Nearly every business is now aware that social media is an essential tool for marketing and communication. Mastering this field, however, still a challenge for most organizations as it’s a relatively new technique that is still being formed. Most “experts” are still learning and it’s difficult to gather data on the success of various social media tactics.
The holy grail of social media is to have a post “go viral,” meaning it becomes hugely successful in a short period of time. There is no easy formula to follow, but typically a viral post needs to be timely, relevant and have an emotional element such as humour, empathy or awe.
Crystal DeCnodder at Inkplot was given the task of running social media for Sweet Factory Candy Boutique, a local candy store. In the last few years, a number of candy stores have opened in Calgary, creating the challenge of standing out from competitors in a saturated market.
DeCnodder teamed up with local fashion designer Kyle Nylund, who has a reputation for creating innovative garments out of unique materials. Some of his most impressive work includes a light-up skyscraper dress for Make Fashion and a dress made out of newspaper. She tasked him with creating a dress made out of candy to garner attention to the Sweet Factory Candy Boutique brand within Calgary.
The dress was created out of crushed-rock candy carefully arranged to form a gradient, an extremely time-consuming process. The dress made its debut at the Rihanna show where a young, edgy, fashion-savvy crowd would be expected. I modelled the dress while representatives in branded t-shirts with the twitter hashtag #sweet17 handed out candy to the audience. (I can honestly say that I’ve never had so many people ask permission to lick me in one evening).
The dress not only gained attention, numerous tweets, Facebook posts and Instagrams, but became an overnight Reddit success. The post was at the top of the Calgary subreddit for over a day and remained near the top for nearly a week.
The candy dress succeeded by being eye-catching and unique, as well as being launched into the right audience at the right time. The campaign leveraged local talent and had a fun, creative aspect. The campaign will continue as the dress appears in different Calgary locations. Follow sweetfactory17, myself, or Crystal on twitter for updates.
Dramatic closing shot as I forlornly gaze into the distance in search of a sweet gingerbread man.
