competitive (averaging 60, 5000 local monthly searches). Also, Hobbycraft’s direct competition was Amazon, which sold the official Rainbow Loom®, whilst Hobbycraft sold variants of the product.
The Solution
Mode chose the most effective tactic to drive results quickly: blogger outreach. Bloggers are perfectly positioned to promote a brand’s message to an already engaged, self-selecting audience. They generally have a more personal and influential relationship with their readership than traditional media and /or the brand itself. They have direct access to the brand’s target audience and can influence purchasing decisions with word-of-mouth marketing.
Implementation
Prior to starting the actual outreach activity, the Mode team performed in-depth keyword research and analysis using a variety of social media and SEO tools to identify ideal prospective bloggers. Mode prioritised the relevancy and quality of content on their blogs and monitored their social media activity to make sure they were reliable, proactive and vocal candidates.
The bloggers, when approached, were offered one each of the two loom band kits available through Hobbycraft, and were asked to either review the products themselves and/or offer them as part of a competition on their blog.
Whilst Mode was performing the outreach, Hobbycraft regularly posted about loom bands on its blog and in social media. From May 25 to July 31, 2014 the brand created seven blog entries focusing on loom band how-tos, videos and a “Mini Makers competition for children aged 8-16”.
Results
Within five weeks of starting the project, Hobbycraft had 14 key terms in positions 1-5 of the keyword rankings for loom band or loom kits, including “loom bands”, “loom band” and “loom band kits”.
Our work with Hobbycraft, and in particular this campaign, was shortlisted in the The Drum Search awards 2015 and was also shortlisted in the 2015 Content Marketing Awards.
