Campaign Proposal: Nature's Variety

Some 1-On-1 Time

By: Zak Priest

We've spent a bunch of posts comparing Purina and Nature's Variety, and their current digital marketing strategies. Today I want to switch gears and focus on Nature's Variety and what I think they should be doing.

The Problem

Nature's Variety does not have a strong social media presence, period. They have low follower counts, low post interactivity, and extremely inconsistent posting patterns across the big 3 social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube). Nature's Variety is one of the biggest providers of raw dog food and they have passionate community of dog lovers behind them. They just need to harness that community.

The Solution

The Puppy Love Club

The plan is to have customers send us their pet pictures and/or stories. Every day we will feature a "Puppy Love Club Member" on our Facebook page. At the end of the month we will put all the featured club members in a draw for a free bag of food of their choice.

It's a simple idea but I really think it accomplishes what we need to get done:

1. Increase page traffic
2. Incentivize frequent posting
3. Connect more with our community

This strategy can and should launch anytime but I think it will be most effective in February (less days means less entrants).

So what do think? Let us know your thoughts by hitting us up on Twitter @MarketingKennel.

Hero Dogs

Content Marketing for IAMs

Mark Faber

Retrieved from www.dailymail.co.uk

IAMs social media presence used to be very strong with a large following and loyal fans, lately they have fallen off the wagon and been posting less often without a strong engagement. I want to explore an idea to return IAMs to the alpha dog position with a new content marketing strategy. I would dedicate the month of June to Hero Dogs. To start the new promotion would be a Tweet sharing the news that all service dogs receive 50% off a bag of dog food by simply tweeting a picture in their service vests with the hashtag #IAMsFeedsHeroes. On Facebook I would share as many articles and news stories about dogs saving or helping others and encourage our followers to share personal stories and any other articles they might come across.

Engaging with our followers in a positive way by highlighting the great deeds that dogs are capable of it will create a feeling of positivity that will be associated with IAMs. By the end of June I would expect Facebook posts to average 250 likes, 100 comments and 75 shares (all organic). Twitter will be our other major outlet for releasing images of service dogs that have been tweeted to us for the discount. My goal is to average 50 retweets and 50 favourites per tweet by the end of June.

Retrieved from www.funcage.com

Kickstarting IAMs social media posts with these positive and heartwarming stories will be the best way to re-engage the once loyal brand following IAMs had without annoying consumers with advertisements. Converting those feel good tweets into a positive association with IAMs will translate into a positive feeling when buying IAMs products, causing an increase in sales. 

YouTube Challenge: Purina vs Nature's Variety

The Last of the Big 3

By: Zak Priest

We're on to the last big platform of this Purina vs Nature's Variety blogging mini-series, YouTube. Let's jump right in.

Purina

As a consumer, I tend not to like company YouTube channels and Purina's is no different. Their numbers aren't bad, 7,701 subscribers and 7,867,774 views, but their content is. It's all ads, and not the "this is really entertaining and innovative so I don't care if it's an ad" kind of ads, just the plain old run of the mill hard sell stuff that I'm forced to sit through (not by choice) before I can watch Good Mythical Morning. I understand that kind of stuff needs a home, but can't it live among stuff that's a little more engaging? I guess making this basic stuff makes it a little easier to have regular uploads, which is something they are good at (a video every two weeks or so). Out of their last five videos, this was their most successful.

I also wanted to note that comments, likes, and dislikes are disabled on their channel. Maybe it's related to all the negative activity on their Facebook, who knows?

Nature's Variety

In hindsight I probably should have just made a template for these Nature's Variety segments. Relatively low stats due to being a smaller company. Quality content that is posted infrequently, sometimes months apart. Positive customer interaction. To save time let me give you the straight stats.

Subscribers: 498

Total Views: 963,259

Average Upload Frequency: Once every 3 months or so

Most Successful Recent Video: Our Story

Conclusion

It's safe to say that these two brands are more or less the same across the big 3 social media platforms. Even though I'm not a fan of their content, Purina wins the YouTube Challenge. Their channel was overall more successful.

Twitter Showdown: Purina vs Nature's Variety

Round 2

By: Zak Priest

Last time we looked at Facebook and both Purina and Nature's Variety did pretty bad. Maybe they put more time into their Twitter accounts? Let's find out.

Purina

Purina has a pretty alright page, nothing spectacular, but alright. They have 45,000 followers and they post frequently. On average about once a week. Ever so often they will do an event over Twitter and will post many times within that event period. Just like their Facebook page, they don't follow the 50/50 rule and mostly post pet pictures and articles of interest to pet owners. This is their most popular post...

It's not that outstanding but it's pretty in-line with the rest of their content.

Nature's Variety

Nature's Variety reminds me of a college student. They work really hard for a short stretch and then they aren't seen until finals. It's a shame because they have a budding little Twitter community. They only have 5,331 followers but they are all dedicated. They could get more followers but they just don't post. They had a ton of activity in January and then they go silent until May. They don't follow the 50/50 rule but I was pleased to see that majority of their posts are customer interaction about their products. Their most successful post is a great one.

I recommend you watch the video to get the full effect but it's so awesome to see such a high like and retweet count for a page that gets about 5 on average.

Conclusion

Both companies did a lot better than I thought they would after what I witnessed with their Facebook accounts. Both of their top posts are there because of the cute factor (as it should be). I'm giving Purina the win on this one because I found their content more consistent.

Facebook Faceoff: Purina vs Nature's Variety

A Battle on the Grandest Stage

By: Zak Priest

Over my next few blog posts we're going to be taking an in-depth look at the effectiveness of the digital marketing done by Purina and Nature's Variety across their many platforms. Today we start with Facebook.

Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world and if you want to make it in this world of digital marketing it's the most important place to start. So where do Purina and Nature's Variety stand on the grandest stage? Let's dive in and see.

Purina

Purina's page looks really good at first. They post around once a week and every post is the perfect length and has a great picture. Things started to go sour when I noticed that they barely follow the 50/50 rule, like at all. Out of the last 25 posts only 4 of them are about their own community. Purina mainly posts how-to's and time wasters. More interesting though, is their follower interaction. First off I want to point out that each post only has about 70-100 likes and 5-10 comments. For a page with 483,387 followers that is extremely low. When I looked in to what people were commenting I was surprised to find majority of them were complaints. I will say that whoever is operating the page is doing a great job handling these comments but, here take a look...

I wish I was joking but that is also one of their top posts. It was an article about if your dog gets enough fiber and this is the kind of backlash they get. Anyway, let's move on...

Nature's Variety

Honestly, I don't have much to say about Nature's Variety because there's not much there. I understand that they are a smaller company with a smaller following than Purina (48,017 followers) but I was blown away with how infrequently they post. This year so far they have only posted four times. Their follower interaction is low as well. This is their most successful post...

It only had 15 likes, 3 shares, and 4 comments.

Conclusion

Straight up? Both companies have a lot of work to do. Both of their successful posts are only successful because of outside circumstances and they aren't even that successful. Nature's Variety wins this one only because they didn't have an angry mob at their door.

Facebook Faceoff: Petcurean vs. Canidae Pet Foods

Comparing Petcurean and Canidae’s Facebook pages.

Kelsey LeCoure

Taking a look at Petcurean and Canidae’s Facebook pages, there are a few things that indicate whether or not they are using them to their fullest capability. Petcurean has approx. 79,100 likes on their Facebook page which is 100,000 less than Canidae, who is sitting at 179,100 likes! Both pages typically respond to messages within one hour. Petcurean posts 1-3 times per week on average. Whereas Canidae posts multiple times per day. Each brands posts a variety of promotional content, coupons, videos related to the industry, tips for pet owners, and other interesting how-tos. Petcurean does not follow the 50/50 rule. The majority of their posts are related to their business. Canidae more closely follows the 50/50 rule. They have been posting many tips, how-to, and other interesting reads for pet owners. They have also been posting interesting facts about their products, factory, and other business related content. Limited Ingredient Diet, Grain-free food, and Free Treat Friday are all keywords used in Canidae’s Facebook posts.

Canidae's Most Popular Post

This is Canidae’s most popular recent post. It experienced 1,700 Likes, 61 Shares, and 42 comments! I think that this post was so successful because it gives insight into the lives of their own dogs in a fun and interesting way. The pictures also attracts viewers because, well, who doesn’t love a dog wearing clothes?!

Petcurean's most popular post

Petcurean’s most popular post recently came in at 1,900 Likes, 366 shares, and 1022 comments! The reason for these numbers is due to the caption saying that they will donate 1 lb. of food to a shelter for each comment received on that particular post. This encourages followers to engage with their content.

After considering all of the above statistics, I believe that Canidae is using their facebook page in a much more beneficial way than Petcurean. They post more frequently, their content more closely follows the 50/50 rule and they have a greater amount of engagement on their posts on average.

A Facebook Faceoff

Comparing Iams and Blue Buffalos Social Engagement

Mark Faber

Taking a look at IAMs and Blue Buffalo's Facebook pages there are a couple quick facts we can find to compare these two brands and the level of engagement they provide on the worlds #1 social media. IAMs has 726, 573 likes, with Blue Buffalo only at a quarter the number at 176,225 likes. IAMs typically responds to messages within a few hours and Blue only takes 1 hour. 

For Past 25 Posts

IAMs Top Post

Digging a little deeper into the two Facebook pages by comparing the past 25 posts by each company we can make some more informed conclusions. IAMs posts every 5 days on average, and Blue Buffalo posts once a day (If you’re keeping score its IAMs:1 Blue:2). 
Average number of Likes, Comments, and Shares per post for Blue Buffalo : 191, 104, and 31(respectively). IAMs appears to win on the surface with 1180, 27 and 165. However 65% of their likes have come from 1 post with 19,098 likes, 270 comments and 2,251 shares during the Christmas season (I also think this was a boosted or paid post). Blue Buffalo's top post (1,230 likes, 1,125 comments and 105 shares) was a contest to win a meat rolls for your dogs. Blue Buffalo's post did well because it offered fans a chance to win if they engaged with the post, and IAMS did well because it was posted during an optimal time. 
Overall Blue Buffalo is doing a better job with interacting on Facebook, with a higher engagement percentage (#of likes/post compared to # of followers) although it does appear that IAMs is making a push to post more often and more engaging comment. Hopefully they will both keep posting regularly to keep consumers engaged and knowledgeable about the companies!