Objective

Smokey Bear is the iconic figure behind the longest-running public service advertisement campaign in U.S. history, educating Americans on wildfire prevention since 1944. The brand was looking to develop a social media strategy in collaboration with the Ad Council, focusing on growth, engagement, and aligning with the USDA Forest Service and National Association of State Foresters’ guidelines. As a result, we developed a comprehensive strategy that ensured all content tied back to Smokey’s cause of wildfire prevention and that everything within the strategy would ladder up to that objective. We aimed to illustrate that you can participate in trends, boost visibility of Smokey Bear, and deepen his relationship with existing and growth audiences while keeping his core "Only You" messaging on individual responsibility and prevention steps front and center. A large part of the content and channel strategy was developing an Instagram presence that would do the following:

• Generate top-of-mind awareness of Smokey Bear among existing target audiences while strengthening Smokey’s voice, identity and recognition among new audiences.
• Educate the public on wildfire prevention, Smokey’s role in the wildfire prevention system, and encouraging personal responsibility in taking prevention measures. Provide memorable, easy-to-follow wildfire prevention tips in a social-first format.
• Deepen Smokey’s emotional connection with existing fans and growth audiences, encouraging brand advocacy and meaningful interactions and conversations.
• Remain a culturally relevant icon by tapping into trends on platforms that resonate with audiences to help expand Smokey's reach to new generations while preserving his trusted message.

Strategy

We crafted and executed the Instagram strategy through different phases.

Initial Research

We combed previous historical data and insights to determine how to optimize the platform's creative strategy. This included defining target and growth audiences, audience research, analysis of past performance, and competitor/industry analysis. For every step, we started with “People First”, keeping what the audience wants and cares about top-of-mind and then creating content that aligns to the brand’s objectives.

Strategic Framework

We used these insights to create a strategic framework where we defined our overall objectives that would also trickle down to the Instagram-specific strategy. These goals laddered up to the brand's marketing and business goals so that everything felt cohesive and built synergy. We developed tactics to achieve these objectives including:

• Connection with new audiences through social trends/memes
• Participation in relevant tentpole moments
• PSA-supporting social media content
• Wildfire prevention tips/"edutaining" content series
• “Only You” Messaging
• Social creative with CTAs
• Reactive + proactive engagement with fans
• Content that showcases Nostalgia + Iconic History

Channel + Content Strategy

We then created the platform-specific strategy. This included defining content cadence, content pillars, key seasons and events, social voice, and visual guidelines.

Some of our visual standards:

• Visual illustrations of Smokey Bear’s teachings are meant to enhance his message, not take away from it. We don’t cheapen it for likes. We use relevant tangents to tell the stories.
• Smokey Bear is iconic. We want to show his message off in ways that surprise people and create a sense of togetherness as they scroll.
• We create a welcoming environment that everyone’s a member of by showcasing the approachability and beauty of Smokey Bear and his branding color palette to deliver a natural and inspiring aesthetic, relatable to our target audience. Content is educational and entertaining with a sense of evergreen wisdom and consistent focus on wildfire prevention.

After the strategy is finalized, we moved to the on-going work.

Editorial Planning + Content Creation

As part of our working relationship, we meet regularly to editorial plan and create a monthly calendar for Smokey Bear. This content is created and repurposed for multiple platforms and features a variety of formats including Reels, carousels, static images, and Stories.

One of the challenges with content is being relevant and social-friendly while staying true to Smokey's message and his legacy. To achieve this, we are constantly researching and learning to become wildfire prevention experts ourselves. This way, we can elevate our ability to identify opportunities for Smokey to join in on social conversation. While we love hopping on trends, we want to make sure it always makes sense and is brand-safe for Smokey to partake and also relate it back to his overall message.

Reporting

Each quarter, we create a report that includes goal setting and benchmarking, content performance, tracking to annual goals, optimization opportunities, and larger insights. This allows us to constantly analyze content and glean insights that, ultimately, will help us enhance content and keep Smokey's Instagram page a must-follow for fans.

Results

Our objective was to bring Smokey Bear’s timeless “Only You” wildfire prevention message to Instagram in a way that felt authentic, relevant, and unmistakably Smokey while meeting audiences where they already are. Since we began implementing the strategy in April of 2025, our results* demonstrated that this balance is not only possible, but powerful:

• Follower Growth: We've seen a steady increase of fans with 24,000 New Followers on the platform.
• Increased Views: Content continued to receive new looks throughout the year with 2,210,385 Impressions.
• Unparalleled Engagement: There have been 134,094 Engagements on content from fans consisting of likes, saves, shares, and comments.
• Engaged Audiences: With a 6% Average Engagement Rate, Smokey Bear content outperformed the non-profit industry standard on Instagram.

By centering individual responsibility and actionable prevention tips, Smokey’s Instagram evolved into a social-first education platform without losing the warmth, authority, or nostalgia that define the character. We successfully connected with both longtime fans and new audiences by pairing wildfire prevention guidance with Instagram-native formats such as short-form video, trend participation, and UGC thus making safety information easier to understand, remember, and share.

Smokey’s Instagram presence in 2025 showed that wildfire prevention can be engaging, culturally fluent, and shareable. By meeting audiences in moments of joy, humor, and creativity, we increased the memorability and accessibility of critical safety messaging, fulfilling our objective and proving our approach a success.

*Results are from April-December 2025

Media