Your Shot: Red Bull’s Instagram Hunt

This year the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series will take off in the UK for the first time. Having digitally promoted the event for several years, London-based agency Holler was tasked with highlighting the beauty of the little island nation against some of the world’s most stunning locations. The solution was to run an Instagram treasure hunt, asking web trawlers to search out images, like kids after eggs at Easter. LBB caught up with the team at Holler and Instagram participant Jiri Siftar  a.k.a ‘@jeera’. 

 

LBB> What did the client initially approach you with? Did they want you to create a competition that was different from the generic ‘Q&A’ format?

 

Holler> We have been promoting the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series for the past few years but this is the first year that the tournament is coming to the UK. We were tasked with creating buzz around the event and driving ticket sales. We wanted to create a campaign that had visuals at its heart. Cliff diving takes place in such stunning locations, and the imagery produced from the athletes performing these dives is breathtaking - Instagram seemed like the ideal platform.

 

LBB> The whole campaign is extremely innovative – where did the idea for an online treasure hunt stem from?

 

Holler> We have run some digital treasure hunt competitions in the past for Red Bull. Each targets the digitally savvy youth market who we know enjoy and engage with this activity; these have always proved successful. Using Instagram was a fresh way to execute this. We were mindful that we wanted key influencers on Instagram to essentially host the competition, creating leverage and endorsement through their feeds.

 

LBB> How long did it take to fully develop the concept and what were the key challenges you faced? 

 

Holler> The actual concept development was straightforward. However despite the simplicity of the process and user journey, setting up certainly had its challenges. Firstly, we had to recruit the key Instagramers, which wasn’t an easy task because Instagram does not have a messaging system. We had to be really organised with scheduling the tiles as each had to hidden in the correct order. It was run as a team and we communicated online to make sure that the upload of the mosaic went smoothly; working with digitally capable people really helped. The key challenge when launching the competition was stopping people distorting the mosaic by adding the main hashtag to different images. We also had to factor in desktop users that would play using various third-party viewing platforms such as Statigram. To get round this we launched with a media partner – Telegraph Online – giving the audience very clear instructions on how to play. 

 

LBB> Strategically, what do you think this campaign will achieve for the brand?

 

Holler> We hope it will raise awareness of cliff diving as a sport and fuel excitement about the World Series coming to the UK. Red Bull is an exciting brand to work with because they are eager to keep pushing boundaries and keen to use new platforms to speak to consumers. The campaign has also created some fantastic relationships with key influencers on Instagram and we hope to keep working with them in the future.

 

LBB> What has the reaction been to the campaign so far?

 

Holler> It’s been really positive. It's been fantastic to see such high engagement with people liking the hidden tiles and conversation being sparked on Instagram and Twitter. We are actually taking Jiri Siftar (@Jeera) along to Wales to document the event over the weekend. His tiles have been getting more than 2,000 likes, so it will be interesting to see the reaction from his fanbase to his images.

 

LBB> The Instagram accounts that participate in the treasure hunt are from all over Europe – were there any criteria for the ones chosen to host the hidden images? If so, what were they?

 

Holler> The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series takes the athletes to many amazing locations around the globe, so the campaign was a natural fit for Instagramers interested in travel. We offered the opportunity to individuals on the basis of their skill and ability to capture interesting objects and locations in unique ways.

 

Jiri Siftar/@jeera (Instagram account)

 

LBB> Why do you use Instagram so highly? Does it tie in with your occupation or do you just use it as a hobby?

 

JS> I'm a designer so some common traces can be found, but it's mainly my hobby and a way to let my creative juices flow.

 

LBB> What response have you seen to your Instagram account since the competition started? 

 

JS> Some followers got a little confused by an unusual picture being in my portfolio, but I liked their curiosity and I am sure they enjoyed seeing something unusual too. 

 

LBB> Have you ever been approached with or been aware of anything that uses Instagram like this before?

 

JS> I've seen and been involved in a few promotional campaigns on Instagram in the past, but never something so sophisticated. I liked the detective element of this competition. 

 

LBB> How have you found the experience of being involved in the project?

 

JS> I'm not a fan of oversimplified contests so I liked this idea and obviously agreed to participate. It was well organised, and even through there were eventual vulnerabilities in such a dynamic social environment, I'm glad to have participated in something new and interesting.