Case Study: GE Engages Visually Presented by: Katrina Craigwell, Manager, Digital Marketing, General Electric Company Katrina will share how GE visually connects with customers and receives inspiration around their vision of building, powering, moving and curing the world. Check out GE on Pinterest and Instagram. www.bdionline.com

1. Visual
Storytelling @ GE
@KCraigwell
GE Corporate
Digital Media

2. WHAT WE’RE
THINKING ABOUT

3. The New Science of Viral Content
1. Prominent Branding Puts Off Viewers
The solution: Utilize “brand pulsing.” Unobtrusively weave the brand image
throughout the ad. Experiments have shown that this can increase viewership by
up to 20%.
2. People Get Bored Right Away
The solution: Create joy or surprise right away.
3.People Watch for a While but Then Stop
The solution: Build an emotional roller coaster.
Viewers are most likely to continue watching a
video ad if they experience emotional ups and
downs. This fits with psychological-research
findings about human adaptability.
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GE Title or job number
9/25/2012

4. Social Distribution
To evaluate the success of co-created custom
content, GE and BuzzFeed analyzed its impact on
users’ perceptions. The “Social Brand Lift Study”
found that branded content creates significant
lifts in brand perception, which are amplified
when the content is discovered through social
media and sharing.
Furthermore, users who discovered the GE
content through trusted recommendation
(Facebook posting, Tweet, email link, etc.) were
83% more likely to consider GE “creative,”
compared to users who found the content from
within BuzzFeed.
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GE Title or job number
9/25/2012

5. WHAT
WE’RE WORKING ON

6. Informing Through Entertainment
In 2010 and 2011, The GE Show took an episodic look at our most innovative
technology across our businesses, from our aviation flight paths, to our solar
panel technology, to scenes from our factory floors.
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GE Title or job number
9/25/2012

7. Try Everything Once
In April 2011, we recognized the momentum of Instagram, and
decided to experiment.
The Brief
Highlight GE’s technology in a fun and engaging way by using new platforms and pivoting off of cultural
trends. Using Instagram’s filters and our staging to create a steampunk aesthetic, we’ll highlight GE’s
latest innovations as technology enthusiasts may have imagined them in the past. We’ll also surface
some of GE’s vintage creations and materials to share what ‘imagination at work’ has looked like
throughout GE’s lifetime.
The Results
i. 123K followers to date (more than @generalelectric on Twitter)
ii. GE ranked among Top 10 Interbrand 100 brands on Instagram
iii. Ongoing earned coverage on sites including, PSFK, Popular Science, Engadget, The Next
Web, Gizmodo, Fortune

8. The Next GE Instagrapher
At the end of 2011, we launched a search for the next GE Instagram photographer.
Results:
i. 4,000 Submissions
ii. 127,000 Page Views on
Facebook
iii. 500,000 Campaign video
views across GE video
and partner videos
“…though this idea may seem a bit
ludicrous to the skeptical eye, realize that
GE is actually doing better at engaging
with a social media audience than the
vast majority of comparable megabrands.
Don’t believe me? Just wait and see how
many people actually participate in this
contest.”

9. The Next GE Instagrapher
Our winner, Adam Senatori, is a former commercial pilot and talented aerial photographer. He
shot at GE Aviation in Wales, UK and went on to shoot events for Aviation throughout 2012.

10. Surfacing GE’s Impact
As we open our doors to illustrate more of what we do, we give people the opportunity to connect
very personal experiences with GE technology. These users represent the ‘impact’ of GE Works.

11. Plug-in to Networks
Tumblr receives 135M+ MUVs, has 72M+ blogs and sees 59M+ posts daily.

12. Playing With New Formats
In January, we visited GE Aviation in Wales for a special Instagram shoot. In addition to a series
of photos, our photographer created 10 animations (or ‘cinemagraphs’), elegantly illustrating
scenes from the factory floor. (Results: 1,700 social shares on Buzzfeed, 250 social shares on
Tumblr.)

13. … and Partners
There’s a great enthusiasm online around celebrating our collective past. This month, we parterned with
BuzzFeed for ‘Nostalgia Month,’ celebrating everything from awesome 90s foods, to famous geeks from the
1900s, to gorgeous Instagram photography of vintage GE technology.

14. Letting Go of the Brand (Without Losing It)
Pinterest is one of our favorite platforms for experimenting with content. From playing with our own
messaging to participating in a meme or two, it’s a great reminder that content should be built around
users.

15. Thinking Mobile
This spring we launched the official GE
feeds on Viddy and SocialCam. We’re
sharing a few things on our feeds:
1. Clips of robotic machinery from
across our facilities
2. Behind the scenes footage from
our Instagram and GE Works
shoots
3. Socialized cut-downs of existing
content
GE’s inaugural Viddy post was named one
of the 10 best Viddy clips by Mashable. GE
was the only brand to make the list.
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GE Title or job number
9/25/2012

16. #ThankYou