At TrackMaven, we love our customers, and we love helping them be successful. Every once in a while, we see them do something so special that we have to recognize it. There is still way too much debate about the impact of social media on business outcomes, which is why this story is particularly exciting for us.

Our customer, ViSalus — a healthy lifestyle company that develops nutritional products — was preparing for a new product launch. They built a comprehensive launch plan, anchored around a social media campaign. The basic approach was to engage the ViSalus Community by fostering the creation of viral videos. This not only would help with the immediate product launch, but also serve as a reminder of the benefits of the new product line in a manner consistent with the company’s image — natural and fun!

The Campaign

Over a period of two weeks in September 2014 leading up to the product launch, ViSalus began dripping out a stream of visual clues to generate buzz by keeping consumers guessing as to the nature of the new product. The new product — Vi Bites — was initially announced via Instagram only, but that was just the teaser to begin generating buzz.

Via the Instagram announcement, ViSalus rolled out their “It’s not you, it’s #vibites” campaign. It was positioned as the official “break up” proclamation video between the consumer and their “unhealthy relationship” with their formerly desired snack of choice. ViSalus urged consumers to create videos capturing themselves explaining directly to their former snack that they are leaving them for Vi Bites.

Following the announcement, nearly 500 break-up videos were already created and uploaded across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. These videos are streamed on the ViSalus website.

Results

Within the first two days of the product launch, all the Vi Bites products on site were completely sold out, which included over 10,000 boxes. The campaign exceeded the projected monthly sales and ViSalus increased their Instagram followers by over 1,500 within the first 2 weeks and grew their total Instagram following by over 46%.

ViSalus used TrackMaven’s Visualizer feature to track the change in fans, engagement, and comments throughout the campaign. They were able to understand which days had the highest engagement, and which days had the highest increase in new fans. And, they were able to identify the topics and distribution strategies that had the biggest impact throughout the campaign.

What Else Is Impressive About This?

This campaign was developed, designed, and executed within a month with a small social team. One of the longer-lasting benefits is that it has proven to the rest of the company how social media marketing — when managed and tracked well — can have a tangible business impact and a great ROI.

Congratulations, ViSalus, for your social strategy excellence!