Welcome to 12 in 12!
During the winter of 2015, I traveled to 12 cities across Europe with my friends Ryan Carl and Christian Short in partnership with TOPDECK TRAVEL to share the stories and experiences of the people we met along our way. Only two weeks before we set off for this grand adventure, I decided to ask 12 incredible brands to sponsor our trip with a ton of gear to give away at each city we arrived in.
Within that extremely limited time frame, I had a positive response from all 12 brands, and a massive amount of new product to take along with us.
This is a summary of what we accomplished.
Locations / Sponsors / Schedule
These are the 12 branded posts I shared during the trip, to engage my audience of 3,000 fans on Instagram, asking them to share their own photographs and stories with the hashtag #12in12giveaway for a chance to win the products.
- We successfully posted a new prompt at each new city we arrived in over the course of six weeks while traveling to our destinations all around Europe.
- The response we received was incredible, with over 500 different people sharing their own stories about travel, their favorite memories, their purpose behind sharing photographs, etc.
- The combined value of the goods and services we were able to give away exceeded $10,000 and included camera straps, genuine leather duffel bags, website subscriptions, music licenses, leather boots, cameras, etc.
- Ryan and Christian shared their own images as well, creating a viral spur of engagement between the three of us, achieving hundreds of likes and comments more than we had ever received before the trip.
- Here are a few examples of the user generated content we activated from our fans on Instagram :
- In total, we saw a growth spike of 30% to each of our fan bases, as well as connecting the audiences of all 12 brands with Topdeck Travel's larger audience, providing Topdeck Travel with an influx of over 10,000 new followers.
- Keep in mind, this was before algorithms, paid promotions, etc. so all of the interaction we created was organic and real because we engaged fans on their level, creating a conversation that all parties were interested in taking part in.
- The #12in12giveaway project proved that combined effort is monumental in reaching any audience with an important message. This model of giving away goods and services in order to start a conversation was a powerful tool made useful by myself, Ryan, and Christian to spark an interest in all 12 brands and Topdeck Travel.