Designer fashion label Michael Kors launched a two-week contest on Instagram back in August, asking users to share pictures of their favorite Michael Kors watch with the hashtag #MKTimeless. The contest created a huge upswing in the brand’s Instagram follower numbers, generated thousands of user photos, and led to increased engagement on Facebook.
L2 Think Tank reports that “Instagram, along with Pinterest, is capturing the bulk of the fashion industry growth on social media.” Given Instagram’s high female user base (~70%), the platform is being heavily targeted by fashion brands.
Fans were encouraged to share a pic of their favorite brand watch for the chance to win a New York Limited Edition Runway Watch. The contest ran from August 15th to August 27th, with some impressive results:
- 50% growth in followers of the brand’s Instagram account
- over 6,800 user-generated photos submitted with hashtag #MKTimeless
- 3,000 entries submitted within the first 24 hours of the contest
- a brand Facebook post with the contest rules received 19,000 ‘likes’
Users were encouraged to share their photos on both Instagram and Twitter with #MKTimeless, creating even more buzz for the brand and the contest.
Apparently the campaign was considered successful: Michael Kors launched another giveaway in September (this time for a Paris limited edition watch), asking users to post photos of their watch style – again using #MKTimeless – to Instagram or Twitter.
