YHC, This Old House, honored by Webby Awards
Written by Jessica Van Sack
We are so excited to announce that we have been honored by the 25th Annual Webby Awards for “Best Overall Social Presence – Brand, Social.” The award recognizes our social media management for our client, the popular PBS series “This Old House.” And it honors the talented experts and content creators of This Old House.
To read our client’s press release, click here.
Yellow House CEO Jessica Van Sack led the repositioning of This Old House on social media. Since we were contracted in 2019, the brand has achieved many wins. Among them:
- This Old House Facebook followers doubled, surpassing 1 million.
- Facebook engagement has increased by 10X.
- All TOH talent are now active on Instagram.
- The brand has launched a new TikTok channel.
A strong Collaboration
Central to our social media strategy for This Old House has been empowering talent as content creators. We began with a social media seminar, in June 2019, convened in the famous barn that has served as a backdrop to Ask This Old House.
One of Richard Trethewey’s first posts on Instagram was about the social media seminar held by Yellow House at the Ask TOH barn.
As TOH’s experts have built out their social channels, our role has focused on repurposing and curating content to deliver maximum value for loyal fans.
Therefore, we share this award with – and are incredibly thankful for:
- Kate Silva, daughter of This Old House General Contractor Tom Silva, for being a TikTok genius!
- Host Kevin O’Connor. Not many TV shows can boast having a host who also takes professional-quality photos. Kevin has a great eye for content and it’s been a huge boon to the brand.
- Meg Reinhardt, photo director for This Old House, who has helped us upgrade the brand’s aesthetic on social media.
- Producers Sara Ferguson, Sarah Chasse, and John Tomlin, who work to keep the social team in the loop, to ensure social content supplements and amplifies the broadcast series.
- This Old House COO Evan Silverman, CMO Lee Boykoff and CEO Dan Suratt for their leadership and support.
- The This Old House cast and crew, for being simply the best.
All of the This Old House cast are experts first. They have their own businesses in the trades. The TV show is their side gig. At a time when quick DIY shortcuts may generate clicks but sacrifice craftsmanship, we feel privileged to work with a crew that values quality and integrity over all else.
Our work with This Old House Social Media
Yellow House Creative manages some 30 social media profiles for Emmy Award-winning “Ask This Old House and “This Old House.” It’s the very same broadcast series that started with Bob Vila’s breakout success in 1979.
Our scope of work includes:
- Directing the entire social media strategy for This Old House
- Creating behind-the-scenes content to promote This Old House episodes
- Optimizing existing content
- Being on set for filming
- Working daily with talent and internal staff
- Social consulting for the This Old House cast
- Helping the TOH sales team create a paid organically social media offering that yielded seven figures for the company last year for the first time
About This Old House
This Old House Ventures, LLC is the company behind the home enthusiast brand, serving over 20 million consumers each month with trusted home improvement information and expert advice.
When This Old House premiered in 1979, the show launched a new television genre. It empowered legions of home remodelers. And more than four decades later, the company boasts two of the top-rated home improvement shows on television.
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has recognized This Old House and Ask This Old House with 19 Emmy® Awards and 102 nominations.
And the brand continues to resonate with audiences across the world, as detailed by The New York Times, Salon and more.
Other than a few changes over the years, the broadcast series has remained true to its original form. Recently, Landscape Contractor Roger Cook retired. Landscape Designer Jenn Nawada, Cook’s protege, then became the first woman expert to star in the series.
This Old House Ventures, LLC, a Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) company, has a production studio in Concord, Massachusetts.
The 2021 award follows a 2020 Webby Award for YHC’s work on Kevin O’Connor’s Instagram.
Download the Case Study
Work with us!
At Yellow House Creative, we believe in empowering innovative organizations to supercharge their social media strategy. The strategy we used to grow This Old House is called our “Viral Blueprint,” and it’s available to our clients. We are accepting new clients. If your brand would like to use this award-winning social media strategy to create wins and ROI, Contact Us!
Check out our winning submission to the Webby Awards here!
Excerpts from our Award-Winning Webby Submission:
PlutoTV’s Battle of the Fandoms
The streaming service PlutoTV announced our client was part of a bracket pitting us against cult favorite shows in 2020.
Through this virtual bracket – involving public voting and pushed on all the major social networks, we received new proof that our social strategy is resonating. TOH fans propelled the show to victory, past the most popular cult favorites. Those formidable opponents included Dr. Who, Mystery Science Theatre, and Unsolved Mysteries.
Due to the power of an engaged social media following, TOH handily beat out the competition only six months after the TOH channel launched on PlutoTV.
AN ENGAGING STRATEGY
Prior to Yellow House taking over, the brand’s social strategy focused on sharing news articles from its magazine and driving web clicks. Organic growth had stalled. Yellow House shifted gears. And, organic growth is the norm.
Put simply, the strategy has two main focuses:
- To create an ongoing conversation with fans.
- To provide entertaining, useful and exclusive content that amplifies the shows.
The TOH pages we manage grow organically, sometimes by thousands of new users a day.
The brand’s TikTok profiles have exploded. And This Old House Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube continue to be a go-to resource for viewers who want to tap the knowledge of our experts. After 42 years on television, America’s oldest home improvement show continues to break new ground on social media.
This iPhone video shot by Jessica Van Sack-Downey was the first This Old House video to ever go viral. It had reached around 20 million people on social last we checked!
What are you waiting for? Go follow This Old House on social media!
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