Pumpkin spice and everything nice

Plus, a look at GoPro's successful social media strategy [View this email in your browser]( Pumpkin spice and everything nice Summer may not technically be over for another month but don’t try telling that to all the autumn aesthetes out there because pumpkin spice is BACK baby. Last week, Starbucks celebrated the relaunch of the seasonal drink, and it captured plenty of attention through both its media coverage and its brand partnerships. This came in the form of more than 3,000 articles written about the launch, which drove more than 180k engagements on social media, with [CNN’s article]( about the iconic drink’s return for the 20th consecutive year getting 10k on its own. While an impressive feat in its own right, the most engagement actually came through Instagram, where Ed Sheeran showed up at a Seattle Starbucks with his extremely on-theme floppy hair to serve as a barista for a day. [Sheeran’s post]( on Instagram has seen more than 400k engagements and rising, and is serving as a cross-promotion for his new album that will come out in September. Of course, whenever you get any kind of successful product recognition, other brands will tag along as best they can, and one interesting example of that this week was NYX cosmetics reimagining the ‘PSL’ as [pumpkin spice lippies]( which saw more than 380k, and shows the power of a playful take on social. Showing is better than telling for GoPro GoPro has been in the game since the early 2000s, and from the very beginning the brand has been praised for doing one thing a lot better than others when it comes to social media — marketing its products with consumers rather than at consumers. GoPro quickly realized the power of user-generated content, and the success of that can be seen from its early partnerships with the likes of olympic [snowboarder Shaun White]( showing off his half-pipe tricks in a YouTube video from his POV, and from its [alliance with Red Bull]( where GoPro was used to help athletes self-document themselves in their sport at hundreds of Red Bull events around the world. Today, GoPro is still giving its advertising power to the user, and something that is unique to the brand’s UGC strategy is that the product is rarely ever featured in its content. But that’s on purpose, as there’s nothing better than seeing the product in action and inspiring people to want to recreate the experience for themselves. While over a decade ago YouTube was the go-to platform to share this type of UGC, it’s now in the hands of Instagram and TikTok, where GoPro has 20M and 2.8M followers respectively. Short-video content has been an exciting way for the brand to highlight new products by letting the user [show off the adventures]( having with them, and it’s clearly resonating with their audience. QUICK-SERVE RESTAURANTS IN 2023 The standout headlines, flavors, and menu items [Read report →]( The DEI INITIATIVES IN 2023 Trends, challenges, and the brands prioritizing efforts [Read report→]( LINKEDIN LIVE TECH DEMO DAY Generative AI, new networks & predictive analytics [Register →]( SUSTAINABILITY IN 2023 Sustainability across social media [Read report →]( [Website icon]( [Twitter icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( Copyright (C) 2023 NewsWhip. All rights reserved. You're receiving this email because you opted in for the NewsWhip blog newsletter and updates. Our mailing address is: NewsWhip 42 Pearse Street Dublin, D02 YX88 Ireland Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe](