Finding a conversation to insert yourself in isn't always easy, especially when your brand specializes in office supplies. In the past, Staples hasn't been known for taking risks and engaging in edgy behaviour on Social, typically staying away from conversations surrounding pop-culture and top-trending tops. The Kris Jenner tweet offered the perfect opportunity to take a risk, and engage in a conversation relevant to a younger audience in a more meaningful way, while still remaining perfectly aligned with the Staples brand leading into "Back to School", our busiest and "Most Wonderful Time of the Year".
In late June Kris Jenner took to Twitter to promote her new line of Jewelry. While normally this would be of little interest to Staples, the conversation around a particular tweet had people comparing her necklace to paperclips, a product the office supply retailer is very well known for. After a quick discussion the Communications' team decided this was a conversation that the brand could easily engage with, and while the brand is not typically this edgy on social, this was a risk that they were willing to take. Within minutes the perfect response with just the right amount of shade was crafted: "Also available in aisle 7...#ThinkStaples".
Initial engagement on the tweet was 10% (285x higher than an average tweet for Staples Canada), but with a Twitter following of 30K, reaching high organic impression numbers would be slow, so a small investment of $500 was put towards promoting the tweet.
Within 24 hours Staples Canada had reached viral success, with impression numbers way beyond expectations:
-7.5M Twitter impressions on the original tweet (with only 2.5% being paid)
-70K retweets, 79K likes on original tweet
-400K engagements on original tweet
-Increased follower count by 2% in the 2 days following the tweet
-96% of engagement came from those aged 24 years or younger (while they account for only 30% of our follower base)
-Millions more impressions on Instagram as a result of memes of the tweet which were created
In addition to the millions of impressions on Social Media, the tweet generated a ton of PR coverage with stories in Time, USA Today, Mashable, Buzzfeed, People, ET Online, Cosmopolitan and hundreds more, resulting in 350M earned media impressions.
Not only did we receive exposure in Canada, the tweet helped the brand across North America and around the world as a result of coverage across the globe. Transforming the perception of the brand from boring, to fun, relevant and interesting with just 5 words…and a hashtag.
