Dive Brief:

• Home furnishings company Design Within Reach is finding success in expanding its highly visual approach to social media networks like Pinterest and Instagram.

• The entries to its popular “champagne chair contest,” in which people are asked to create a chair from the foil, cork, and cage of a champagne bottle, would have to be sent to its headquarters in the days before social media — now Pinterest and Instagram allow for creative customers to enter easily.

• The company works with social media imaging company Curalate to hold the contest now, enabling the company to increase its email list, Instagram hashtags, and Pinterest pins. Engagement with customers on Instagram jumped 238%. Pinterest has become similarly useful for engagement and sales.

Dive Insight:

The furnishings company Design Within Reach made a splash when it started in the 1990s because it offered products more sleek and modern than the more dominant Crate and Barrel and Pottery Barn aesthetic. It has always leveraged its catalog for full visual impact, and that strategy is now coming in handy as it dives into the high visual social networks Pinterest and Instagram. This is an example of a retailer finding the sweet spot on social media and taking full advantage of it.