Objectives

Our multi-platform campaign with Crayola, extending from YouTube, YouTube Shorts, and YouTube Kids (YTK), to include TikTok and Pinterest, was driven by these overarching goals:

1. Universal Creative Storytelling: Central to our campaign was the goal to infuse Crayola's products into engaging digital narratives across all platforms. This aimed at enhancing brand affinity, and had a special focus on appealing to families and children across YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest, aiming to spark imagination and inspiration.

2. Engaging Diverse Audiences Across Platforms: We strived to transform viewers from passive consumers to active participants in our multi-platform campaign. This involved creating interactive and engaging content like tutorials and challenges on each platform, fostering a community where families could collectively engage in creative activities.

3. Organic Growth Across Digital Media: Although our partnership with Crayola initially focused on YouTube only, due to our rapid success, we extended our collaboration to achieve organic growth not only on YouTube but also on TikTok and Pinterest. This focused on authentic engagement and community building, emphasizing the brand's appeal through genuine interactions across these varied platforms.

4. Safe and Engaging Content for Young Audiences: On YouTube, particularly through YTK, we aimed to reach younger audiences with content that was both safe and engaging. This goal was adapted to the other platforms, ensuring content suitability and resonance with this demographic, contributing to overall brand engagement and viewership.

These objectives guided our multi-platform campaign, aiming to enhance Crayola's digital presence comprehensively and create meaningful, interactive experiences for audiences across different digital landscapes.

Strategy and Execution

Our Overall Strategy:

Our strategy for the Crayola multi-platform campaign involved a comprehensive approach, adapting our content and tactics for each platform while maintaining a cohesive brand message.

1. Expanding Beyond YouTube: While our initial focus was on YouTube, including long-format videos, YouTube Shorts, and content on YTK, we extended our reach in the second half of 2023 to TikTok and Pinterest in response to our early success. This expansion allowed us to engage with audiences in a platform-specific manner, leveraging the unique strengths of each channel.

2. Content Adaptation and Reuse: We adapted our YouTube content for TikTok and Pinterest, ensuring that it resonated with the distinct audiences of these platforms. This included creating short-form videos and visually appealing pins that aligned with the Crayola brand message.

3. Joint Social Media Management and Channel Development: Our strategy encompassed a unified approach to managing social media channels across YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest. This involved optimizing content for each platform's algorithms and user behaviors to maximize engagement, reach,  and organic growth. This included optimizing thumbnails and metadata on YouTube, tailoring pin descriptions on Pinterest, and adjusting content timing to maximize engagement.

4. Diverse Audience Appeal: We developed content that was both educational and entertaining, suitable for family viewing, and appealing to a wide range of demographics. This included focusing on content that parents could comfortably share with their children.

Challenges and Unique Approaches:

1. Content Saturation: To stand out in a crowded digital space, we continuously innovated our content creation and delivery methods, particularly with YouTube Shorts and Pinterest video pins.

2. Platform-Specific Strategies:
   1. Pinterest: Focused on increasing video views with 157 pins published from June to November 2023, adapting content types over time for greater engagement. One key challenge here was a short challenging period of decreasing outbound clicks. We addressed this by adding effective CTAs to the pins. This strategy successfully reversed the trend, improving user interaction and engagement.
   2. TikTok: Engaged with TikTok's dynamic audience to create content that resonated with the platform's unique, fast-paced nature, focusing on short, engaging videos that could quickly capture users' attention, posting 97 videos since June 2023.

Conclusion:

Our multi-platform campaign with Crayola set out to be a harmonious blend of creativity and strategic channel management across YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest. This approach would allow us to seamlessly integrate Crayola's brand into digital narratives, and enhance viewer engagement and brand affinity, while also ensuring that the content's strategic alignment was maintained with each platform's capabilities.

Results

1. Universal Creative Storytelling Across Platforms: We integrated Crayola's products into digital narratives. This resulted in a 35x increase in organic views as compared to 2022, indicating strong brand affinity and viewer engagement.

2. Engaging Diverse Audiences: Across YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest, we witnessed an increase in interactive participation through tutorials and challenges, contributing to a 35x increase in watch time hours as compared to 2022.

3. Substantial Organic Growth:

1. YouTube: 22% increase in subscribers in 2023 compared to 2022. 

2. Pinterest: Increased engagement, with rising video views and an increase in followers from July to November 2023.

3. TikTok: 84% increase in followers within 6 months.

4. Reaching Young Audiences on YTK: The 'Magical Winter Moments | Holiday Crafts' playlist featured on YTK significantly impacted our reach to younger audiences, garnering nearly 3.3 million views.

5. Viral Content Success on YouTube Shorts: Our emphasis on YouTube Shorts was a major success, resulting in viral videos, including ‘Make Your Own Markers!’ which achieved 9.6 million views.

6. Platform-Specific Adjustments:
   1. On Pinterest, we tackled decreasing outbound clicks by adding CTAs to video pin descriptions, resulting in improved user engagement.
   2. On TikTok, we increased the number of videos being posted and implemented a regular posting schedule to sustain interest. When we doubled the number of videos posted in July vs. June, we saw over 3,000% increase in both engagements and likes, and almost 1,800% more views.

Media