Social Media Case Study: Sahara Star Uses Instagram to Celebrate 1 Lakh Fans on Facebook

Brand Name

Sahara Star

Agency Name

Brandlogist Communications Consultancy pvt ltd.

Introduction

Sahara Star recently hit the glorious numbers of 1 lakh on Facebook and 1,000 on Twitter. Needless to say, celebrations were planned across all social media platforms.

One of the campaigns that helped them reach these numbers was conducted on Instagram. Now, the question here is why they chose an image based platform, and the answer to that is very simple. The first thing people do when they go to an exotic location and spend some time is take pictures. The agency chose to use this information and knowing that there's nothing like Instagram that adds a touch of artsy to your pictures and allows you to share them with your circle the same minute as you experience it, they began the Instagram campaign.

Objective

The objective was to celebrate the occasion while continuing to drive increased ROI for the brand via current guests/customers.

Execution

They started off by tracking the hashtag ‘Hotel Sahara Star’. Search results threw up some stunning shots of the hotel as well as pictures of the clients enjoying themselves at the hotel. Whether it's a party, a custom made dessert or the glee at finding a lavish bathroom – They acknowledged all of these memories created at the hotel by creating a board on Pinterest while also, getting in touch with these clients via Twitter.

Nothing like a little online-offline integration, eh? And that’s how, much before the onset of the campaign, we created a reason for people to share their pictures with us and for us, to see more of ourselves on Instagram.

In the background of all this, they formulated the #StarInstaAnswers campaign – whose core idea was to connect with the actual clientele of the hotel, with the idea that if they're instagramming pictures of the hotel, they're surely experiencing its hospitality.

With a Twitter and a Facebook campaign already running in the background, the focus of this campaign was not on client recommendations and memories but to find out just how much people know about the hotel.

Therefore, they formulated 14 questions around different features of the Sahara Star. The questions were formulated in such a way that only those who had actually been present at the hotel would have been able to answer them correctly.

The twist was – This answer had to be in the form of an instagram click. 14 questions, 14 days, 14 winners and a giveaway of the hotel’s choicest merchandise.

Results

Within a week of the campaign’s launch, they had entries pouring in on all of Sahara Star’s social platforms. The traction was maximum on Twitter, as the Instagram accounts of most of the participants were linked to their Twitter accounts - A tweet went out the instant they uploaded something on Instagram. The hashtag #StarInstaAnswers, created specially for the campaign, was constantly monitored.

The campaign caught a lot of attention and also, received some wonderful reviews from Twitter and Instagram users. In some cases, influencers on Twitter (tweeple with more than 5,000 followers) were spreading the word within their contacts regarding the same.