To some, the selfie is the ultimate expression of their perfect face (which has been Photoshopped with several apps). To others, it’s a nightmare of narcissism. Brands must face it – the selfie isn’t going away anytime soon, and the best strategy is to face it head on, utilize it in the most engaging way possible, and possibly even monetize the self portraits of fans.
One tool for selfie monetization is BeHeartofIt. This recent LA start-up launched a campaign with Christina Perri, where her fans took creative selfies using their app. It was during the holidays, and Christina reached out to her fans through social media and grabbed thousands of portraits to create an adorable fan generated postcard. Fans buy the post card and BeHeartofIt wants every fan to have the ability to see his or her selfie in the artwork.
“What’s exciting about this app is that it’s personal fan engagement through artwork,” explains CEO Gianlucca Pizzorno, “Brands, teams, musical artists can gain additional exposure, further monetize the fan, and even go viral. So many fans posted selfies with the artwork after we sent the post card.”
Brands have been using the idea of contesting to leverage the power of user-generated content. Contests keeps users engaged with the brand, sharing, and utilizing their creative forces to help the brand. It’s hard to keep track, however of back-end analytics, reach, and other metrics that can know the performance of the campaign, as well as ROI.
SwagTag is one answer to that problem. As a contest app, brands can post contests of the best picture or video and ask users to get the most votes to be awarded points. Users posts to social networks to be awarded points from friends, and brands give out swag bags for the top social winners. Given that content will be user-generated, it’s expected a lot of these photos will end up being…selfies. SwagTag is already working with brands like Unilever and VF Corporation (Roxy, Vans, Northface) to bring some killer contests that will incorporate some beautiful pictures, and faces.
For best practices on how to use contest’s to build your brand, check out my article that outlines objectives, venues, and #hashtagging as key to a successful contest.