When we joined Snapchat in October 2017, we knew that we wanted to create a way for students to interact with us, rather than just a one-way method of viewing our content. Here at UConn, we know that our mascot, Jonathan the Husky, is always a great way to get students involved.
We developed a campaign called, “Husky Doodles,” where students screenshot a picture of a Jonathan bobblehead and dress him up on Snapchat. We launched it in December 2017 and started by having our followers dress up Jonathan for the holidays. Knowing that this was a campaign we wanted to continue with, we also developed a set of surrounding graphics to create a consistent visual identity. We felt this would be key to running a successful set of campaigns, making it easy for our followers to recognize and participate in it.
At the conclusion of this campaign, there were 89 screenshots of the bobblehead and 32 individual submissions. Check out some of our favorites below!
Thinking back to our original goal, we really wanted to have students interact with us and our content, and that we did! The other benefit of this type of post is that it gives us an opportunity to tap into current events and holidays in a unique way. So, for the future, we hope to keep running this campaign and come up with new ideas that engage our audience, especially after the Snapchat redesign made it even more challenging to grab their attention. When in doubt, a happy husky never fails!