Lowe's "Fix in Six" Vine Campaign

BACKGROUND/INTRODUCTION-

Lowe’s: we all know them from their billboards or catchy commercials with that slogan we all know by heart- "Never Stop Improving". Lowe’s decided to bring their slogan to new life by implementing a campaign called “Fix it in Six”. The campaign involved 60+ six second videos on Vine that helped people improve their home’s in just six seconds. These life-hack Vines were a smashing success for months.

HOW:

Lowe’s mission statement states “[We] deliver the right home improvement products, with the best service and value, across every channel and community we serve”. Now, it seems like Lowe’s decided to get creative and think out of the box with their mission statement. Because, the channel they gave service through for this campaign was Vine.

Vine was, a short video hosting site comprised of videos that were only six seconds long. They have since discontinued the channel, but not before Lowe’s could get a handle on it. Lowe’s knew the power of social media and decided to become just about the first brand to advertise correctly on vine.

With only a $5000 budget, Lowe’s created over 60 videos with #fixitinsix as their hashtag. The short videos were made charming and easy to follow. These videos went viral practically overnight. Without getting to complicated, the videos showed users quick tips for improving your home like how to organize cleaning supplies, shoveling snow faster, removing hair from your carpet and much more. They posted about 8 at a time. Making sure that each video was seen by followers and everyone else on Vine with their recognizable hashtag.

The video producers did in depth research to find these little hacks. Life-hacks is a phenomenon that grew in popularity in 2005 with the dawning of YouTube videos. Lowe’s realized that their store and all that’s in it is all one giant life-hack. So, they showed users just how to use their products to make their life simpler.

They understood that they could capitalize on people’s short attention span by using the Vine app on an iPhone with ammeter equipment to make videos. It didn’t take much, but it was certainly effective.

WHY:

Many social media campaigns have a very distinct motive behind their campaigns. With Lowe’s #fixitinsix campaign their motive to the outside world seems very clear; Helping YOU. I stated Lowe’s mission statement above and it seems think they did this campaign because it aligned perfectly with what their values are. Obviously, they would sales to come from this campaign but truly, they did it for us. They wanted us to continually improve (hence the slogan) our home by making these short videos for us to learn from.

This campaign also captures the essence of Lowe’s brand. Their logo features an image of a home. So, when we think of Lowe’s we think of our own home. They did this on purpose, making us feel like we can always turn to Lowe’s for help in our home. This campaign was an extension of their undying love for helping home-owners improve their living situations. These videos helped Lowe’s brand grow to its full potential.

WHO:

Vine had a short life span of two years online. Users varied from 13-year old’s to 50-year old’s. But Lowe’s knew just who they were targeting when it came to their #fixitinsix campaign. The best part is, given their likes and loops, they reached far more than their intended audience because of the cute, creative nature of their vines. Nevertheless, Vine had a target audience they reached through Vine.

Demographics

- 30-40 years old

- College graduates

- New home owners

- Making 40k-70k

- Savvy mobile device users

- Married with 1-2 Kids

Psychographics

- Busy, with only evenings and weekends to spare time for home improvement

- Like things organized and neat

- DIY types

- Not looking to spend a lot of money on their home improvements.

CAMPAIGN RESULTS-

In the first year the Fix it in Six campaign achieved over 15 million impressions. People loved it and wanted more. Lowe’s received actual awards for this for this campaign. They won the O’TooleBox Advertising Award and was named one of AdAge’s best campaigns of the 21st century. Vine was able to catch the attention of a difficult and picky generation on Vine- The millennials.

Once Lowe’s made it’s grand entrance onto Vine, they had an increase of 702% millennial engagement. These are people who don’t even have homes, but they resonated with the videos. Fix it in Six had a majorly positive response, especially from Twitter (where the videos were also posted for good measure) this proves that the people loved the campaign. It was so different from anything else you could find on Vine at the time.

Today, you can find the 6 second videos on Pinterest, still capturing and captivating the DIY’s of the world. Lowe’s digital marketing has increases 17% since Fix it in Six. Lowe’s was named #25 in the top 1000 internet retailers, because of their in-going internet success, starting with Vine.

ANALYSIS-

I find this campaign wonderfully impressive. I think Lowe’s perfectly grew their brand and image with this Vine campaign. Not only was it perfect for them, but it was perfect for us- the users. And it made us feel like we can really trust Lowe’s, because they have our best interest at heart.

I would venture to say that Vine was the one who really benefitted from Fix it in Six, the videos from the campaign were so popular and talked about that I am sure that it actually brought users to Vine.

This little, low budget campaign with no special effects, and no influencers made home improvement seem possible and actually, fun! I would think that it would be difficult for a brand to show it’s true colors on Vine, but Lowe’s was a champion and founder of innovative digital marketing with this campaign.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lowe’s marketing manager who had this vision is now in a lucrative marketing career because of the creativity and thought that went into the videos. It seems to me that Lowe’s took a risk with Vine marketing but knew that the results could mean big things for them- and as we can see, it did.