To set the stage, this influencer project was activated in support of Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business that manufactures jet engines. Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II has been powered by the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine since it took its first flight more than 15 years ago.
We launched our F135 Engine Core Upgrade Communications campaign to reach key stakeholders including the Dept. of Defense, members of Congress and Senate, Media, Think Tanks and Foreign Military Sales. The objective of the overarching campaign was to tout the benefits of our engine to the F-35.
When it comes to the influencer engagement, our goal was to shine a light on the manufacturing expertise of Pratt & Whitney and show the world how our advanced technology and operations are a critical advantage while also touting the benefits of our engine upgrade.
As we looked for opportunities in the social media space, we felt an influencer could provide third-party credibility and a behind the scenes look at the engine. We looked at various influencers in the space and decided to work with Sam Eckholm, an influencer who publishes longer-form videos on his YouTube page focused on the aerospace and defense industry. Sam is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and spent a few years as a Public Affairs Officer with the Air Force after graduating. We invited Sam and his team out to our manufacturing facility where he spent a day filming the production line, interviewing subject matter experts who spoke to the technological capabilities of the engine, how it is made, our Industry 4.0 advantages and the benefits of our engine upgrade. He also got to experience and help conduct an engine test that showcased the 40,000 lbs. of thrust the engine produces (the highlight of the video!). We also brought our photographer along for the tour so that we had more content options to cross-promote this project.
Once Sam's team provided us with the video and it was worked through approvals, we worked closely with him to have various pieces of content published on the right platforms whether it be a shorter version for TikTok, Instagram reels, IG stories, carousel posts, etc. We also worked with his team to suggest the right balance of posts from Sam, our amplifications of his posts and then our own organic posts and his amplification of our content. The rollout plan included teaser posts, a YouTube premiere, executive engagements, a feature story on our external website with a sizzle reel on the homepage to draw additional traffic, a paid social media campaign on Pratt & Whitney channels, a LinkedIn thought leadership ad from the President of the program and newsletter pushes to employees to promote on their own social media accounts as brand ambassadors. We also leveraged internal means of communication to play the video at Town Hall meetings, publish it to our intranet and include it in employee newsletters. It was truly a 360 degree rollout.
Talking about jet engines on social media isn't easy by nature. It's a difficult topic and part of the rationale of bringing in an influencer was to provide a different perspective to our craft. The biggest challenge we had to overcome with the project was getting clearance to film and everything reviewed in a timely manner. Given it's a defense product, we had to ensure it went through extensive reviews before being cleared. However, we engaged our key stakeholders ahead of time to brief them on what we planned to film and set expectations on when they can expect to receive the content to review once the video was finished.
The full-length YouTube video on Sam's page was the main deliverable for this project. It surpassed 100K views in just over 24 hours followed by 500K views three weeks after publishing. The video has only been out for 2.5 months and will likely hit 1M views in the next month. As of Jan. 10 when we received the data from the influencer, the content received:
On Instagram - 75K plays, 10.7K liked, 500 saves, 500 shares and 136K accounts reached
On TikTok - 35K views, 4.7K likes, 234 hours watched, 320 saved, 21 shares and 52 comments
On Facebook - 47K views, 1.8K likes, 274 shares, 82K accounts reached
On LinkedIn - 247K impressions, 2.4K likes, 166 reposts
The YouTube viewership alone makes this project a huge success. Pratt & Whitney has had a presence on YouTube for 12 years and just one of our more than 300 videos has more than 1M views. Sam helped provide viewers a never-before-seen perspective of the company, our products or facilities. Internal feedback from our leadership confirmed the content from this project resonated with our key stakeholders and audiences. Beyond that, our own communications team called the video the coolest thing the company has even done. The partnership with Sam brought our engine to life and also served as an amazing recruiting tool for our company. We look forward to continuing to leverage the video through 2024 and help win the Engine Core Upgrade campaign.
