FEATURED PROJECT DESCRIPTION: “Not Enough Challenge” Social Content for DanceOn

PROMPT: There’s a massive emphasis on content and content creation with regards to marketing. Techniques such as inbound marketing are built around creating content for users to find and engage with. It is the present and future of the marketing world. And as a content creator, my job is to take your ideas and turn them into content that’s valuable for your business.

PROJECT: As the go-to premium MCN for dance culture, DanceOn continues to drive awareness and engagement (likes, comments, shares, etc.) to their programming and partnerships by using their social accounts to highlight user-generated content in trend-setting ways.

I was asked to produce visual content using creative methods to drive traffic to their Instagram profile and feed, while also making this content more searchable and viral.

For the #NotEnoughChallenge, the one-off partnership was arranged between Norwegian Musician Lido, West Coast R&B duo They,  and DanceOn; promoting their 80s inspired release, “Not Enough”. The dance community was invited to participate in filming and posting their best “New-Jack Swing” dance routines, while given a chance to be featured on DanceOn’s Instagram Profile with 635k Followers. 

PROCESS: With limited assets, I was given free creative reign to produce high-quality micro-content micro-content to be distributed on client/talents social media channels.

Point of view: 

Q: Who is this for?
A: A global community of dancers and musicians of all ages, current and new, looking to engage, share, and be supported. This would include 53% of Instagrams overall users.

Q: What can I offer that is special?
A: I understand the demographic and how to hit the target audience by creating content that reflects the style of song and dance. I can create content that aims to build DanceOn’s brand while also connecting on an individual basis with their community members. They believe strongly in the power of one-on-one interactions and connections. 

Q: What purpose does it serve?
A: DanceOn’s current engagement rate is 2.15%. A bit higher than the industry standard. The goal is to raise the benchmark, connecting with their current community while expanding engagement with premium sharable content.

Research: What I love to do when it comes to defining themes is to open up a notepad and throw around some ideas. After assessing the business I identified what makes DanceOn unique, and what type of content their target audience likes to consume, starting with some key company values. From these notes, I can start to formulate ideas for key content pillars. DanceOn does well with the following themes: 

• User-generated content
• Educational / documentaries
• Fun/lighthearted memes
• Talent takeovers

Ideas: Working in collaboration with their Social Media Manager, Mary Grace Cerni, we established a content strategy around the campaign. The content should be reflective of the song and dance style, creating cohesion between the user-generated content and the music. Given the 90s throwback feel in sound and look, we agreed on a modernized take on “Dopestyle.” The look of 90s R&B: crazy patterns and color mixtures.

Design: Keeping up with Instagram trends is essential to better reach, and ultimately grow your audience.  For influencers, establishing trends is essential. Aside from the ever popular Cinemagraphs and “tapping text” into Instagram Stories, creating repetition or continuous content flow within your profile is a great way to drive views to your profile. Setting up a series of photos within your profile grid has been a long-running trend. But breaking the grid with overlaying content is new and fresh! Or offering a different experience from profile to feed can be very engaging. Taking over a row within the profile grid to showcase a triptych of content is a great way to feature dance. 

Using stills from their video, I created a collage of colorful illustrations with retouched photos in the respective style. Center content also opens to play a video when clicked on or passing through your feed.

Conclusion: DanceOn does a great job of branding itself through unique and engaging content. By using the brand name, logo, and color, as well as actionable hashtags DanceOn is able to use its brand to post engaging user-generated content to connect with a global community. While 1 out of 3 of the campaign posts did not exceed the average engagement, the collective overall engagement was above average. DanceOn’s use of branding strategies and tactics, both visually and textually, continues to help strengthen the brand on social media.

Clients: DanceOn, Epoxy.tv, MilesChronicles, Okayplayer, Damon & Jo, Vice Media, William Jardell, Murad Inc., Speedo USA, Anthony James Studio, NSDP/
Skills: Idea-Generating, User Research, Social Marketing, Branding, Trend Forecasting, 3D Rendering, Graphic Design, Illustration, Motion Graphics, Editing, Photography, Photo Retouching.
Tools: Sketchbook, Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Cinema 4D, Adobe After Effects CC, Adobe Premiere CC, Adobe Lightroom CC, Canon 70D, Lighting Kit.