Canon Engages New Generation of Photographers with Social Contests

Retail

Canon engages a new generation of photographers with 2,000+ social contest entries

The Canon team launched the #FreeYourStory contest to appeal to a younger generation of photographers. The contest resulted in:

67%

of entrants under the age of 30

43%

of entrants opted in for future marketing from Canon

22K+

entry pages views featuring Canon products and information

With the increased reliance on cell phones to take photos, Canon Europe’s marketing and social media teams sought to inspire a new generation of Canon photographers and build an online community filled with user-generated photography for future marketing efforts.

The Solution

Step 1 – Build the Contest

Canon Europe’s Social Media team identified TrueLoyal as the best platform to support the exchange of UGC content with the target audience. Upon acquiring the use of TrueLoyal’s Experience Builder and facilitating its integration into Canon’s marketing streams, it allowed the marketing and social teams to quickly create #FreeYourStory entry pages for the various languages reaching the 11 markets they targeted for the contest. The Canon team used the customizable templates Experience Builder to build a cohesive branding and mobile responsive experience across all markets in a few clicks. Experience Builder allowed Canon’s team to create a seamless experience for the target markets without needing to code or rely on developers.

Step 2 – Manage the Contest

With more than 2,000 entries, managing the entries could’ve been overwhelming. TrueLoyal’s managed services support team delivered a streamlined workflow to keep up with the submissions and tag all entries alongside Canon’s local representatives in the contest markets. Canon worked with TrueLoyal’s managed services team to help train stakeholders and judges while managing all entries.

Step 3 – Select Winners and Build a Community

After receiving over 2,000 incredible entries from aspiring photographers from across the continent, Canon was able to narrow down the entries quickly through TrueLoyal’s tagging functionality and save time in the judging process.

Katherine Stephens

Canon’s European Marketing Planner

“When developing the contest, we wanted to engage a younger generation of storytellers that mainly used their phones to share their stories on social platforms. It was an opportunity to introduce them to Canon’s brand and inspire them on how they can elevate their storytelling with Canon products,”