Six case studies & an interview with Jena Donlin of reddit

Reddit Marketing

Created by thepowertoprovoke.com

Respectful

Introduction, With Jena Donlin Of Reddit*...........p.3

Conclusion & Credits...........................................................................p.39

New Belgium Brewing ....p.6

Nissan And Amazon .................................p.24

Haworth Chairs.........................p.12

AR500 Armor...................p.30

World Of Warplanes ..................................p.20

Newcastle Brown Ale...................................p.35

*Disclaimer: The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views of reddit. Aside from the introduction, no reddit employees assisted in the creation of this document.

3Introduction, With Jena Donlin Of Reddit

Introduction, With Jena Donlin

In an attempt to understand reddit’s potential as a marketing platform, this report presents six case studies of brands marketing on reddit. Each case study summarizes the brand initiative, and then investigates the specific elements that led to that campaign’s success (or, in one case, missed opportunity).

It’s assumed that the reader has a basic knowledge of reddit and its lingo (e.g. upvote, karma, redditor, subreddit, etc.). Readers looking for an introduction to reddit should (1) visit the reddit FAQ page and then (2) visit reddit.com/r/random (which directs to a random subreddit) a bunch of times.

Jena Donlin, Senior Product Manager of Advertising at reddit, was kind enough to answer some questions about what differentiates reddit from other social networks, basic ground rules for marketing on reddit, and the future of reddit advertising:

Of Reddit

[-] reedimmer How does the reddit community differ from Facebook, Twitter, etc.? How can this differentiation aid brand marketing efforts?

[-] jenadonlin

reddit allows groups of people to organize and surface information. It provides a place for users to get the most relevant to their interests. It is also a platform about creation and creativity. The best ideas — and the reddit product itself — have developed out of ideas that have been surfaced, requested, and tested by the reddit community.

reddit users assume that good content rises to the top, and that when there is a good idea, users can work together to accomplish that. In /r/IAmA, users can ask some of the most interesting people in the world — like the U.S. President or Neil De Grasse Tyson — any question. There is an aspirational element to that experience — like anyone can work with other people behind their screens around a good idea or piece of content.

4Introduction, With Jena Donlin Of Reddit

[-] jenadonlin Be transparent and honest reddit is a community. Users expect anyone participating as part of this community have the same “for the greater good” mentality. If a user has an agenda or benefits from their actions on reddit, that needs to be really clear. No one wants to feel tricked or cheated. Ads are the place for self-promotion on reddit. Here you can be shameless and cry from the mountaintops about the value you bring them. You can tell people exactly what you can offer them and what you think they should do about it.

Know your audience reddit isn’t monolithic. There are more than 7,000 active subreddit communities. These are groups of users interested in discussing a specific video game, finding photos of delightfully chubby things, or sharing their daily moments of genius. Each of these subreddits operates under its own set of rules and have their own understandings of what makes their community run. A good ad recognizes the work, creativity, and camaraderie of users as a whole and within specific subreddits.

Be a human A company can’t talk, but a person can. You can recognize this by showcasing the humans within your organization and

encouraging them with these principles in mind to engage with users around comments and questions on ads.

Have a conversation Is there something you’d like to talk to reddit about? Simply ask. Then be sure to follow up to continue the conversation. In the reddit community, an advertiser is the store clerk who can help people understand and find the right product for them. reddit gives users unprecedented access to ideas and people online — check /r/IAmA for a showcase of reddit users interviewing world leaders, celebrities, and scientists. There is an expectation on reddit that the site empowers users and allows them to speak directly with someone who can answer their questions.

Reward the deserving Has a user offered a great idea? Endorsed your products and services? Followed your guidelines? Give them reddit gold (and let them know about it). Offer them a coupon. Thank them for the compliment and support.

[-] reedimmer

What are some basic ground rules for marketing on reddit?

“A good ad recognizes the work,creativity, and camaraderie of users as a whole and within specific subreddits.”

5Introduction, With Jena Donlin Of Reddit

[-] reedimmer

How do you envision reddit advertising changing over the next year?

[-] jenadonlin

I think the native unit and programmatic experience on reddit is really going to expand. reddit is both wonderful and overwhelming. We give a lot of controls to users in terms of styling and direction. If you look at the designs of subreddits like /r/gameofthrones or /r/leagueoflegends, you can see the customization and care that users put into cultivating subreddits. We’re still in the infancy of reddit’s native unit, but I think brands can develop and cultivate some of what is available within subreddits on ad units themselves.

[-] reedimmer

What’s a popular misbelief about reddit that you’d like to dispel?

[-] jenadonlin Contrary to some people’s perceptions, reddit is made up of extremely diverse communities. There are users who love cats. There are also users that are allergic to cats or prefer dogs. We’ve got a huge variety of subreddits — some of which are obvious like /r/sports and some which are very specific like /r/showerthoughts. Each of these subreddits can create their own rules and make the experience really collaborative and exciting.

New Belgium Brewing

This case study focuses on New Belgium Brewing’s Snapshot Wheat campaign, which complimented the

intelligence of redditors and sparked an invite for New Belgium to do an AMA on r/homebrewing.

7New Belgium Brewing

Snapshot Wheat

In early 2014, New Belgium Brewing released its Snapshot Wheat beer, which was accompanied by an interactive map that users could be featured on by using the #SnapshotWheat hashtag on Twitter and Instagram.

There are also themed weekly photo challenges (e.g. photos of your pet, photos of your happy place) on the #SnapChallenge hashtag, which give users a chance to be featured on the New Belgium site and beer bottles.

In New Belgium’s own words, “We don’t need your help, but we certainly want it — because we like you, and you’re smart, and that Lil’ Jon AMA was awesome.”

Image from © 2014 HOOKED ON HOPS

Complimenting And Collaborating With Reddit

Instead of asking reddit to submit photos to #SnapshotWheat and #SnapChallenge, New Belgium instead asked redditors to help come up with topics for the weekly #SnapChallenge. This was a compliment to reddit’s collective intelligence, in that New Belgium trusted the community to help craft their marketing campaign into something brand-relevant and engaging. In New Belgium’s own words, “We don’t need your help, but we certainly want it — because we like you, and you’re smart, and that Lil’ Jon AMA was awesome.” (That last part refers to a very silly AMA with the rapper Lil’ Jon in February.)

Hey Reddit. New Belgium Brewing here. We don’t need your help, but we certainly want it — because we like you, and you’re smart and that Lil’ Jon AMA was awesome. Anyway, we launched a new beer, Snapshot Wheat, and (as the marketing-centric name implies) we want you to associate photos with this new beer.

So here’s where you come in; give us your best #SnapshotWheat snap challenge ideas. Examples could be, “photos that include an unopened safe,” or “photos that prove once and for all who has the best breakfast”. Anything, really. We’ll select the top voted comment submissions (unless they’re more appropriate for r/GoneWild) and ask our entire audience to complete them. You’ll see your hive-mind’s will enacted in the real world; it’ll be great and subliminally indoctrinating. Then, if our mind tricks worked, head over to http://www.newbelgium.com/snapshotwheat.aspx to see those crazy pics roll in.

You guys are awesome — New Belgium Brewing

Edit: per /u/kittycatdanger suggestion, the snapshot challenge of the week is taking a picture of the most “important” thing in your pocket or purse

The comments from redditors were overall positive and relevant, and New Belgium’s community manager Nic responded to many submissions, and even tried to help users improve their submitted photo challenge ideas.

[–]MR_Rabbit45 I’ve always thought of drinking as a social thing, so why not have the challenge shot be something social? Like “Who has the best group activity?” You might get group photos from hikes, bike races, snowboarding, concerts, art classes, etc.

[–]warmshart Drinking is a group activity.

[–]Nic_NBB That’s another great idea. Any other ways we could put a twist on that?

[–]MR_Rabbit45 Well, you could make it a stipulation that the activity has to be something the group has never tried before/adrenaline related. I’m thinking of the look on someone’s face the first time they go skydiving, makes a great photo.

New Belgium Brewing Introduces Snapshot Wheat: Take a picture. It’ll last longer.

10New Belgium Brewing

New Belgium’s community manager Nic liked one idea so much that he instantly made it that week’s challenge: “I love this idea. How about we make it the snap challenge this week? Gimme 15 minutes and we’ll have it live at newbelgium.com/snapshotwheat.”

[–]kittycatdanger

first, seriously my new favorite beer. second, dat lil john ama.

third, the idea: you should challenge snapshot drinkers to take a picture of the most important thing in their pockets or bag. it’ll make your drinkers actually consider themselves in relation to your product, you’ll get a huge variety of different things, based on how people define importance. it’ll give you a chance to know your drinkers. for example, do they particularly love keychains? if so -- marketing jackpot. as a drinker and big fan, i would definitely get into that.

edit: gold whoa!

[–]Nic_NBB

I love this idea. How about we make it the snap challenge this week? Gimme 15 minutes and we’ll have it live at newbelgium.com/snapshotwheat

(continued) Complimenting And Collaborating With Reddit

11New Belgium Brewing

New Belgium AMA

The conversation also sparked an invite for New Belgium to do an AMA on the Homebrewing subreddit, which is a sign that the reddit community valued New Belgium’s promoted presence enough to request them to partake in an organic, community-generated reddit experience.

The AMA occurred on 4/8/14 and was extremely well-received, generating a 90% approval rating (meaning a 9:1 upvote to downvote ratio). It featured one of New Belgium’s head brewers, Andy Mitchell, in addition to their community manager Nic.

[–]Masowb8 Just wanted to say, love the new beer. Also loving the can variety packs! We over at /r/homebrewing would love to have ya’ll drop by sometime.

[–]Nic_NBB We’d love to do that. Let’s find a way to make it happen.

[–]Masowb8 Awesome! Maybe we can try and set up an AMA or something this week over there.

Hey everyone, Andy Mitchell (NBB brewhouse operator, homebrewer and overall pleasant guy) will be joining me to answer all your homebrewing-related questions at 2:30 p.m. MST. Got questions? Drop ‘em in this thread and we’ll answer them this afternoon. And thanks to /u/Masowb8 for setting this up!

Let’s talk beer!

560 poins (89% like it)

New Belgium AMA — ask away!

Haworth Chairs

This case study focuses on Haworth’s informative promoted thread about the value

of their high-end chairs for gamers.

13Haworth Chairs

Thorough Beginnings

Haworth’s promoted post targeted computer gaming-related subreddits like PC Gaming, with the headline “If you care about your gaming, you should care about your chair.”

Unlike many ads on reddit which drive to external websites, Haworth’s ad instead drove to a discussion thread within reddit. As a result, the discussion thread rapidly grew over 5 months with questions from redditors about the value of these expensive Haworth chairs, and thorough answers from the Haworth community manager.

14Haworth Chairs

The ad’s body copy provided a strong case for the value of a Haworth chair by highlighting the chairs’ superior warranty and ergonomics, and also the company’s commitment to sustainability.

If you care about your gaming, you should care about your chair.

If you’re investing in a battlestation, the odds are good that you spend a lot of time in your chair. Don’t ruin your command center by getting a discount piece of junk. Not only will a Haworth chair make every moment spent in your chair better but it will save you money in the long run. How, you say? Let’s start with...

WARRANTY

All Haworth seating is covered by our 12-Year, “bumper to bumper” warranty. This isn’t some shady warranty that only covers certain pieces and mechanisms, this is the whole deal. We even guarantee that the seat in the foam won’t break down over time and form to your hind-end. How do we do it? We’re one of the largest commercial furniture manufacturers in the world, and the only way to do that is to make the case to a company that our products are business tools. They must result in lower costs ove time and more productivity. Our products meet the most stringent commercial quality certifications and are designed for very heavy use. Think of how many low-quality chairs you’ll go through in 12 years; your Haworth chair will work just as well in 2026 as it does right now.

Oh yeah and we also have desks with a lifetime warranty.

Ergonomics

Our seating is based on the years of research we’ve done with major universities and research-based entities (like NASA). Our Zody chair is the only chair ever endorsed my the American Physical Therapy Association. Check out the chairs to see the crazy amount of adjustments and features available on each model. If you have any questions, pop them in the comments.

Sustainability and Responsibility

All of our seating is made in the USA in ISO14001 certified, Zero Waste to Landfill(our whole company is) facilities. As an example, our Very Task chair is made from 65% recycled materials and is 98% recyclable at the ends of its life and is the energy used to make it is offset with green power credits.

We love Reddit, and we hope Reddit loves us. Check out even more cool stuff at store.haworth.com

“We love reddit, and we hope reddit loves us.”

15Haworth Chairs

Superior Discussion Management

[–]Ardey I’m a hardcore gamer, I sit A LOT at the pc and I’m going to buy a chair soon. I’m very interested in a DXRacer since they are made especially for gaming and I’ve sat on some and I must say they are great.

Now, please tell me the following:

Can a Haworth chair be used for gaming? (If yes, which one exactly?)

What are the differences between a DXRacer and a Haworth?

And now, tell me exactly why I should buy a Haworth and NOT a DXRacer.

[–]Haworth_Inc[S] A good gaming chair is good computer chair. There is nothing about gaming that makes it different from any other type of work at a computer. The whole idea that a chair is “made for gaming” is, quite frankly, a marketing gimmick. A good chair means a lot of things. I got into more detail in this comment. Which chair you select will depend on your budget and the set of features you desire.

We specialize in commercial furniture because the stakes are a lot higher for a company trying to make it’s workers more comfortable and productive. We make our living selling to ergonomists and office managers who base their purchasing decisions on facts and science.

Some overall differences would be

Warranty Theirs is “Lifetime”. They only cover the chair parts for 2 years and they don’t cover the wear of the fabric. Our warranty is for 12 years and we cover the natural wear of fabric for 5. That’s a good indication of part quality and craftsmanship.

Sustainability Our commitment to sustainability is one of the coolest parts about Haworth and one of my favorite things about working here. All of our chairs are manufactured “locally”. If you buy a chair in the USA, it will be made in the USA. If you buy a chair in Germany, it is made in Germany. If you buy a chair in France...you get the idea. DXRacer doesn’t say where their chars are made, that I can find.

As expected, redditors had further questions about the value of Haworth chairs that weren’t answered in the post’s original body copy. Nonetheless, the Haworth community manager was extremely responsive to further questions from the community, often providing multiple detailed paragraphs to answer a single user’s inquiry.

16Haworth Chairs

(continued) Superior Discussion Management

Users

Advertiser

Visualized below is commenting activity on the Haworth thread. Each node is a comment, and comments are strung together based on what they’re commenting on. The blue dot in the center, and the swarm of blue throughout, are comments by the Haworth account; other colored nodes are users who commented multiple times; black nodes are unique users who only commented once. As seen, The Haworth account responded to many comments by users, which often turned into full back-and-forth discussions being joined in by other users. (Visualization created using Kawandeep Virdee’s reddit visualization tool.)

drydorn : kudos for continuing to follow a thread you started over 3 months ago. And I only found this thread because it appeared at the top of my /r/all page in the advertising section, which I rarely look at, but I *DO* care about gaming and I respect a quality product.

Woolio : Now, enlighten me here... Why would I choose a Haworth chair over a Herman Miller or Steelcase? What would you say?

17Haworth Chairs

EDIT Lots of good questions!

Why Haworth over Herman Miller or Steelcase?

Does Haworth have any promotions or agreements to supply companies with office chairs?

Can the chairs handle heavy use?

What about a mesh seat?

What about international?

What is the best position to sit in? Ergonomic theory and our research with NASA

Damn these are expensive!

How do they compare to the Ikea Markus?

CornChowdah sits reclined. What does that mean?

How does it compare to the Aeron?

How can sitting all day be changed by the chairs? What about for a tall person?

How do the chairs compare to Art Design International? (or any grade B chairs)

/u/benbulthuis is kind enough to write a Zody review

How do they compare to those DX Racer chairs?

Wisely, the Haworth account added links to all these in-depth answers to the initial post’s body copy, so that redditors would immediately understand how committed Haworth has been to helping the community make intelligent purchasing decisions.

(continued) Superior Discussion Management

18Haworth Chairs

Within the comments thread there appeared a user complaining that they had been swindled by Haworth, in that there was temporarily a glitched offer on the Haworth website that offered the $1,000+ chairs for $0. The user said that Haworth should make good on this offer, even if it was a glitch. The user then email spammed executives at the company and their customer service team.

In response, the Haworth account explained the situation to the thread, and then poignantly finished saying that their allegiance was to (1) respectful customers and (2) their dedicated coworkers, to both of which this unpleasant user didn’t belong.

[–]0ZE

They would do better paying a web developer to fix their broken point of sales system on their website. Placed an order and they won’t honor it.

[–]Haworth_Inc[S]

Since you’ve decided to hijack the top comment to air your grievance, I will explain the situation to anyone reading. 0ZE exploited a technical glitch to place an order for thousands of dollars worth of product for $0. Instead of reporting the glitch nicely like the several others who experienced it, she placed several orders and didn’t say anything. When our customer service team reached out with apologies and a discount offer, 0ZE demanded the gltichy orders be honored (despite our TOS explicitly stating that such instances would not) and “carpet bomb” email our execs.

Taking Out The Trash

19Haworth Chairs

(continued) Taking Out The Trash

The thread was in complete favor of the Haworth account, evident by the initial unpleasant user’s comment score of -120, and Haworth’s response having a score of +114.

This incident also then found its way onto r/SubredditDrama, which is a gossip community for drama within subreddits. The post noted the scammer’s attempts and then the strong responses from both Haworth and the community. This post then generated even more support for Haworth, with a score of 143 points and a 78% approval rating.

World Of Warplanes

This case study focuses on a poorly received ad forthe game World Of Warplanes, in which the

advertiser missed an opportunity to positively engage with redditors and benefit from their criticism.

Starting in early May, an ad for the PC game World Of Warplanes targeted gaming subreddits with a simple headline: “Now you can fly history’s greatest warplanes in World Of Warplanes. Available now!” The ad drove to a trailer on the game developer’s site.

Enemy Territory

The ad sparked nearly 200 comments in 14 days, although with a negative approval rating (indicating that more people downvoted the ad than upvoted). A bulk of the comments came from fans of a competitor game called War Thunder, whose subreddit of 17k users was one of the recipients of the World Of Warplanes ad. The War Thunder community took the opportunity to criticize the inferior gameplay of World Of Warplanes. One highly upvoted comment hypothesized that War Thunder’s game developer, Gaijin, was actually behind the World Of Warplanes ad, so to jokingly rile the War Thunder community.

[–]bloodipeich I am starting to think its Gaijin the ones paying for this ad.

[–]Yatta79 Oh look, it’s World of Warplanes back for another beating. Anyone want some popcorn for this event?

[–]HTRK74JR Warthunder is better, i alpha tested WoWP, and it is awful. Truly is, it’s muddy, controls suck, and the HP system is not a way to do aircraft.

[–]Hotglue89 Dear wargaming

The biggest issue I have with WoW is the gameplay. • Awful controls • poor gameplay (fly towards the enemy and shoot, way too simple) • awful graphics Come back when you have fixed those.

22World Of Warplanes

A Missed Opportunity

It would have been wise to enter with a clear strategy on how to harness negative feedback into constructive discussions.

Unfortunately, this wave of criticism was only met with silence from the advertiser. World Of Warplanes could have turned these complaints into constructive criticism by responding to commentors and asking them to more thoroughly explain their thoughts, so to turn them into actionable insights.

A similar strategy of harnessing negative energy into actionable insights was enacted by Internet Explorer, who had a very poor reputation among the reddit community, but nonetheless requested their constructive criticism about the newest Internet Explorer in hopes of improving it even further. There were indeed many negative reviews from users, but the reddit and Internet Explorer teams were nonetheless positive and responsive, and showed that Internet Explorer did indeed plan to act on some comments from redditors.

It’s okay that World Of Warplanes decided to target the War Thunder community, as that is a group that has already demonstrated interest in air combat PC games, but it would have been wise to enter with a clear strategy on how to harness negative feedback into constructive discussions. And to push it even further, World Of Warplanes could have taken out another ad later that thanked the War Thunder community for providing positive feedback (and maybe even distributed some reddit gold to users) like Nissan did in their Versa Note campaign.

Nissan And Amazon

This case study focuses on a joint campaign with Nissan and Amazon that captured the imagination

of redditors, and which also employed exemplary community management practices.

24Nissan And Amazon

In September 2013, Nissan announced that its 2014 Versa Note model would be sold through Amazon, and that a few lucky buyers would have the car delivered right to their door (instead of picking it up at a local car dealer, which was the case for the majority of Versa sales on Amazon).

The First Car On Amazon

A few months later, a redditor posted an image of a very large Amazon box atop a flatbed truck, with the title “What’s the largest item you can have shipped from Amazon? Because I think my neighbor just got it.” The post skyrocketed to the front page of reddit, with over 3,900 points and 4,000 comments. Everyone wanted to know what the heck was in the box, with comments ranging from micro SD cards to a gun safe that’s supposedly the heaviest item Amazon will ship for free.

(The stream of guesses, and the pain from not knowing the box’s contents, closely resembled an earlier event on reddit where a New Zealand man moved into a former drug house to find an alluringly-unopenable safe. It too exploded into a stream of guesses of what was in the safe.)

Eventually, some smart redditors did their research and found a reference to the Nissan contest from a few months back.

[–]Faalllccccooooorrrrr it’s probably just an SD Card or something of equal or lessor size.

[–]shrivel I hope he didn’t order two of ‘em, because the second one is gonna arrive in another box of the same size tomorrow.

[–]timotheophany “Please rate our packaging”...

[–]iamtehstig I remember Nissan was in partnership with Amazon to sell the new Nissan Versa Note a few months ago. Maybe they bought one?

Edit: Looks like I’m right. http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130926/CARNEWS/130929848

“Our sister site Automotive News reports that three customers will actually have their orders fulfilled by Nissan, with the cars arriving in a large Amazon box accompanied by a film crew.”

What’s In The Box?

26Image from © 2000-2014 Auto123.com

“What’s the largest item you can have shipped from Amazon? Because I think my neighbor just got it.”

After representatives from Amazon and Nissan confirmed that there was a Versa Note in the box, Nissan promoted a post on reddit thanking redditors for making the box such a huge story, which produced over 860 points and 900 comments. They also created an illustration using ideas from redditors about what the gigantic box could next be used for.

Community Management Gold

Thank you reddit for making our huge Amazon box a huge story!

A couple weeks ago, a redditor posted a photo of our giant Amazon box delivering a Nissan Versa Note to its new owner in Wisconsin. It made it to the front page and we couldn’t believe how much buzz it got. All thanks to you, reddit. So before we show anyone else, we wanted to show you guys exactly what we were up to that frigid day in Wisconsin: http://youtu.be/CyaTIP1NC0A

EDIT: Hey reddit, thanks for sharing with us some awesome ideas on what you would do with the huge Amazon box. Here were some of our favorites. We had a ton of fun today chatting and we’re going to give out some gold to celebrate. Thanks again!

27Nissan And Amazon

28Nissan And Amazon

The Nissan community managers were courteous and humorous — which worked well to ease the marketing cynicism of some redditors — and gave out reddit gold to positive and engaging commentors.

All in all, this campaign was exemplary in how it captured the imagination of redditors and then followed up with positive acts that benefited the community.

[–]kayleighkill Well.... Do we all win free cars for helping? If not the cars, we should all AT LEAST get a giant box. EDIT: HOT DIGGIDY DOG! Thanks Nissan for Gold!! :]

[–]NissanUSA[S] How about if we give you reddit gold? - Ashley, Nissan Community Manager

(continued) Community Management Gold

AR500 ArmorThis case study focuses on AR500 Armor, a body

armor manufacturer that’s been building a straightforward, well-received promoted thread

on the value of their products.

30AR500 Armor

The AR500 ad is simple and straightforward: “AR500 Armor - Industry leading manufacturer of affordable and reliable body armor | Made in the USA.” The directness of this ad was praised in the comments, including a highly upvoted comment that thanked AR500 for not using a meme to try and connect with redditors.

Simple And Straightforward

[–]hobozombie Just wanted to say thanks for making a traditional sort of ad tagline rather than something stupid like “Even Bad Luck Brian [or whatever that meme is] wouldn’t get caught in a bad situation without our body armor.”

I’ll keep your business in mind if I’m in the market for some body armor.

31AR500 Armor

The above commentor was referencing a trend of reddit advertisers to use reddit memes and inside jokes to better engage redditors -- often in styles that would seem off-brand if they were somewhere other than reddit. The risk of such stylization is that redditors may interpret it as exploiting their own language and experience in order to better sell to them.

(continued) Simple And Straightforward

The AR500 account was both frequent and thorough in its responses to redditor questions. The effect of such a process is a high-quality product information page that’s customized to the collective desires of reddit.

The purple nodes in the below illustration depict the AR500 account’s frequent participation in the thread. Nodes are connected to the things they’re commenting on. (Created using Kawandeep Virdee’s reddit discussion visualization tool.)

Quality Commenting

timusus : Genuine question : Australian here. We don’t have a gun problem, and no one I know has been shot. Anyway, what’s your target market? I mean, who buys these things? Is this for people who like to ride the late night subway and prefer not to get killed? Police officers? Army people? Aren’t these professionals supplied with this stuff? I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t buy it or anything like that. I’m genuinely curious - what kind of people need to buy body armor?

AR500Armor : Our level III armor is effective up to a 7.62x51 NATO M80 Ball at any distance up to 2,780 feet per second In House we test at just 7 yards, standard in house tests include 5 rounds of 5.56 M855/SS109, and 5 rounds up 7.62x51 M80 at a distance of 7 yards.

Users

Advertiser

32AR500 Armor

The below screenshot depicts the thoroughness and positive reception (through upvotes and positive community sentiments) of AR500’s comments. And note the links to more brand content on YouTube and the brand’s website, which are then accessible to all future thread visitors.

[–]Dayanx Unfortunately I can’t justify the expense right this moment, but the prices are amazing. I easily paid twice that for a 3A concealable vest. What thickness are the plates, and is there a non-ballistic kevlar layer to catch spall?

[–]AR500Armor[S] Our level III plates are a little over 1/4”. We don’t use Kevlar; however we do use a spall & fragmentation mitigation coating from Line-X, their PAXCON series. It’s a special fragmentation protective coating in their line-up. We just released a Stress Test video which shows what our body armor is capable of and the frag coating in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynu0KIRxVU4&feature=c4-overview&list=UU35anPFZ0jqufRh8UhY9uog

[–]Dayanx Looks like its treated with rhino lining (talk about indestructible). Ive seen a video of what looked like a half inch thick plate stop a point blank .338 Lapua fmj. I fell in love with the stuff.

[–]AR500Armor[S] Our Spall & Fragmentation mitigation is a PAXCON protective coating (a division of Line-X). It’s a military grade protective coating designed for spall and fragmentation containment. PAXCON coatings have been used to increase protection on the walls of the Pentagon. This Line-X coating completely seals our armor helping reduce spall and fragmentation, and additionally protects it from chemicals, liquids, and other harsh elements. It takes specialized equipment to apply.

There are products out there using standard truck bed liners. In some cases this works if it’s thick enough, but the chances of the coating blowing out or peeling off on impact are high, which is not good.

More details on our frag mitigation coating can be found here - http://www.ar500armor.com/line-x-protective-base-coating.html

(continued) Quality Commenting

33AR500 Armor

34AR500 Armor

Longevity

The thread’s duration (since October 2013) significantly contributes to its quality, because it allows the thread to grow in information tailored to the reddit community (with currently 240+ comments). Part of what makes this duration possible is that the thread is not tied to a temporary campaign or offer. (Haworth Chairs is another advertiser successfully employing this tactic on reddit.)

Temporary campaigns of course have their place, but brands will benefit from considering a dual reddit strategy, in which temporary campaigns are paired with an evergreen promoted thread like AR500’s.

Brands will benefit from considering a dual reddit strategy, in which temporary campaigns are paired with an evergreen promoted thread like AR500’s.

35Section Title

Newcastle Brown Ale

This case study focuses on Newcastle Brown Ale’s Super Bowl campaign, which exemplified

the benefits of respecting and harnessing the reddit community’s creativity.

An Open Call For Ridiculousness

Shortly before the 2014 Super Bowl, Newcastle Brown Ale ran a cheeky sponsored link saying, “Newcastle Brown Ale wants your love. And money. If we made a Mega Huge Game Day Ad targeted just at reddit, what should be in it?” This question was an open call for the reddit community’s ridiculous humor and creativity, and generated over 600 comments about what Newcastle should include in their video. Upvoted suggestions included bears drinking beer, flaming cars, and bananas (for scale).

reddit, we’re all about refreshing honesty. Shooting straight. Calling bollocks. We didn’t make a big gimmicky S**** B*** ad this year, because we don’t believe in big, gimmicky S**** B*** ads. (And also, we don’t have the money to make or even legally mention the S**** B***.) But if we had, it would’ve sold a lot of Newcastle Brown Ale. We’re talking cases and cases of the stuff.

We’ll be honest, reddit. We’d really like to sell a lot of beer. And we’d like to sell it to you, the fine, refreshingly honest people of reddit. With all your disposable income and free time, you seem like a fine target market. So tell us what you’d like to see in your ideal big, gimmicky S**** B*** ad, and we’ll show you the ad we would’ve made for reddit. We want to make an ad so effective, it’ll make every redditor empty their wallet and fill it with smooth, refreshing Newcastle Brown Ale. So give us your free ideas, and we’ll turn them into free marketing. Won’t you help us help you buy Newcastle?

Oh, and completely shameless plug: see the Mega Huge Football Game Ad we could’ve made at ifwemadeit.com

Newcastle Brown Ale wants your love. And money. If we made a Mega Huge Game Day Ad targeted just at reddit, what should be in it?

[–]DasMunch

Everyone is going to say cats. Logical answer. But it’s wrong.

Bears. You need bears. Big bears, little bears, black bears, white bears. Drinking beers. Maybe with some antlers? And a subliminal mixture of “DEER?” “BEAR?” “BEER?” popping up as they enjoy an amazingly refreshing beer.

[–]JtheUnicorn

Kittens, beer, flaming cars, and girls in bikinis. And some sort of contest for free beer.

36Newcastle Brown Ale

37Newcastle Brown Ale

The Spot

A few days after their initial post, Newcastle came back with their reddit-influenced Super Bowl video spot. Indeed, it was extremely low-budget, and redditor suggestions were only included by means of text-overlay and voice over, but the reddit community was pleased overall: Newcastle had listened and acted on their wishes.

And it ended with a banana being thrown at a six-pack of Newcastle.

38Newcastle Brown Ale

Campaign AlignmentIn concurrence with their Super Bowl efforts on reddit, Newcastle ran a larger Super Bowl campaign called If We Made It, which was a series of actual Super Bowl commercials that were ridiculously reimagined and storyboarded by Newcastle -- including a take on the Stephen Colbert pistachio ad where Colbert instead gets eaten by a mutant pistachio.

The If We Made It campaign was referenced in Newcastle’s promoted reddit posts, and also within the description of their reddit spot on YouTube. As such, the reddit efforts served as a feeder into the larger If We Made It campaign, ensuring that redditors had the option to further engage with Newcastle if they wanted.

39Section Title

Conclusion

& Credits

As Jena Donlin noted in the introduction, “a good ad recognizes the work, creativity and camaraderie of users as a whole and within specific subreddits.” This necessity for brands to respect reddit in order to benefit from reddit is the key takeaway of this report, as it continuously reveals itself as the common thread in successful reddit campaigns: New Belgium Brewing, Haworth Chairs, Amazon and Nissan, AR500, Newcastle — they all demonstrated respect, keen listening and responsiveness.

However, reddit’s democratic makeup means that reddiquette, the informal expression of redditor values, is in constant flux, and what was considered respectful in one campaign may soon be interpreted as a sleazy marketing tactic. Savvy brands will stay in the know by checking the official reddiquette document often (reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette), but also by simply exploring reddit. “Waste” some time on it, get lost in the links and references and wit, register the pulse and where its headed, remember the humans behind each username.

Researched and written by Reed Immer @reedimmer for Response Marketing

Designed by Ashley Marshall @ashlanaf

thepowertoprovoke.com

For more reddit case studies, visit thepowertoprovoke.com/the-blog/category/reddit