Hi guys! Hope you’ve all been doing well! 🙂

Why I chose #DW!

This line was actually what made me chose DW and when I read it I knew I could be buddies with the CEO. The CEO of DW, #Tysander, famously remarked that he ‘refuses to pay for traditional advertising’. (#woohoo!) I believe that though traditional advertising can be important, it is definitely #not #necessary to garner success. DW is one of the unique brands that rely solely on social media marketing to build up its brand reputation, brand equity, and loyal following.

Interestingly, to date, DW is the witness of massive growth in social media engagement and following – total actions in Instagram grew by a staggering 1,149% from June 2014 to May 2015 – and the witness of an #incredibly #successful #strategy where the company recorded a 214% year-over-year increase in revenue!

Thus, being a ‘#golden #child’ in the social media arena, I really wanted to find out “How did Daniel Wellington leverage on social media to build its brand equity?”

So… What did I find out from collecting data?

From Synthesio, various other social media analytics platform, and Facebook + Twitter + Instagram, DW was way ahead of its peers in Instagram. They recently reached their 2 million followers on Instagram and dedicated a whole month to the celebration of their achievement! #DWMOAM

Also (if you’ve noticed by now) I included a lot of hash tags in the above short introduction because that was one of the #best strategies that DW ever had – hash tag campaigns. DW used hash tags everywhere and anywhere (almost) to reach out to the millions outside of DW followers. This strategy led to their Instagram content being generated (90%!) by its followers which we term user-generated content. I was blown away when I first found out, not sure if you already have (ha).

So what was the exact reason(s) that contributed to DW’s success?

Synthesising their whole history, social media policies, and their current usage of their social media platforms, DW seem to have understood two things – building relationships and understanding who they do business with.

Hence in their timeline and subsequent activities, these two principles stood out in all the policies that followed. 3 main strategies contributed to their miracle success –

1. DW started off with a #Revolutionary Influencer Strategy. It was a beautiful mix of the right time, right trends, right brand. DW works with thousands of influencers, and by influencing a few thousand, they influence a few million.
2. DW was exceptional in Content Marketing! They integrated marketing and PR so seamlessly that people didn’t know they did that. On the same social media platforms where they marketed new launches, they built relationships with their customers. It felt like, hey DW’s my friend. It was extraordinary. 🙂
3. DW was phenomenal in their Integrated Marketing Communications. Their message was clear, unified, consistent across all platforms; and they heavily leveraged on crowd-sourced campaigns which made use of their social media platforms. 

Challenges & Suggestions

However, there’s always a weak spot somewhere and for DW, it was their crisis management. DW suffers from complaints of delivery, of authenticity, and of transparency. From the analysis of the reviews on DW Facebook, consumers feel that they are paying for more than what is worth for the watch. Hence one recommendation was to look at the case study of Bratwaith – a company eerily similar to DW. They did something right, which was to be extremely open, honest and transparent when dealing with customers. Thus we suggested for DW to do the same but in their own stylish way.

Another issue was their connections with consumers. DW has a huge fan base but when we visualise the social network analysis, it’s DW in the middle with millions of straight lines going out from DW. In essence, DW has a great relationship with their consumers but not among their consumers. DW needs to connect with and connect their fans on a deeper level in order to build a sustainable brand image that lives on. As a case study, we looked at  Harley Davidson, at the club and outings that the Harley boys initiated and at the tattoos that the Harley boys got. Hence I suggested DW to look at emotional storytelling. Harley boys continued that tribe outside of the brand because of their emotional connection with the brand.

That’s all from me – Jun Wen of G1. Hope you enjoyed my journey in following DW as much as I did! I really liked their style and brand personality. 🙂 and may you have an enjoyable hols!