“5 Stones helped our infant company craft a strategy for social media and then they flawlessly executed that strategy, helping turn our Kickstarter campaign into what became the highest funded Kickstarter campaign in Louisiana history.”
- Tommy Waller, Co-Founder, The Oyster Bed LLC
5 Stones Media knew it was doing something right when The Oyster Bed Kickstarter was identified as a Staff Pick and the brand’s Facebook page grew by nearly 1,000 likes by the end of the campaign’s first weekend. With an initial goal of $50,000, the strategic social marketing efforts of 5 Stones Media jolted The Oyster Bed to a record earning of $79,118 with a total number of 510 backers. Ultimately reaching 158% of its goal, The Oyster Bed became the #1 Most Funded Kickstarter in the state of Louisiana, and Constant Contact recognized the agency’s success at its annual OneCon Partner Conference, held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Created by Tommy and Adam Waller, two Louisianian brothers, and manufactured by Wilton Armetale, makers of fine tableware and platters since 1892, The Oyster Bed is a cooking platter designed to provide professional chefs, at home grillers, tailgaters and seafood lovers a unique method for cooking oysters and other southern dishes. Additionally, The Oyster Bed is deeply tied to Louisiana coastline preservation as it provides an alternative to traditional oyster grilling, a cooking process that renders the natural oyster shell unusable for coastal reclamation.
While developed with much research and manufactured by Wilton Armetale, a name known in cooking specialty shops and department stores, The Oyster Bed was an unknown brand with a new product bearing little resemblance to anything being used in today’s kitchens. Due to budgeting constraints on upstarts, crowdsoursing through Kickstarter.com was determinded to be the best initial road to market, but time was limited and if the campaign failed the Waller brothers would have to face even larger manufacturing chalenges. Moreover, the brand had no online presence and only a small social audience prior to the Kickstarter launch.
To best reach The Oyster Bed’s target audiences 5 Stones Media developed a public relations plan which strongly utilized strategic social media campaigns through Constant Contact’s email marketing platform and on three major social networks, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Strategic messaging was crafted for social media campaigns and email marketing campaigns. Campaigns focused on the following:
- Meet the Waller brothers
- Tommy, the Veteran
- Adam, the Physical Therapist
- How they came up with the idea?
- Interesting oyster facts
- Surprising coastal erosion facts
- Recipes for using The Oyster Bed
- Backer Products Countdown
- Goal updates
- Benefits of pre-shucking Local events
- Join our mailing list
With an initial goal of $50,000, The Oyster Bed Kickstarter project quickly became a Kickstarter Staff Pick and was crowned #1 Most Funded Kickstarter in Louisiana by the end of the campaign. The strategic social marketing efforts of 5 Stones Media proved successful by jolting The Oyster Bed to a record earning of $79,118, 58% more than the campaign’s goal, with 510 backers.
The Oyster Bed’s social media profiles on the social platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram launched two short weeks prior to the Kickstarter project built audiences quickly. Individual platforms were utilized for specific audiences, however the brand’s best performing platform, Facebook, saw more significant gains with growth of nearly 1,000 new Page Likes over the course of one weekend upon launch of the project.
Using segmented lists, The Oyster Bed’s achieved an open rate of 35% with an average click through rate of 25% and were able to remarket. Constant Contact provided the ability to send traffic to the brand’s email list signup through specific campaigns on social platforms and sign up forms on the brand’s website.
As a result of the public relations efforts for The Oyster Bed, 5 Stones Media was recognized as recipient of the "Small Business Supporter Award" from Constant Contact. This award honors Constant Contact partners for their commitment to their small business clients by going above and beyond to help them achieve their goals.
To date, The Oyster Bed business is booming. They have contracted with some highly reputable vendors to sell and manufacture their product. Sales are good and the company, while still very new, is growing dramatically.
