Pet ownership in the U.S. is at an all-time high with about 65% of households*, or 79.7 million families, claiming at least one pet. With pets come the inevitable accidents that can wreak havoc on floors, especially carpets. To that point, Mohawk created SmartStrand® Forever Clean™ with All Pet™ Protection & Warranty, the first and only carpet with a lifetime warranty against permanent staining from pets.
Mohawk's new All Pet Protection & Warranty covers all pets and all pet accidents. Or as the tagline colorfully says: "All accidents. All pets. All the time."
In 2016, Mohawk's primary objective was to introduce this remarkable product innovation to home and pet owners in the places where they share, like, comment and post about their beloved pets—on social media.
With a slim campaign budget of $20,000 for the year, Mohawk kicked off a yearlong product activation by leveraging social media outlets—Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube—to amplify engagement. Other elements included a sweepstakes, paid advertising, partnerships with leading pet influencers and bloggers, opt-in newsletters and email blasts.
The campaign's goals:
* Citation: 2015–2016 National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association (APPA).
With the goal of introducing an innovative, problem-solving carpet to the primary audience of pet owners, Mohawk launched a campaign targeting this vast demographic. If pet owners connected with the message that SmartStrand Forever Clean with All Pet Protection is the only carpet warranted against stains and odors from pets, they would consider this product to be the only carpet to turn to for peace of mind. The challenge was to introduce the product to as many pet owners as possible.
The first tactic was creating memorable content that resonated with people with pets—be it fin, feather or fur.
Phase 1 of the campaign launched in February 2016 with the #AllPetCarpet Sweepstakes. Contestants entered by selecting a favorite pet image to be eligible to receive one of two SmartStrand Forever Clean carpets with new All Pet Protection & Warranty. The online entry form also showed a 1:35 video with celebrity interior designer Chip Wade explaining the technology behind All Pet Protection. Contestants provided their name and contact information to enter, and gained bonus entries by liking and sharing via social media. Mohawk announced the sweepstakes with a landing page on its website and in multiple scheduled social posts across all of Mohawk's social channels. Simultaneously, an opt-in consumer newsletter pushed sweepstakes-driven content along with a 10% off coupon for SmartStrand Forever Clean with All Pet Protection.
The campaign expanded to other social media outlets as well, each optimized to engage its fan base. By sweepstakes end, the campaign garnered 32,972 total application visits, and Mohawk's Facebook reach through March 13, 2016 was close to 100,000 for both paid and organic posts.
Phase 2 launched to continue driving interested consumers to learn about Mohawk's new carpet throughout the year. Mohawk partnered with leading pet bloggers and Instagrammers to test the carpet themselves and share their findings. On Pinterest, Mohawk created a #LoveYourPet board and scheduled promoted pins throughout the year. And even celebrity social media pets, like stylish piggies Priscilla and Poppleton and Lionel the Hedgehog, got in on the act with paid product reviews and posts on Instagram.
Digital advertising spanned the range of influencer content. On Facebook, the strategy included a combination of boosted posts and lead generation ads with a 10% off All Pet coupon. Concurrently, Mohawk launched a content-driven campaign on its shelter blog—Creative Home—featuring educational posts and paid posts by lifestyle influencers like The Inspired Room, Simply Designing and Doughmesstic, whose aggregate impressions and engagement measure in the hundreds of thousands. Relevant content was also pushed through the periodic opt-in newsletter and to thousands of Mohawk retailers to share with their own social networks via Promoboxx.
Mohawk's creative and well-planned strategy to leverage paid advertising and organic posts stretched its total $20,000 campaign budget widespread over social media networks. The All Pet Protection presence was clearly established, and the degree of connection with pet owners emerged.
The performance indicators on this campaign exceeded expectations!
Objective 1:
Launch to pet owners using compelling key messaging on social media.
Objective 2:
Promote the new product and brand through sweepstakes.
Objective 3:
Enhance overall brand and product awareness and drive social engagement.
Objective 4:
Drive leads to Mohawk retail partners throughout the year.
Through powerful visuals and clever use of paid and organic social media, a budget of $20,000 blossomed into well over $171,500 estimated sales revenue.*
* Based on 20% lead-to-close ratio and average order value of $3,500.
