The main goal of our @CBC Social Media channels is to foster conversations with Canadians from coast to coast - to be the host of 'Canada's Social Community' online. As the national public broadcaster, this conversation-centric approach to Social is directly aligned with our overarching mission of engaging with Canadians. In fact, by the year 2020 one of our primary corporate objectives is to establish positive relationships with at least 3/4 of our population - we want our country to #loveCBC. Our Social Media channels help bring us a little closer towards reaching that target each and every day.
Given this strategic framework, our aim with the VALENTINES FOR CANADA campaign was to leverage Valentine's Day to encourage positive engagement between @CBC and our audiences, but even more importantly among Canadians themselves - to provide a way for people to use our brand to connect with one another.
Our creative approach for this campaign was to produce virtual VALENTINES FOR CANADA that our fans could share with one another via Social Media - somewhat akin to how young schoolchildren hand out branded valentines to their friends each February 14th, but a digital iteration of the tradition.
Each of our two dozen virtual valentines graphics brought the brand to life through the use of iconic CBC programs and personalities, recognizable catchphrases, clever puns and universal Canadian symbols. In the development of these valentines, our team strived to weave the CBC brand story into audiences' identities as Canadians. We positioned this campaign around the shared experience of Valentine's Day to first establish an emotional connection, then designed the rollout to compel people to action - to encourage audiences to share these Social Media greetings with their friends and family.
On February 14 and in the days leading up, Canadians from Halifax to Vancouver and around the globe were sharing, tagging, retweeting and reblogging our valentines with their loved ones online. Across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr this campaign had an incredible collective reach of more than 5 million people and 7.5 million impressions (paid+organic) - a significant portion of our country's population. We generated a total of 3.5 thousand comments, 14 thousand amplifications/shares and more than 80 thousand likes - outperforming media/entertainment benchmarks across the board and far surpassing even our own stretch targets. Sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, the puns driving most of the audience accolades.
It was clear, people were using these extensions of the CBC brand to connect with one another, to send 'hellos' and 'happy Valentine's'... to BE social. Given our Social Media objective is to foster conversations with Canadians online, safe to say February 14 was a successful topic of discussion.
