#DRIPYOURHBCU Campaign - Case Study

#DRIPYOURHBCU Campaign

The #DRIPYOURHBCU campaign is an initiative put on by Fanbase and powered by The Propel Center. This campaign was originally started as we cemented our partnership with Propel. The Propel Center's purpose is to break down systemic barriers that personally impact HBCUs. At Fanbase, we are the first Black-founded social media company, and take pride in uplifting the Black community. We knew that we had to connect with Propel and create an internship for students to get involved with Fanbase and see what goes into the making of a successful app. This was also especially important to us because we want our younger audiences to keep growing (as the largest audiences on social media apps are younger individuals), and what better way to bring in the younger generation than to have our Propel interns reach out to other students on their HBCU campuses?

The main objective for the Propel internship at Fanbase, was for students to come up with a social media challenge that encouraged students to download the Fanbase app. After some brainstorming, the Propel interns came up with the idea of creating an HBCU social media fashion challenge know as the #DRIPYOURHBCU campaign.

Campaign Creative Strategy

The #DRIPYOURHBCU campaign stemmed from our Propel interns as it was required for them to come up with a social campaign that would allow the younger generation on HBCUs' campuses to connect too. Specifically this campaign revolved around fashion since HBCU fashion is a big part of the HBCU culture.

After deciding the theme, the HBCU marketing team (including myself as the Social Media Specialist) stepped in to carve out all the specific details of the campaign. We decided that we would create an increase in app-installs by encouraging HBCU students/alumni to show off their style by downloading app and these students would have the chance to possibly win prizes. After the students would download the app, they could then show off their outfits by including their name, school, and include #dripyourhbcu in their caption. This hashtag would be tracked by our development team and updated on the leaderboard function that we added to our #DRIPYOURHBCU landing we made which details the rules of the challenge, how to participate, campaign sponsors, and list of potential prizes that were curated by our sponsors. There would be a total of four winners who would receive prize boxes filled with goodies from our sponsors. There would also be one Grand Prize Winner that would receive a M.A.C. Cosmetics masterclass for their HBCU.

On the internal social side, I collaborated with Fanbase's graphic artists and video producer/editor to brainstorm the social assets we'd be producing for the campaign. We made sure to include feedback from HBCU students on how to best represent HBCU fashion, and other cultural references to include.

Conclusion

The #DRIPYOURHBCU campaign was one of the first campaigns of its kind at Fanbase! The goal was to expand our reach to the younger generation, and our CEO really wanted to focus on HBCUs. HBCUs have tight-knit communities within their universities, which was perfect for our strategy on getting the word out about Fanbase (especially with the help from our Propel Center interns). Even though we ran into a couple bumps regarding end of semester timing, and students not following some of the challenge requirements, we learned a lot from this campaign. We understood more of what the younger generation's looking for, and our presence is stronger on college campuses. Our efforts on social media ultimately helped build upon our success for the future of Fanbase as a whole!