Gaining +10% Followers on Twitter with a Social Awareness Campaign

Key Takeaways

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In September 2020, The North Face launched a campaign on social awareness and equity in the outdoors called “Reset” and started promoting it in October 2020 resulting in a +45% increase in website traffic overall and 35K visits to the Reset landing page. The campaign is built out of: 

• Cross-Channel Advertising — The Reset program was heavily pushed through paid channels such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and display networks. In October 2020, 48% of ads run focused on the Reset campaign. The top ad spend for this campaign being on Twitter relates to the conversational nature of the app and user willingness to engage in discussion on broader topics day to day.
  

• Company Values — The North Face values building equity and sustainability in the outdoors. To support this they built an Explore Fund to “bring together experts from all walks of life to find creative solutions to celebrate all the ways we as humans explore”. The Reset campaign celebrates this and was run independent of any holiday that would connotate ‘fake support’.
  

• ‘Reset’ Creative —  All channels except display feature creatives juxtaposing videos of being outdoors with major social events (Black Lives Matter, COVID, wildfires) that have taken place since the beginning of 2020. 

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In September 2020, The North Face launched a campaign on social awareness and equity in the outdoors called “Reset” and started promoting it in October 2020. The North Face saw a +45% increase in traffic MoM in October 2020. 

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The Reset campaign ran until the end of December 2020 on paid channels such as Twitter, YouTube, Display networks and Instagram.

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A dedicated landing page for the campaign saw an average of 20K monthly views, peaking in October at 35K monthly visits. Reset ad landing pages were directed to the Reset website page, product pages as well as social media profiles.

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The campaign focus is about a pledge The North Face and their athletes are taking to invest in bringing equity, awareness and longevity to the outdoors. 

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The landing page features employees and athletes sharing their experiences and how the community can come together to make a difference. 

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Participants wrote statements about the project, why it matters and is important to them, adding an intimate way for visitors to connect with athletes they admire.

Paid Media:

Campaign Visibility

Advertising. The Reset program was heavily pushed through paid channels. In October 2020, 48% of ads run* focused on the Reset campaign.

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Twitter saw the highest ad spend followed by YouTube and Instagram. Display advertising only saw 2% of the entire campaign spend.

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Throughout the Reset Campaign in September to December 2020, The North Face saw 5.7K new Twitter followers, a +10% increase over the previous period.

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YouTube and Instagram had the highest CPM. Twitter generated the highest impressions for it’s cost at $6.67 per thousand views.

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All channels except Display feature creatives juxtaposing videos of being outdoors with major social events that have taken place since the beginning of 2020. 

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A smaller creative for the campaign also features a short video (15 seconds) of The North Face athlete Alex Honnold, a free solo climber advocating for the Reset program. 

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Top Twitter Ad Spends:

The North Face ran a total of 27 video creatives for the Reset campaign on Twitter in October 2020 leading to a 38% budget allocation. The top ad spend for this campaign being on Twitter relates to the conversational nature of the app and user willingness to engage in discussion on broader topics day to day.

Spend: $52K | Impressions: 7.8M | CPM: $6.67

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Spend: $46K | Impressions: 6.9M | CPM: $6.67

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Top YouTube Ad Spends:

The North Face ran a total of ten creatives on YouTube in October 2020 leading to a 31% budget spend. The North Face ran an A/B test for their top YouTube ad by running both a 15 and 6 second version of the creative. These ads featured the juxtaposition of being outdoors against major social events that took place during 2020.

Spend: $134K | Impressions: 7.4M | CPM: $18.10

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Spend: $71.7K | Impressions: 3.9M | CPM: $18.38

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Top Instagram Ad Spends:

The North Face ran the fewest number of ads on Instagram at 5 creatives with a higher allocation of spend per post.  The top two Instagram creatives are between the juxtaposition  and the Alex Honnold videos.

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Top Display Ad Spends:

The North Face tested a high variety of ads at a low cost, using 2% of the Reset campaign budget on Display. 26 ads were run on Display networks at a total spend of $21K in October 2020. One dark ad using “Reset Normal” was used as well as brighter product-based ads using “Reset Warmth”.