Skol Scribbles Overview
Competition on social media platforms has never been greater. On Snapchat and Instagram Stories, the Vikings only have a matter of nanoseconds to captivate someone and encourage them to interact back and forth. For the third year in a row, the Minnesota Vikings looked to stand out in an increasingly saturated social media environment with Skol Skribbles. Game highlight images are illustrated into a theme based on the time of year or current trend, creating the digital equivalent to the coloring books that everyone grew up with as a child.
Core Strategies
- Leverage the power of both technology and a talented illustrator
- Create platform-native content that could only be done on Snapchat or Instagram Stories
- Unleash the power of fan creativity and give them a chance to participate
- Align with the existing Transformation Tuesday trend that was already wildly popular on social media
The Process of Skol Scribbles
After each game during the 2019 season, the Minnesota Vikings social team sorts through a variety of game images to determine which ones would be ideal candidates to transform into an illustrated story. Once the image is selected, the team polls Instagram and Snapchat audiences what theme they'd like to see the image transformed into. Once the submissions have been gathered, the Vikings social media team and award-winning artist, Evan Garber, choose a final fan idea. Garber quickly creates high-quality "scribbled" masterpieces based off the fan’s idea submission to post on stories. This gives fans the opportunity to screenshot the illustration to use as wallpaper for the background of their phone each week. Winning fan submissions receive a copy of the illustration with an autograph from the player featured. This encourages fans to come back week after week to see if their idea was chosen for the Skol Scribbles feature of the week in stories.
"The process consisted of selecting a photo of a player we wanted to highlight for that week, then based on the posture and positioning of the player, the fans would use their creative eye and suggest ways that we could transform them and their surroundings into something completely different and clever!" -Evan Garber, Skol Scribbles Creator
Garber most enjoys the creativity behind Skol Scribbles. Not only does he get a chance to be creative, but he is helping fans find a way to celebrate their favorite moments and players in an interactive fashion.
"This year, Skol Scribbles was altered from Transformation Tuesday to Wallpaper Wednesday! This provided a fun twist from the typical football action photo to a creative, unique and imaginative piece which fans used as their phone background going into each week’s game! The creative process for Skol Scribbles this year was different than previous years in the way that we let our Vikings fans come up with the transformation concept." -Evan Garber, Skol Scribbles Creator
Noteworthy Examples
The Results
When Tuesday came around, fans from around the country sent in their original ideas for a chance to be featured. On Snapchat, Skol Scribbles series generated an average of 14,800 views per series, in addition to seeing an average of 400 screen shots per series. Instagram impressions were well over 60,000 for the entire series. From a fan submission standpoint, the accounts received thousands of idea submissions across Snapchat and Instagram each week. Additionally, players from the Vikings often interacted with posts where they were featured, some even choosing to use the illustration as their phone background.
"The participation and enthusiasm from fans submitting ideas each week just goes to show how knowledgeable, original and devoted they are to their much loved football team. That’s what makes the Vikings community so special!" -Evan Garber, Skol Scribbles Creator