Our goal for High School Camp (07/09/18-07/12/18) was the amplify the event and the student's engagement with the event through photo, video, and graphic creation posted in real-time on Instagram. The content created was meant to drive the students to engage with the brand through commenting, direct messaging, and tagging.
Our grid strategy was to post approximately three photos from each session/activity on the Instagram grid. The goal was that more students would see themselves in the event, prompting them to interact with the brand by tagging each other. Every caption was crafted to include a question or prompt a reaction. We used photos in stories to allow more students to see themselves and what they experienced and to create conversation through humor and questions. We also utilized poll features and direct message to engage with students, answer questions, and host giveaways.
Our stories strategy was to create 15-30 second recap videos that were posted as each session and activity was ending so that students could relive each experience immediately after. These videos allowed students to hold onto the excitement of the moment longer and allowed those who could not come to the event to see what they were missing. These videos were all shot and edited during a session or activity in order to maintain a semblance of real-time.
To tie the digital experience together, we created a two minute recap video that played on the large screens at the end of the week. We utilized the visual of scrolling through the High School Camp feed on an iPhone as the opening image for the video, catching the attention of viewers and setting our media apart from other recap videos. This recap video was used to raise the energy of the students in the room on their last night at High School Camp, as well as a marketing tool for High School Camp 2019.
Our graphic strategy was that every grid post included a colorful border and was formatted to flow into each other in a smooth fashion. This graphic element set the High School Camp brand apart from others in a way that was both recognizable and fun. Graphic elements also were present in recap videos in the form of the High School Camp logo, assorted shapes and lines, and use of specific colors that both set the videos apart and tied them closer to the overall brand of High School Camp. Graphic elements were also used to recap sessions through selected speaker quotes that were formatted to both be included in grid posts and to be used in stories so students could use them as phone backgrounds.
Our strategy for engagement was to initiate a conversation through our captioning, to seek out and engage with those using the hashtag for the event, and to respond quickly and on-brand to every direct message or comment posted. The repost to stories feature had just been released before this event and we used the feature to highlight the student experience in a unique and organic fashion, allowing us to up engagement by allowing people to see themselves on the page.
Finally, our brand and influencer strategy was to make every piece of content available to those within the ReThink organization to use on their socials. This increased the event's overall reach and drove interest to a secondary audience.
Our strategy for High School Camp created a year over year increase in engagement through direct message, comments, and tags on nearly every piece of content. Over the three day event our posts garnered a total of 124,757 impressions, a reach of 73,883, 9499 likes, and a total of 1,475 comments. Our response time and branding created a personal relationship with the students who engaged with the platform that made them feel seen and acknowledged, creating loyal fans for the High School Camp brand. The speed and quality of the content also made the brand appear more professional and credible in comparision to 2017.
