GoPro was founded on the power of the stoke and our objectives for 2015 were to increase our Instagram engagements YoY and build the most active and supportive fan base in the world. Simply put, our mission was to become a best in class example of how to create, grow and nurture a highly engaged Instagram audience. We succeeded.
Sure, increasing audience size is a KPI for our brand, but this year we focused on strategic community management to grow organically and keep the GoPro vibes at an all time high (cha-ching!). We went above and beyond in sharing the power of the stoke.
We surprised social fans with 100+ random acts of kindness, cheered on 140 GoPro athletes as they competed around the world, supported 500 of the worlds best content creators through our advocacy program, hosted HERO4 Session gondola drops at partner resorts over the holidays and launched GoPro Awards, a flagship program which gives monetary compensation to our community of photographers, videographers and artists who we feature on our Instagram account. Through monthly takeovers and our first Instagram chat, we used the channel as a forum for candid conversation about our products (the most versatile camera in the world) and as an internal feedback loop.
Most impressively, in 2015, we arrived at an Engagement Value Model that demonstrates the true power of a GoPro like and comment on Instagram content.
The value? Next level. A GoPro like or comment delivers a 543% spike on user generated content and a 23% increase on athlete assets. Mention #GoPro in your caption you'll see a 34% uptick in likes and comments on your photo or video. Pro athlete? You'll rack up 15% more engagement thanks to GoPro love.
We love making our Instagram community happy and spreading the GoPro love, but we take pride in knowing that all stoke ladders up to larger marketing objectives.
Random acts of kindness and daily engagement fuel a virtuous cycle of content creation, consumption and camera sales. Connecting with Loki the Wolfdog and GoPro advocate Claudia Cox helps us tap into new lifestyle audiences as we look to grow outside of our core base. On average we see 2k new vertical engagements a month!
Community management on Instagram has lead to some of the best performing content shared on channel. We've identified over 20 assets deemed Photo-of-the-Day-worthy (our highest social honor) driving over half a million total engagements. The Cape Town Cup cover photo for this entry? All CM.
Social never sleeps so we stay flexible and on-point in our strategies to stoke out the next generation of GoPro family members. As "Trending Tags" and the ever-evolving "Explore" tab play an important role in brand awareness, we consistently monitor conversations happening on GoPro content within themes such as #MusicMonday, #TravelTuesday and #TBT.
The numbers speak for themselves and we could not more proud.
We wrapped 2015 with 7.7M followers (+104% YoY), 16M engagements (+89% YoY) and nearly 200M likes across all content.
An organic "Best of" series fueled by user and athlete generated content drove an 80% spike in Instagram followers WoW and 20M non-paid engagements in December 2015. A separate paid campaign was used to target to non-GoPro followers in new lifestyle verticals resulting in 2.5M engagements with an engagement rate of 14% - 10x above industry average!
