Engaging our fandom with social media is the way we leverage our bold and irreverent brand personality and grab attention in a way that drives awareness and increase positive association with our brand . One way we have brought our brand personality to life, and differentiated our brand, is by finding unique and creative ways to entertain and endear Universal Destinations with our X/Twitter audience. We do this by being timely, humorous, and irreverent with our guests, other brands, and even trending topics. This strategy has been very successful and has generated a significant amount of owned and earned media impressions over the years. With indie artist, Taylor Swift, seemingly always in the news for something and our Minion-shaped tater tots being wildly popular, we found an intersection of brand and pop culture to share.
When the Social Media Team identifies a pop culture of current event with the potental for highly-engaging, on-brand content, they have a quick strategy session to discuss the implications of engaging with such a post, any unforceen implications from Compliance or Legal, and ultimately what type of content to produce. There is thought and care into each post that goes out on our social channels. When the team saw the original post of Taylor Swift eating a single chicken nugget at a Kanas City Chiefs game our team brought up the idea of using our popular Minion Tots, which have been popping up across social feeds since the opening of Illumination's Minion Cafe in mid-2023, as a way to put a spin on the trend. It was decided that our staff photographer would go out and capture the content at Illumination's Minion Cafe. It was a simple play, but one we knew would strike the right chord with our biggest fans.
The trendspot had above average results with +185K impressions, +3.8K engagements, and a +2% engagement rate, but the metrics are not the story here. The success of utilizing this trend comes from our continued strategy of embedding our Universal Destinations brand voice into the current cultural zietgiest. We are a brand that is inclusive, unexpected, and spontanous and we bring that to life where social media and cultural relvance converge.
Success comes from our core fans - who see our social team as extentions of the brand, and, in many ways, themselves. We grade ourselves based on the feedback of our fans.
