Launching Product through content: Instagram Influencers + Editorial

Creative Director, Strategy Lead

The MKC Road Trip was planned in order to capture regional assets with broad appeal, and to build product knowledge while reinforcing the lifestyle of the all new Lincoln MKC. To do this, we sourced 4 photographers native to the social spaces, and drove through some prominent cities of American music history: Nashville, Memphis, Jackson, New Orleans, and Austin. We wanted to show not only the product features of the MKC, but to tell the stories of local discoveries and makers who are looking back at traditional trades and reimagining them to help rebuild some of these great American cities.

We captured over 500 images across 2000 miles, and boosted social engagement and followers across Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr.

Check out the MKC Road Trip photo stories on Luxury Uncovered.

Images shot by Jared Chambers, Alice Gao, Garrett Cornelison, and Chris Ozer.

The AMERICAN makers Road trip: pre-launching the mkc

In the summer of 2014, we were tasked with generating "pre-launch" buzz and anticipation for the upcoming 2015 Lincoln MKC. This was a particular challenge, as there were very few vehicles available and we had very few assets to publish and get people talking. To create assets that would appeal to a large number of audiences, I pulled together a plan to shoot in as many locations as possible over the course of one week, while incorporating the brand's passion points and values into the shoot along the way. As soon as we had a handful of drive-able production vehicles available, we took off on a road trip through several great American music cities that are currently experiencing a renaissance, including Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and Austin. With a fleet of Instagram photographers, including Jared Chambers, Garrett Cornelison, Chris Ozer, and Alice Gao, we shot over 500 images across 2000 miles in 9 days.

In the process, we organically activated an enormous social community and not only introduced audiences to the product, but authentically integrated the product into interesting stories that documented the discoveries of foodies, makers and artisans we met along the way. This allowed us to participate in conversations about culture without making a heavy sales message. And simply by creating content that our target audiences were interested in, in a way that respects their values and the brand values, we more than tripled pre-launch engagement goals by means of the Instagram community.

We quickly used these assets in paid media through one of the first brand promotions on Instagram, achieving groundbreaking engagement rates and unprecedented audience growth in the brand channels.

What began as a real time experience evolved into an incredibly effective paid program. Yet now, we continue to use the content across all channels, to support the Lincoln MKC. Check out the Lincoln Instagram feed for more.

The AMERICAN makers Road trip: pre-launching the mkc

NASHVILLE

JACKSON

BATON ROUGE

Memphis

NEW ORLEANS

Austin