Best Use of YouTube

Carpet One Floor and Home designs a clever video campaign

YouTube, quick tips, and shareable content were key to creating an enticing marketing message.

Beautiful Design Made Simple- Logo

Flooring: It’s not exactly a sexy sell.

But with some creativity, authenticity, and outside-the-box thinking, Carpet One Floor and Home’s social video campaign bolstered brand recognition and created content that can be repurposed readily.

Carpet One Floor and Home’s goals were to not only increase brand recognition, but also provide customers and potential customers with information about flooring. Instead of simply creating videos about flooring for its “Beautiful Design Made Simple” campaign, the company took a more creative, engaging approach. Here’s how they did it—and took home the prize for Best Use of YouTube in PR Daily’s 2013 Social Media Awards.

Make it simple
Consumers are constantly scouring the Internet for quick tips. Carpet One Floor and Home realized that to get a consumer’s attention, it would have to provide quick, simple solutions to design conundrums. Enter two- to three-minute videos featuring simple, interesting, and creative tips for those looking to beautify their homes.

Make it authentic
The videos feature actual interior designers, rather than actors. This lends itself to authenticity and shows that Carpet One Floor and Home is connected to the design community. And building relationships with designers who might recommend your services or share videos in which they are featured is never a bad idea. The videos aren’t scripted: Designers received carefully crafted questions to make the flow more conversational. Videos are shot in actual homes. Carpet One Floor and Home did employ an agency—Traffic Marketing Group—to shoot and edit the videos.

Make it shareable
The videos are featured on Carpet One Floor and Home’s YouTube channel, on other social media platforms, and via the company’s digital magazine. Additionally, the videos can be found on the Beautiful Design Made Simple blog. The blog allows readers to pin their favorite decor ideas to Pinterest and features widgets for other social media channels to encourage sharing.

The results
The digital magazine featuring the videos has received nearly 20,000 downloads since its January 2012 launch, and the top video on the YouTube channel is at 20,000 views. Carpet One Floor and Home also evaluates success based on what the company provides to members. A number of members are using the videos in their own stores and for social media marketing—thus increasing Carpet One Floor and Home’s brand visibility.

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