Dive Brief:
- Reddit partnered with agency R/GA to launch its first-ever U.S. TV campaign this week, according to a press release shared with Marketing Dive. Coined “Find your people,” the community-based initiative encourages togetherness.
- The campaign will span across national TV, connected TV, digital video platforms, paid social and out-of-home advertisements in the U.S. from now through this fall. It also includes digital out-of-home, digital media, real-life activations and a partnership with Live Nation in Canada.
- The platform’s largest campaign to date showcases the way users can find friendship and shared interests by engaging with Reddit’s numerous forums.
Dive Insight:
Reddit’s “Find your people” campaign sees the social media platform leveraging a more traditional medium, television, as it looks to drive awareness and engagement at a time when the platform is growing.
The message of “Find your people” alludes to the ability of users to engage with individuals around the globe in just about any conversation topic, whether it's about a love for abnormally small cats or must-see places to add to your bucket list. As social media faces growing scrutiny over its lack of privacy controls for users and its potential to be addictive and undermine wellbeing due to some creators’ unrealistic portrayals of their lives, Reddit is calling attention to how its users can be authentic on the platform without the need to share their name, gender, appearance and age.
“As real-life moments continue to highlight our shared need for understanding and belonging, ‘Find your people’ showcases Reddit’s communities as spaces for everyone to connect and gain honest perspectives from real people with similar interests,” said Reddit CMO Roxy Young in a press release.
Attendees of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last week were the first to see a sneak-peek of Reddit’s new campaign if they stopped by its custom-built clubhouse. The campaign officially launched following the festival and will run from now through the fall.
There will also be variations of Reddit’s campaign in Canada that includes a partnership with Live Nation and agency Salt XC to appeal to 70% of Canadian platform users that are reportedly interested in music, according to insight from GWI shared in the release.
The new campaign is the first time Reddit will be on the big screen since its five-second, award-winning Super Bowl advertisement in 2021. The same year, Reddit set up its first in-house creative agency, KarmaLab, as a means to scale its ad business, attract new marketers and capitalize on the surge in digital engagement. The efforts proved to make an impact — Reddit reports that it saw a 42% increase in brand relevance in the U.S. in 2021.
Reddit certainly isn’t the first social media platform to lean into consumer advertising. YouTube continues to battle with TikTok to win over consumers and marketers with its short-form video platform YouTube Shorts, while Meta, previously known as Facebook, recently released a commercial that continues pushing the metaverse, though many brands struggle to find where they fit.
The “Find your people” campaign follows a string of other recent efforts by Reddit to bring people together, namely the April 1 re-launch of r/place, a collaborative online canvas first launched in 2017. Just one day after the re-launch, Reddit’s mobile app usage increased 25%, reaching an all time high, compared to the same day one year prior, according to findings by Sensor Tower. The platform in June also launched its Community Funds program, which accepts nominations for projects to receive up to $50,000 in funding from Reddit.
