Case study: Unleash the power of selfies for your brand

Unleash the
power of
selfies for
your brand

unleash the power of selfies for your brand
More than ever photos are becoming the major means
of communication online. With photo and video sharing
networks such as Instagram people are now able to
communicate easily with large groups of people or friends
through images, easier than using words alone. Whether
they choose to share a photo of their cat or a selfie, users
are no longer using photographs in the way we used to.
Photographs are now a way for self-expression rather than
a way to capture souvenirs. As Robin Kelsey explains "We
are moving away from photography as a way of recording
and storing the past, and instead turning photography into
a social medium in its own right"(1)
Therefore as marketing professionals the right questions
to ask ourselves are: what types of photograph do these
people share online? What type of content do they engage
with? And how can we turn this behavior into an opportunity
to promote our brands and engage our audiences better?
(1) Kelsey, R. E., and Stimson, B. The meaning of photography. Clark
Art Institute, 2008.
Intro
2

Selfies rule
the world
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As stated in a recent study(2) "understanding how
photo content might signify engagement, can impact
both science and design, influencing production and
distribution" but we could also add marketing to the
list. If you understand what type of content people
like to share and like to see then you can adapt your
strategy accordingly. And guess what? One of the most
common types of photo shared on social networks
like Instagram are photos of people or photos with
human faces in them, most of them being known as
selfies i.e self portrait photographs.
A quick search on Iconosquare for the hashtag #selfie
& #me will give you a good overview of the power of
selfies on Instagram. So far the #me hashtag has been
used over 250M times, the #selfie hashtag 14M times
and this does not include all its declinations such as
#selfies (10M), #selfiesunday (9M), #selfienation (2M),
etc. This is huge! Especially if you consider that selfies
now account for 30 per cent of pictures taken by those
aged 18-24.
(2) Faces Engage Us: Photos with Faces Attract More Likes and
Comments on Instagram. Bakhshi, Shamma & Gilbert.
Selfies have become so popular and so trendy that the Chainsmokers
- a music group - recently paid tribute to them with a song entitled
#SELFIES.
4
#SELFIES (Official Music Video) - The Chainsmokers - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdemFfbS5H0

Selfies rule
the world, really!
5

While some of us might consider this
behavior an extension of their
self-absorption, others might view
it as nothing more than an outlet
for self-expression using which just
happens to be shared more publicly
via the communication mode of our
times — social media.
As Dr. Andrea Letamendi, a clinical
psychologist and research fellow
at UCLA, highlights: "Self captured
images allow young adults and teens
to express their mood states and
share important experiences".(3)
This means that they are more likely
to share any positive or negative
experience they have, including
experiences with your brand and
products. Therefore it is essential for
your brand to seize this opportunity
and turn it to your advantage because
photographs with faces in them - be
they selfies or not - are more powerful
than any other types of photograph.
(3) http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/06/
why-selfies-matter/
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The power
of selfies
7

According to the Georgia Institute
of Technology and Yahoo Labs
researchers that examined 1.1 million
photos on Instagram, pictures
featuring human faces generate the
biggest positive response from users.
They found out that on average a
photo that contains a face receives
38% more likes and 32% more
comments compared to a photo that
does not contain any faces. They also
found that the number of faces in the
photo, their age and their gender do
not impact engagement.
Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar Selfie beat all records. This selfie has been seen by 37 million people worldwide on
Twitter and received 1.38M likes on Instagram. It has been valued between 800 million and 1 billion by M.
Levy CEO of the Paris-based global advertising and marketing behemoth, handles international marketing for
Samsung.
8

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A great non-profit example of the power of selfies has been the No Make-Up Selfie for Cancer Awareness
campaign in March 2014. This campaign was not launched by Cancer Research UK but it grew organically,
making a huge impact on social media and getting attention in national newspapers and on radio and TV news.
The #nomakeupselfie started trending as women posted pictures of themselves without make-up on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram resulting in £2M raised in only a few days.
Why are faces so engaging compared
to any other types of photograph?
First of all because the human brain
has evolved to recognize faces within
hours after birth(4) and has a specific
region that is specialized for facial
recognition. Then because faces are
important for social cognition as
well, not only because we are able
to recognize them earlier than other
objects, but also because they display
our feelings about past, current and
future events through expressions.(5)
That said it is easy to understand why
human faces play an important role
in improving consumer responses to
advertisements and why, as a brand,
you should try to stimulate this type
of content when engaging your
community.
(4) Johnson, M. H., Dziurawiec, S., Ellis, H., and
Morton, J. Newborns’ preferential tracking of
face-like stimuli and its subsequent decline.
cognition 40, 1 (1991), 1–19.
(5) Darwin, C. The expression of the emotions
in man and animals. Oxford University Press,
1998.

Mastering the
power of selfies
10

Now that we’ve analyzed the domination and the
power of photographs with human faces in them
better - more particularly selfies - it’s time to see
how you can benefit from this to engage with your
audience better and build brand awareness on
Instagram.
Why is it so important? Because when a user
decides to associate their face with your brand or
your product it is a great signal for their community.
It’s a way for them to show their community that
they have had a great (or bad) experience with your
brand/product. This can be considered as a visual
and social recommendation and your brand needs
that. It’s for these reasons you not only need to
stimulate user-generated content but you also
need to motivate people to associate their faces
with your product / brand.
How can this be done? Here are some great
examples we’ve come across including some
specific campaigns that have been run using
Iconosquare’s contest toolkit. Not only because our
toolkit is awesome but also because we’ve noticed
that selfie contests are the most likely to get more
entries, participants and overall reach. All of these
are great case studies, you should be inspired to
master the power of selfies for your brand.
11

Zappos #nextootd
Never heard about the hashtag #ootd? The Outfit of the day hashtag has been used over 30M times on Instagram. Everyday thousands of
people share their outfit with the rest of the world to collect likes and feedback. Based on this observation Zappos decided to launch their
own hashtag #nextootd to provide users with personal recommendations. How? Instagram users only have to upload a selfie of their outfit
with the #nextootd hashtag and a stylist from Zappos will take a close look at their Instagram account, at what they wear, their friends’ style,
the places they go and make personal recommendations. Awesome!
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Nuxe Paris #selfieprodigieux
During the spring, NUXE Paris ran a campaign in France to promote its wondeful oil - Huile Prodigieuse. To enter, participants (mostly
women) had to upload a photo of themselves with their Huile Prodigieuse. This was a nice opportunity for Nuxe to show their product in
situ and to associate it with human faces. Another interesting point with this contest was the fact that despite this was aimed to France only,
faces have no borders, no languages and anyone on Instagram who sees one of the entries in his feed can feel concerned.
13

Pizza Hut #BBQWithBlake
Pizza Hut has partnered with Blake Shelton to launch a line of barbeque pizzas teased by mobile activation, enabling fans to submit a selfie
with an in-store life-sized cutout of the country music star which it is calling a "Shelfie." Fans may post and share "Shelfies" socially with the
hashtag #BBQWithBlake to win free pizzas and prizes.
Pizza Hut made a great job associating a celebrity advocate like Blake Shelton with a trendy phenomenon like selfies. "The 'Shelfie' program
allows them to be part of that relationship in their own way via their personal social channels, and the content is very sharable." said Courtney
Moscovic, a Pizza Hut spokeswoman.
14

Turkish Airlines #SelfieShootout
Turkish Airlines collaborated with NBA champion Kobe Bryant and international soccer star Lionel Messi as the faces of a #SelfieShootout
contest in December 2013, in which fans could upload selfies for a chance to win a free flight. The campaign became one of the travel
industry’s most viral campaigns of the past year.
The Youtube video of the #SelfieShootout has been viewed over
138M times
15
Kobe vs. Messi: The Selfie Shootout - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhFqSlvbKAM

Hansgrohe USA #WaterSelfies
Another interesting campaign from Hansgrohe USA, inviting participants to upload selfies but … underwater. A very innovative contest that
matches perfectly the core business of the company while using the power of selfies to gain exposure. The quality of some pictures is just
amazing.
16

Friskis&Svettis, turning selfies into ads
People love taking selfies, and they like to show their friends that they are working out so they take selfies in the mirror at the gym.
Friskis&Svettis, the largest sports organization in Sweden, decided to use this behavior to turn those photos into small ads. How? They made
a clearprint for every one of the 14 Friskis&Svettis gyms in Stockholm and printed them on 2,700 tee-shirts. But…they mirrored the print!
They sent tee-shirts to the most active members to get the bus on, and a week later they started giving them away in the gyms for … a selfie!
All members had to do to get the tee-shirt was taking a selfie with the tee-shirt on while working out and post it with the most popular gym
training hashtags in Sweden. The word spread fast and the tee-shirts sold out in 3 days generating hundreds of pictures with the « I love
Friskis&Svettis » on it, not only in the users' feed but also in the most popular training feeds on Instagram.
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Share a Coke #SelfieSweeps
Coca Cola give its consumers a chance to win their concert tickets for the summer.By being 1 of 500 selfies they can unlock access to the
biggest musical events of the year. Plus, every day the first 10 to post on Twitter or Instagram will get a month of Spotify Premium.
A great idea to increase the brand exposure and expand the Coke experience on Instagram and Twitter. Thirsty?
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Now it is
your turn
We’ve seen a couple of great case studies in this document and now you
might have some great ideas popping up. Regardless of your budget try
to think of how you could explore the realm of selfies for your own brand
and how you could engage with your audience. Of course you might not
be Turkish Airlines or Pizza Hut to partner with top celebrities but you can
do great things with creativity, the Friskis&Svettis campaign is probably
the best example.
Are you ready to unleash the power of selfies for your own brand?
We are here to help, so contact us
NATALIE JARRAUD
Sales Manager
sales@iconosqua.re
romain ouzeau
Marketing & PR Manager
romain@iconosqua.re
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arnaud chapoux
Sales Manager
arnaud@iconosqua.re

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Case study: Unleash the power of selfies for your brand

Case study: Unleash the power of selfies for your brand

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