• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, April 24, 2020

In her presentation at Lake Tahoe last August, Rust-Oleum's Lisa Bialecki took us through three dozen well-crafted slides as she talked about giving up control of the creative to user-generated content. Check them out!

The brand sought to inspire the next generation of DIYers -- Millennials, who had grown up with social, where things "have to be perfect," said the senior director of communications at Rust-Oleum. They have a "fear of mucking up" or FOMU.

With a new campaign that launched in July 2019, "Pride in the Making," Rust-Oleum focused on creative content. By leveraging consumer-generated content and using real customers doing real projects, it created videos to share on social channels. "It is so hard for a brand to let go like that," said Bialecki. 

Letting go brought in great results. The brand saw 53 million impressions on social media, brand lift was 79% higher than average for the vertical, and brand life was 44% higher than average in North America.

Nicely done, Lisa!