The Co-operative Food's Facebook video stragey in the run up to Easter has been brilliant.
It's been eye catching (stopping me in my scrolling-tracks), enjoyable, serial and shareable.
THE CONCEPT
Each short video shows someone in need of help.
Members of the public are filmed with secret cameras coming to their aid, before being surprised with Easter eggs for being such good eggs. It's a social eggsperiment.
Each video is only about 20-30 seconds long and concentrates on one scenario, but here's a compilation that's pinned to their Facebook page to give you the idea.
THE GENIUS SOCIAL SHARING STRATEGY
The cracking part of this plan is when they encourage viewers to 'nominate the Good Eggs in your life by tagging them in the comments and explaining what makes them so great!'
Genius!
So, sure, they pay for a load of Facebook views by promoting these to everyone's feeds. But they get so many more by people sharing this, not just with the usual 'likes' or 'shares' but by socially tagging their friends/family.
Not only that, but the love and warmth people have for their 'Good Eggs' shines equally on the Co-op for their part in this.
I mean, this doesn't even expressley say this is a competition does it? People are doing it because it makes them feel good and the brand is inextricably linked with that emotion.
WHY THEY'RE PERFECT FACEBOOK FODDER
- short
- cut straight to the action so they grab our attention
- make sense with no audio
- have multiple story lines (so we can engage with each one plus we don't feel repeated to)
- make us smile, so we want to hit 'like' or 'share'
- make us want to interact, by tagging (and therefore sharing even deeper)
These short videos have the same effect when shared on Twitter (which they did of course) but the link on the tweets drives people to the Co-op website, which then directs them to Facebook.
THE ONLY CRITICISM
This is their web copy:
Number 3! It just feels really lame to invite people to like and share the videos. It kind of breaks the magic spell. You want people to share or like your content because they want to. In writing this as an instruction, it sheds light on the fact that, when all's said and done, this is a marketing campaign. Don't break the spell. People won't share because you ask them to unless perhaps it's a charity.
All in all though, hats (or Easter bonnets) off to the Co-operative Food team for hatching such a social video plan. It's brilliant.
You can see all of the videos in this YouTube playlist.