Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 05.09.2024 
Campfire is thrilled to be nominated for not one, but two UK Social Media Awards. From our humble beginnings in a spare room in Salford in 2019, we’ve grown into a full-service digital agency committed to making ads people genuinely want to watch. We’ve set the gold standard for impactful brand partnerships, working with prestigious blue-chip brands like L’Oreal, Unileiver and Coty, and built the world’s leading trend prediction and analytics platform, Spark, that powers the insights of some of the world’s largest brands. Our expertise lies in transforming brand messages into compelling content that drives the digital generation to act, consistently delivering outstanding results through our unique blend of data and creativity. We’ve recently been awarded fastest growing agency in the north and with this, we are honoured to showcase our work and dedication to everyone at the UK Social Media Awards.
Finalist for Best Social Influencer Campaign: Thayers – Skincare Seduction & Poreplay
Thayers approached Campfire to leverage the power of paid influencer campaigns on TikTok and Instagram. With the toner market forecasted to have significant growth over the next five years, fueled by increased skincare education on social media and trends like Korean Beauty and Glass Skin, our goal was to help Thayers introduce their brand to the UK market.
Our strategy to reach our target audience, primarily Gen Z individuals with skincare concerns, is based on a thorough understanding of their preferences and behaviours. Gen Z is highly engaged on social media platforms like TikTok, where 60% of users have made purchases based on content they’ve seen. Additionally, 25% of Gen Z discovers products and brands through social media rather than traditional search engines.
At Campfire, our approach revolves around creating authentic, creative, and innovative social-first content tailored to each platform. This strategy is vital for resonating with our audience and driving engagement. By harnessing the power of TikTok and Instagram, we aim to connect with Gen Z on a deeper level, addressing their skincare concerns in a way that feels genuine and relatable.
For our first pillar, “Time For ‘Poreplay’,” we emphasised that using Thayers toner as part of your routine is a step you don’t want to miss. Knowing that a tongue-in-cheek approach resonates well with our Gen Z audience, we collaborated with comedy duos, lifestyle, relationship, and body-positive creators. These influencers used a risky tone, incorporating innuendos while highlighting Thayers toner as an essential step in a three-stage skincare routine.
With our “Skin Care Seduction” pillar, we aimed to provide an alternative for those who preferred a less risqué approach. Targeting our skincare-conscious Gen Z audience, we combated common misconceptions and emphasised the product’s unique selling points. This approach allowed us to reach a broader audience while maintaining authenticity and credibility. Collaborating with key leaders in the skincare space and dermatologists was crucial for driving authenticity through this format.
The collaboration between Thayers and Campfire was a resounding success. Through strategic planning of influencer partnerships, content themes, and engagement strategies, we significantly boosted Thayers’ social brand awareness within the skincare community. We showcased product efficacy and innovation, engaged with Gen Z audiences, and fostered positive sentiments around the brand.
Our talented strategists and influencer managers have gone above and beyond when it comes to servicing our clients and being recognised among the industry’s best would be a testament to their hard work. As you can imagine, this was a bit of a rogue idea when we came to pitch to the client, one we actually weren’t sure we wanted to pitch in the first place due to the… let’s say ‘provocative nature’ of the campaign but we feel this really paid off and highlighted the creativity of the team. It goes to show that no idea is too wild.
Finalist for Best Social Media Tool: SPARK
Our revolutionary social media trend detection tool, Spark, was our second finalist! Spark allows us to monitor trending topics and mine keywords using TikTok Trend Data, Search Trends, Own Site Search & Performance Data. This permits us to be first to a trend, before competitors. We built this tool in response to the movement of trends originating on TikTok and it taking Google Trends days, sometimes weeks, to catch up. Trends, on average, last 2 weeks from start to finish so speed is truly key. Brands place a lot of emphasis on keeping up with trends to reach Gen Z so this tool has been built to make that possible for our clients.
Spark has been built as a live dashboard with 1,000s of trends updated multiple times per day, tracking growth rates and using machine learning to categorise trends and predict the trajectory. We know that becoming more ‘trend focused’ is a key objective across the majority of our client set, especially on TikTok, so staying competitive and having this data is key to wider business goals. We offer Spark as a managed service which includes ‘nudges’ when we send relevant trends to a client detailing the trend, the growth, an overview of the trend including its origin and actionable ways to utilise it.
Whatever happens, we’re grateful for the opportunity to enter the UK Social Media Awards and look forward to seeing how our innovative, data-driven approach compares to the competition.
