Jumping quickly onto Facebook's increasing interest in original video content, the main marketing tactic for the launch of Michelle Phan's first book was a clever social video strategy that leveraged 22 individual videos to give fans a peek inside the book. Fans had the unprecedented opportunity to hear directly from Michelle about her inspiration for each chapter and even see inside each one before the book was released. Videos were made separately for Facebook and Instagram, maximizing the potential of each platform to drive awareness for the book. During the busy press tour on the book's launch day, which started at NBC's Today Show, Michelle took over an hour to engage her fans in a live Q&A on Facebook. In recognition of this unique and innovative strategy, Facebook shared each video to both their official Authors and Celebrity pages, driving the reach to over 8 million people - something they had never done before or since. With its debut, the book reached the NY Time's best-sellers list for its category.
When the strategy was launched, in September 2014, it was one of the very first storytelling-driven video series campaigns on Facebook, with 11 unique videos for Facebook and 11 for Instagram, released over the course of six weeks. Facebook made the unprecedented move to share 11 straight videos from Michelle to their officially-run Authors and Celebrity pages. Finally, Facebook recognized the innovative campaign with an official case study on their corporate blog and the campaign also won gold in the AVA Digital Awards.
