"We truly view Emplifi as partners for our success. I appreciate that Emplifi has tailored the technology to work for our needs and processes, versus the other way around." — Maisie Antoniello, Vice President of Marketing at Jones Soda Co.
Since 1995, premium soda brand Jones Soda has been well known for bold, unique flavors, colors, and ever-changing labels. With community at their core, Jones Soda is famous for featuring user-generated content (UGC) from passionate consumers on its soda bottle labels.
By 2010, Jones Soda had amassed over one million submissions from fans hoping to be featured on the label. Now, with increasing digital touch points and unique technological activations available, the brand sought a scalable way to streamline its UGC collection process, all while displaying the incredible community content in unique and innovative ways. Ultimately, the Jones Soda team chose Emplifi to power their community-driven marketing.
Augmented reality to bring UGC to life
As a pioneer on the UGC and tech front, Jones Soda didn’t stop at static images when it came to celebrating customer content. The brand’s “Reel Labels” campaign allows users to submit videos to be showcased on-site via Emplifi, which the team then turned into an AR experience on real-life soda bottle labels. Customers could watch the reels come to life by scanning labels with the Jones Soda app on their smartphones.
"Emplifi is at the forefront of technology for leveraging UGC – from images to videos, we're able to do a lot more with our visual UGC," Antoniello said.
The AR content Jones Soda collected and curated with Emplifi is valuable because of its flexibility for innovative reuse across various channels, including email, social media, and an on-site gallery.
"The support from the Emplifi team has been beyond helpful," said Erin Moriarty, Social Media & Digital Marketing Manager at Jones Soda Co. "Every time I have an issue, team members would troubleshoot with me and come up with a creative solution to get around the issue. And there was always a way."
Revamping the collection and display of UGC on-site
Emplifi created a smooth transition from a manually-led photo gallery of customer content collected over the years to 54 automated UGC galleries site-wide, including product pages and a dedicated campaign page where customers can vote on their favorite label submissions from other fans. This unique site page drove a massive 69% engagement rate and generated over 4,600 community votes in just one month.
"Before Emplifi, we had this on-its-own-island gallery that was a bit dated and lacked some necessary functionality," Antoniello said. "We asked ourselves, ‘What does it look like rebuilding from bottom up?’ After exploring our options for UGC, we chose Emplifi."
Jones Soda’s "Unsung Heroes" campaign celebrated individuals going above and beyond for their community during the pandemic. Using Emplifi, fans could nominate those who inspired them for a chance to be featured on the website, and possibly a bottle. By showcasing not only the visual but the accompanying caption, Jones Soda was able to paint a full picture of each community member.
"Emplifi allowed us to publish all the submissions we received from our Unsung Heroes campaign to tell our community’s story," Moriarty said. "By including the submissions with the captions, we were really able to tell the story behind the content."
Omnichannel UGC activation
Automating the UGC curation process lets the Jones Soda team celebrate the creativity from its community across its most important marketing channels, making sure no submission goes unrecognized. The brand’s team showcases UGC in diverse ways, incorporating Emplifi galleries into Klaviyo email campaigns and sharing UGC on its social media profiles.
"There are a lot of tools in Emplifi that we felt were good in terms of helping to create virality through voting and engagement, and that helped build the business and promote brand awareness," Antoniello said.
Jones Soda also gives site visitors the option to shop directly from each piece of UGC displayed on-site with Emplifi’s Shoppable Gallery Badges, driving a 5% increase in average order value and 25% increase in time spent on-site.
"We saw a direct impact on our DTC business because of Emplifi and it made for a much more frictionless experience and majorly upgraded our galleries," Antoniello said.
The Jones Soda team looks forward to furthering its dedication to customers and inspiring its fanbase of talented creators to continue sharing their creations with the brand’s community.
