These days the concepts of modern and digital marketing are changing by the speed of light. Many of the changes happed thanks to the power of social media.
Today we are taking a look at the story about the rise of the Hawkers sunglasses brand. Four young entrepreneurs launched their own brand of sunglasses, Hawkers. They now sell their sunglasses in over 50 countries, and had a turnover of more than 15 million euros, and employ about 40 people.
They have produced for Mercedes Benz and PayPal, and their sunglasses are worn by national and international celebrities such as Paula Echevarría, Usher and Dani Alves. Not forgetting that they have become the “first Spanish company” to sponsor a team from the NBA, in this case, the Los Angeles Lakers.
This LA based company has grown from having a few followers to a global presence, based entirely on the social power of Instagram. Hawkers are their followers and their followers are Hawkers – an Internet-bred community eager to see the newest stunning shades model or “like” the next awesome photo.
With their finger on the pulse and their eyes on the latest trends on the streets, Hawkers is always eager to collaborate with new brands and Instagram powerhouses alike.
The basic idea was to join the community and become a new rising star among the eyewear brands. For them social media works as a mean to send their message and showcase their products and also the company is influenced by their loyal followers.
The company used UGC (User-Generated Content) to make their Instagram account successful. How this worked?
Hawkers invited their followers to be a part of their daily internet routine, whether it’s Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. They sent messages like: This 24 hour code you blink and you’ll miss it; tag your friend and get some free Hawkers for you both. Things like that surprise fans and they don’t expect what their next move is going to be and what to expect next.
How about using Facebook Ads? They reached a point in which they were investing €10,000 per day and targeted youth with a $50 coupon on ads and they started to grow from there. Facebook Ads let them reach exactly their target audience by showing different styles and attributes depending on the potential buyer’s characteristics.
On the one hand, they used the so-called retargeting technique, based on the insertion of a code in the website that generates a cookie for the user that visits the website.
After visiting the website, whenever the user is surfing the net, a Hawkers ad would appear showing the pair of glasses that interested them with a discount. This was possible thanks to the cookie called a conversion pixel.
Feeling inspired? This is Hawkers’ story, the e-commerce that blew up in the sunglasses market niche thanks to mastering Facebook Ads and Instagram.