Company: The Social Element, New York, NY
Company Description: The Social Element U.S. is woman-owned and women-led, and also the world’s largest (280+) independent social media agency. With a client portfolio of 40+ major companies including Mondelez, Diageo, Keurig Dr Pepper, Electronic Arts, and Kontoor Brands (Wrangler), the agency has been at the forefront of social media management since the get-go.
Nomination Category: Communications & Marketing Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Social Media Focused
 Nomination Title: WRANGLER x The Social Element
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the nominated campaign or program - its genesis,development, planning, commission, and performance to date - OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions, provide them in the appropriate spaces below:
- Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
April 18, 2022
- Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
TikTok is one of the few platforms where brands can go and converse with consumers—but it has to be done the “right way,” to avoid alienating consumers.
That’s why we intentionally create client-specific engagement opportunities by taking on the brand’s voice—and it deserves mentioning, often crafting that voice itself. In other words, we approach things with a persona-first POV, so that we can adapt as trends ebb and flow. And when we’re identifying where to show up, we assess every situation based on that persona to sense check, and that’s exactly what we’ve done for Wrangler.
Admittedly, we’ve faced some constraints with this campaign. Half of the content we engage with must be Western-focused, which some might have found limiting, but we’ve nailed proactive engagement within that limited western sphere, especially in cultivating ongoing relationships with creators in the space, demonstrated by an average of 70% recognition from these top creators when we engage more frequently on their content.
But even then, we’ve punched outside of that realm to pursue proactive opportunities and moments where Wrangler isn’t mentioned. In fact, those times when we’ve interjected them as a brand have actually given us great results, with 90% of such posts getting at least a like or comment back—and further proving that we’re absolutely showing up exactly where we need to be.
We’ve also found a way to interact directly with creators, who are showing us further brand love by engaging fans in related communities outside of Wranglers owned channels.
- Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 213 words used.
As a heritage American brand, Wrangler has been focused on pushing their brand to be more progressive and to attract new audiences that have only seen Wrangler as a western jeans company. This provides a challenge that many other brands also face - how do you attract new audiences whilst not alienating your existing audience? The Social Element teamed up with Wrangler to leverage social media and find innovative ways to reach audiences that have often been beyond their reach.
Our team worked to develop a new way to approach audience engagement through TikTok and created a strategy that used both reactive engagement (tagged and untagged moments) and proactive engagement (non-brand mentioned moments) to connect with audiences in a genuine, human way.
Social, especially TikTok, are always evolving. Creating the right strategy involves fully understanding the brand’s voice and audience to find the right moments where the brand can banter with existing or potential fans. Implementing the strategy isn’t something that could happen overnight - with The Social Element’s team manually training the TikTok 'for you' page to find the right opportunities. Over the course of the last 16 months, we’ve been able to identify and encourage brand love whilst simultaneously finding new, varied moments for them to show up naturally in conversations.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 12 words used.
PDF attached to this entry to showcase the content and corresponding engagement
- Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of July 2021. Even if your initiative started before July 2021, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of July 2021 only (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
Throughout the campaign, we strategically coordinated incoming volume and posted a myriad of compelling engagements, fostering an interactive and engaging community. The statistics speak for themselves: As of June 30, 2023, we made engagements on 771 tagged mentions, 287 untagged mentions, and 256 unbranded related community engagements, demonstrating the breadth of conversation generated through our campaign.
We ran this campaign on TikTok exclusively, growing their follower count from 10.2K to 42.8K between April 14, 2022 and July 20, 2023. That’s an incredible 319.6% increase.
A key indicator of the campaign's success is the recognition score, which reflects user engagement with our brand's comments. In June 2023, our efforts bore fruit as we achieved an 89% recognition score, indicating that users actively liked and commented on our posts, establishing a solid bond between the brand and its fans.
Hashtag utilization has played a significant role in further extending our campaign's reach. We witnessed substantial growth in conversation volume for #Wranglers, increasing from 243.3M views in April 2022 to an impressive 511M views by June 30, 2023, marking a remarkable 110% growth. Similarly, the hashtag #WranglerJeans garnered 188.7M views in April 2022 and remarkably surged to 428.3M views by June 30, 2023, reflecting an astounding 126.9% increase in conversation volume.
Overall, we had driven substantial follower growth, high user engagement and hashtag visibility—a testament to the team's strategic planning and creative execution and deserving of the Best Social Media Focused Campaign of the Year award.
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