BUCK O'HAIREN'S LEGENDARY SUNSHINE

Changing a brand from no interaction to an UGC machine.

No budget. No affinity. No audience.

It's the same hurdles all new brands go through.

No blueprint for "building a brand" exists. But when a brand's greatest social asset is the, well, asset itself, that process becomes easier.

But, what's the strategy?

LET THE USERS DEFINE YOUR BRAND

Sunshine was created by award-winning designers and creatives who worked on accounts like Coca Cola and Odwalla.

The agency knew the reality for beverage companies to win shares on the shelf was not only extremely hard, but similarly difficult on social media.

So, let's go back to the roots — give your audience to define the brand the way they want it to be.

How do you get people to create content for you?

Ask them — but probably not the way you think.

Tell me if you heard of this: "Submit a picture using #AnotherDangHashtag, and we will promote it!"

#yawn...

And it's only beneficial to the brand. Social media users are more savvier than marketers and, well, can smell BS a mile away.

Instead, the Buck O'Hairen approach developed a content strategy that highlighted its main asset — the can.

Soon, users followed, especially since the brand actively promoted its content as if to tell its users they had a say in the brand's voice.

Wouldn't you create content for a brand if you felt like you literally owned the brand?

The brand had a consistent voice, too, utilizing hashtags #BuckApproved and #ShineOn.

#BuckApproved gave a nod to any loyal users who did something for Sunshine. So did the phrase "#ShineOn, friend. Shine on."

But there were campaigns, too, tackling the bigger monster, David vs. Goliath style.

#BuckTheBull wasn't just a hashtag. It took the news event of Red Bull's settlement and actively participated in the conversation.

Using Twitter, Sunshine conversed with people who shared the settlement links, but also who commented negatively about Red Bull.

On Instagram, it conversed in the hashtags related to Red Bull's newsworthy event.

On Facebook, the settlement link was the all-time most shared post, reaching more than 5,000 users when they brand didn't even have 1,000 followers.

But did all of this move the needle?

● Sunshine signed with R.H. Baringer, increasing its distribution by more than 6 times.

● Increased audience in Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by more than 100%, all reaching above 1,000 (FB: 650 → 1,000; TW: 150 → 1,800; IG: 250 → 1,100)

● Increased Facebook average followers reach from 12.1% to 38.5% after optimization in one quarter.

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