Aldo launched a contest to identify and reward "the next stars of Tumblr" to target the blogging network’s highly engaged community of fashion and design enthusiasts. This case study looks at how the footwear company offered Tumblr's aesthetic-conscious community a prize uniquely suited to them.
Tumblr bloggers were invited to submit their credentials and short descriptions of their Tumblrs to aldorise.tumblr.com.
Five winners were be chosen by New York creative agency Alldayeveryday based on the personality, popularity and content quality of their blogs.
Those winners received a design consultation and custom Tumblr theme from the agency (valued at $1,000), as well as five reblogs from the brand's Tumblr account.
To boost engagement, participants were required to follow Aldo Rise on Tumblr to enter.
The contest was part of the company's Aldo Rise program, which unites collaborating designers with various company resources including its customer base.
Kathy Acimovic, senior PR manager for Aldo, said it was more about celebrating the community's "like-mindedness in wanting to share inspiration and partake in creativity."
"Too often brands try to embed themselves in hip burgeoning communities like Tumblr with the expectation of 'taking advantage' of the audiences without giving any thought of what they can add to the community themselves," Julie Fredrickson, director of communications at Alldayeveryday, added, noting that it was important for both Aldo and Alldayeveryday to give winners something of long-lasting value.
Although thousands of companies have hosted contests to increase their followings on social networks in the past, this is one of the first seen of this scale on Tumblr.
