How Prime Day Turned the Average Person into an Influencer, Whether They Knew It or Not

Amazon Prime Day, 2018, set a new record for the company’s largest sales event ever. It was so successful that their site went down for a short period of time on the morning of the event. The massive amount of customer traffic overloaded the site. Once back online the sales continued, Amazon products flew off the virtual shelves. Amazon’s Echo sold well, along with many other popular items of 2018. The Instant Pot sold nearly 300,000 products over the course of the day.

Amazon Prime Day has become a special occasion for customers worldwide. There was a predicted $4 billion in sales among all product categories, how has Amazon reached this level of profitability?

Answer: It’s You, It’s Me, It’s Everybody

You’d think an army of tech-savvy marketers must be spamming emails, social media, and every known news outlets to generate the customer traffic Amazon experienced on Prime Day. However, Amazon knows how to spark hype among their customers; they promote their sales in advance with consistent quality content that leads to plenty of customer engagement before, during, and even after.

Amazon’s #PrimeDay hashtag turned the ‘average joe’ Instagram user into ambassadors and micro-influencers on behalf of Amazon even if they weren’t aware of their impact. With this hashtag, people shared their purchases and savings. This marketing method worked wonders across social media platforms, creating influence by the masses. The hype of Prime Day raised awareness through social media and influenced others to jump on the bandwagon.

Social Media and a Clever Marketing Method Makes Everyone an Influencer
People love deals. This is why Prime Day, specifically the hashtag, did so well. People get excited about sharing photos of their new nifty gear and gadgets, this is even more true when they saved a load of money.

Amazon took advantage of the excitement for Prime Day and combined it with a clever Influencer marketing plan. Ariana Grande, Julia Michaels and Alessia Cara performed at the Amazon Unboxing Prime Day Concert in New York.

Instagram account ‘Golden Retrievers’ used the #PrimeDay hashtag to great effect while promoting the Furbo brand, resulting in an unexpected tens of thousands of likes on their products:

The power of influence resulted in a record-setting day for the company!