PR CASE STUDY:
Shannon & Waterman
Pinterest Dream Room

Shannon & Waterman manufactures custom wide-plank hardwood floors and wanted to increase social media exposure and engagement to their target market of wealthy, design-conscious females between the ages of 30 and 50 years old.

Morris Marketing Group used primary research in the form of interviews with Shannon & Waterman stakeholders to understand the goals of the organization. Once we defined the goals, MMG used secondary research to define specific tactics that would help accomplish those goals. In this case, we wanted to reach wealthy female consumers and tradespeople who were considering purchasing a new hardwood floor for themselves or their clients.

Through secondary research, we found that the social media outlet, Pinterest, with an overall audience of 66% women between the ages of 25 – 54 and 40% of their audience having a household income of $100,000 or more, would be a great outlet to engage the target market to get them thinking about and interacting with the brand and products.

Shannon & Waterman had a fairly active Pinterest channel already which would be beneficial to facilitating this tactic. The channel itself would benefit in the long run with this promotion by gaining new followers and keeping current followers engaged with the brand.

Once we defined the goals, channels, and budget we set out to make a plan that would help us attain those goals. The plan was to create an engaging Pinterest contest that would help to attract customers to the Shannon & Waterman Pinterest page, brand, and products while allowing them to get “hands-on” with the products. The contest would also allow them to dream and produce a vision of how they would like to upgrade or makeover a room.

Ideally, the contest would be interesting and engaging enough with prizes that would attract the target market, but we would also use public relations, grassroots marketing, and a small advertising budget to make potential customers aware of the contest. We would also promote the contest via other Shannon & Waterman-owned social media channels. This would benefit both the Pinterest contest as well as the other social media channel activity and engagement.

The contest would ask Pinterest users to create their Dream Room on Pinterest. They could create any dream room they wanted to, but it had to utilize Shannon & Waterman hardwood floors. The best dream rooms were judged by a panel of guest judges with the top five places winning the following prizes:

• 1 Grand Prize: $500 Visa Gift Card
• 2 Semi-Finalists: $100 Visa Gift Card
• 2 Third Place Finalists: $50 Visa Gift Card

The measurable objectives for this campaign were:

• 25 Entries
• Increase website visits 30%
• Increase Pinterest Impressions 100%
• Increase Facebook Impressions 50%
• Increase Twitter Impressions 50%
• Increase Social Media Engagements 500%

The plan was executed well and the outcome was good. The activities flowed well and took place as expected.

The key tactics were to promote the contest via public relations efforts, social media organic content, social media marketing, and grassroots marketing.

• Press Release Announcing the contest
• Press Kits to editors, bloggers, Pinterest influencers
• Direct Communications/Pitches to Bloggers and Media Outlets

• Increased organic posts on all channels using fun and informative graphics
• Increased engagements with social media audience on all channels

• Pinterest advertising budget of $250
• Facebook advertising budget of $400

• Distributed Newsletter to Shannon & Waterman customers
• Direct contact to Pinterest and other social media influencers