As a hub for community 90 years in the making, Ponce City Market is a pillar of diversity and community involvement in the city of Atlanta. The intersecting point of four of the city's immersing neighborhoods, Ponce City Market is the heart of where life happens in Atlanta. In partnership with the creative team at Campfire Social, our team revitalized the Instagram channel by creating and implementing focused, creative campaigns. Our goal was to not only change the overall quality and aesthetic of the feed, but also to make it the primary point to engage the community of Atlanta in conversation. Rather than leave our followers feeling like observers of the brand, we wanted to invite them in to the story and treat them like friends. If life is happening in Atlanta, it's happening at Ponce, and the people of Atlanta are a huge part of that. We wanted to create an Instagram feed that reflected and shared their unique stories.
From a brand standpoint, we first worked to create a unique and cohesive look and feel for Ponce's Instagram. We designed visual displays and photos, created customized captions, shot films for the brand, and developed a tone for the feed that is specific only to Ponce. We created a feed that goes beyond basic advertising and marketing; we created a feed that tells the stories only happening at Ponce in new and engaging ways.
Specific campaigns include:
Posman Books Opening: To build anticipation for the opening of Posman Books at PCM, our team reached out to key influencers in the community and asked them to share a little about their favorite books. We then took portraits of each person, capturing them in their specific environments at Ponce while reading their favorite works. We posted these images leading up to Posman's opening to build anticipation for the store and welcome it in to the community at Ponce. By inviting influencers of Ponce to share in welcoming this new store to the hub, we made a simple news story feel engaging and personal to our audience.
Live on Ponce: To highlight and celebrate Atlanta's thriving local music scene, we created the Live On Ponce music video series. We invited Atlanta based musicians and bands to Ponce to play a few songs in our space while we filmed them to highlight their work and the place they have in the story of Atlanta's creative community.
Instagram Stories: We're tapping in to this new feature on Instagram by regularly posting produced videos on Ponce's account. Each video gives a quick, stylized, and up-close look at various aspects of life at Ponce. These videos are small chapters in the overall story, highlight everything from cocktails and dishes from bars and restaurant to the makers who hand make products in Citizen Supply to event teasers for upcoming happenings at Ponce. With thousands of views and great feedback from our viewers, we're thrilled to include these videos in our overall story.
Black History Month: To commemorate this year's Black History Month, we are producing a film to highlight some of the history at Ponce, focusing specifically on the first African American woman to be hired at Sears, Roebuck & Co (what is now Ponce City Market). We'll juxtapose Betty's story and the state of the city in the 1960's with where our community is now, celebrating the progress our city has made and the people like Betty whose story contributed to that progress. Though it's still in production, this film will be a huge part of our story as it highlights the history of Ponce and how that contributes to who we are today.
We wanted Ponce City Market's Instagram feed to feel like a community of old friends—a place where you can't wait to see who you're going to run in to next. Every post reveals a new and exciting piece of the story and community that is unique to Ponce. And we've been thrilled with the results. Since launching our partnership with Campfire Social this year, we've increased our followers by over 22,000. In addition, we've seen a consistent increase in shares, likes, and comments, resulting in real opportunities to engage and converse with the people in our community. It's truly shifted our relationship with our audience, taking us from brand and follower to brand and friend.
