If you are a student at Virginia Tech, it was nearly impossible NOT to know that there was a free concert on the Drillfield, Tuesday, October 18. I personally heard the sound, the promotion and concert: check shaking the windows in my 12:30 and 2 o’clock classes in Torgersen. However, even if you knew there was a concert, you might not have known why.
Each year, the brand of Victoria’s Secret called “PINK” hosts a contest among colleges across the country for the chance to win a concert from a major artist on their campus. This year, Virginia Tech won the contest for a SECOND time and got to hear the amazing DJ, Diplo, perform.
So why does VS PINK do this contest and what is it for? Most people would say it’s just a “fun thing” that Victoria’s Secret does, but we know it’s for something bigger. The VS PINK brand is designed for younger generations versus their Victoria’s Secret brand, which is promoted for women. This entire contest is a giant social media marketing campaign targeted directly to their biggest VS PINK market, college-aged women! And here is why:
The Contest: VS PINK App
At the start of the competition, in order to get your school in the running, each eligible voter has to download the VS PINK app on their smart phone. After doing so, a voter must migrate to the “VS PINK Campus Showdown” page and each college that has a VS PINK organization is eligible to participate. Voters must “tap” a button as many times as possible and the top 25 colleges with the most taps has a chance to compete for the concert.
Easy enough, right? Of course if someone gets even a hint of an idea of this going around on campus, they’re going to want to try! And boom, VS PINK now has that more many app downloads and accounts for their sites *which requires you to enter an email address so they can elect to send you promotional emails. Very smart.
Follow us on Twitter @vtechvspink !
Round 1 of the “showdown” includes “tweeting to win,” in which voters are required to follow their VS PINK campus reps’ social pages for more information and the chance to move to the top 25. Here, each campus VS PINK organization in the running gains more followers, and some people may have even SUBSCRIBED to the page to stay updated- genius.
At this point in time voters are required to tweet out the VS PINK hashtag #PINKCampusShowdown along with their schools hashtag you could only get from their social page, ours being #VTShowdown. Keep in mind, as this is going on, the more people tweeting their hashtags, the more likely it is to be a “trending topic” on twitter which creates that much more awareness about the contest and VS PINK around the twitterverse.
Wait, Follow US on Instagram @PINKCampusShowdown !
And here is Round 2 with a different social media site! This round required you to go to the PINK Campus Showdown Instagram page and out of the top 25, you must “like” the picture posted of your school’s campus gear. From here, the top 4 schools were chosen.
You may be thinking, “why are they making us like all these things?” At this point in the competition, you’re in deep! So now they decided to show all of us who are voting a picture of a cute Virginia Tech tank top we could buy from them! Prepping our minds to spend money for it in the future.
Oh, and if you tagged an additional 10 friends in the photo, you have a chance to win a free VT PINK Jersey! 10 friends, that’s 10 more likes, 10 more tank top views and possibly FREE STUFF?? A win-win situation for everyone!
FINALLY! THE TOP 4!
The final round of the competition included, and you guessed it, following your school’s official VS PINK Instagram page! On a select day, your PINK campus reps would release a video and the school with the most views within the allowed 24 hour time slot wins! So if you haven’t followed all the pages yet, at this point you certainly have.
The Promotion and Concert: VS PINK Launches their First Line of Activewear!
If you weren’t blown away by the amount of social media marketing that went into the contest itself, don’t worry, it doesn’t end there:
During the timeframe between the contest and the concert, it’s no secret that a strategically-placed marketing campaign from VS PINK happened with the launching of their very first athletic wear line. By now, every person that worked so hard to win this concert is still following every social page from VS PINK and the VT PINK campus reps, which means everyone is seeing this!
Not only is the awareness heightened, but the VT PINK campus reps hosted a giant Zumba session in McComas on October 10 to kick off the launch of VS PINK’s new active wear. 464 Hokies were in attendance at this event and the first 75 people in the door got free stuff! #promotion #freegear #everyonelovesvspinknow
LAST, BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST… DIPLO!
So the day has finally come! Diplo was set and ready to perform for all Hokie students! But wait, do we need tickets? What time is he performing? What else is happening at the event?
Aha, you could only find out the concert details through, and yes you guessed it, @vtechvspink handles! Logistics were posted all over their social channels, the Twitter account was live tweeting answers to questions and you had to “screenshot” your ticket from their Snapchat story to get in! As one of the social media channels not utilized during the contest, they of course needed one more plug to follow them on Snapchat.
So you’re in! Finally at the concert and VS PINK had set up SO MANY ACTIVITIES! They included a carnival slide, a blow up obstacle course, VS PINK hearts to get that oh-so-cute Instagram picture for later, and lastly, a clothing booth to buy all of your VT VS PINK clothing items. In addition to the activities, they also handed out free glow sticks, sunglasses and foam fingers.
And there you have it! After 3 hours of hype from the opening DJ, Diplo FINALLY performed and gave Hokie Nation the concert of a lifetime and it was a night all of us will never forget.
Special thank you to everyone from @vtechvspink and @vspink for making this happen and to Diplo for an epic night! We can’t wait to do this all again next year!
Sources: VTechVSPINK, VTechVSPINK, VS PINK