THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!
From the 14th Annual Shorty Awards

This Old House Social Media

Finalist in Multi-Platform Presence

Objectives

This Old House is America's longest running home improvement program. Since 1979, This Old House has served over 20 million consumers each month with trusted home improvement information and expert advice. Our social media channels foster an ongoing conversation with fans that is educational, welcoming, and joyful. A significant number of our TV viewers engage with us on social media and we have been able to reach new audiences with our social media presence. Our goal is to continue to grow our social media community while maintaining the trust and love of this iconic brand. 

Strategy and Execution

Platform agnostic and constantly evaluating the space, This Old House social is about finding fans where they consume content. We jumped on TikTok because our fans were there, and they responded to our content by following us quickly. We place a premium on quality content over consistency, we work off a checklist of fan requests, the needs of the brand, and timely seasonal themes. Between our organization tactics and keen understanding of the show and its talent plus layers of approvals, our strategy keeps up with the speed of social.

Over the course of each season, This Old House guides the transformation of several diamonds-in-the-rough. Our social media followers are closest to the action, learning about the details in realtime. All talent have their own pages as well, and there is always something new for a TOH fan each day on social, particularly on Instagram. Our cast members are very active on their own Instagram accounts and we are constantly working with each of them to improve their pages and engage with their fans. Our brand accounts often serve as a curated clearinghouse for the content created at the job site and in the workshop. The brand account amplifies, repurposes, and cross-promotes pieces of content from all of the TOH talent from posts to stories. As Instagram releases new features, we incorporate them into our strategy, making full use of Reels, IG videos, highlights, and much more.

Our Facebook strategy is video-centric, mobile optimized, and highly interactive. This is where our most highly shareable content lives – and takes on a life of its own. We run a fan page for each cast member in addition to the brand’s main account, and we vary the pages from which content will originate, giving fans an incentive to follow more of our pages. Our 1.2 million Facebook followers participate in exclusive giveaways, submit funny captions, and are the first to hear about big announcements for our 43-year-old brand. 

In addition to the brand’s profile, many of our cast members have also joined the world of TikTok! Our TikTok videos range from sharing throwback segments from This Old House and Ask This Old House to fun dances and behind the scenes content with the cast. Each cast member on TikTok has been able to showcase their own projects as well as their segments from both This Old House and Ask This Old House. We love being able to show each of their individual personalities while creating a strong brand across profiles. 

As TOH Social continues to grow across platforms, we have found that strategically repurposing content across multiple platforms both performs well and helps us constantly have engaging content for our audience. We optimize videos for each channel, often recutting and refreshing content with ideal specs. Additionally, This Old House was recently acquired by Roku, the No. 1 TV streaming platform in the U.S. (as measured by hours streamed (Kantar 2020)), and we now work alongside their social team to cross pollinate audiences. 

Results

We have a combined following of 4,270,884 across platforms. Our brand accounts and cast member's individual accounts are steadily growing and allow our talent and audience to learn more about each other and interact. We have a combined following over 15.3 million on Facebook, 3 million on Instagram, 1.2 million on Twitter, 1 million on TikTok, and 10 million on Pinterest. Our Instagram strategy has allowed us to gain over 53K organic followers since October 2020 on @ThisOldHouse alone. This Old House's spin off show, Ask This Old House, also has a vibrant Instagram page that features DIY tips and expert advice from our talent. Since Yellow House Creative Consulting created the AskTOH account in Spring 2019, it has gained over 50K followers. 

The brand continues to resonate with audiences across the world and is trusted source for expert advice on screen and social. Many of our fans have been with us for decades and we take a lot of pride in the discussions and engagement we have with our audience. Our accomplished pages have allowed us to collaborate with other brands, such as Buzzfeed, and have created another level of familiarity and trust between our experts and audience. 

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Yellow House Creative Consulting LLC, This Old House Ventures

Link

Entry Credits