How Poland’s leading convenience store promoted my art for free 🐸
How did I end up on Żabka’s – Poland’s leading convenience store – Instagram profile?
Like many good things in life, I got featured on Żabka’s IG profile quite by accident.
The story
One day, I was waiting at a tram stop in Katowice, a city in southern Poland. As I stood there, observing the morning hustle and bustle of the city, an interesting scene unfolded before me.
Three girls were walking down the pavement, carrying their luggage and engaged in conversation. They were about to pass by a Żabka store, and I thought to myself, “This would make a nice picture.”
So, I patiently waited until they got closer to the store window and click – I took a photo. Later, I turned it into the artwork you can see here:
I almost didn’t paint it
You should know that this artwork was my contribution to the Plein Airpril 2023 Challenge, specifically for day 16. By that point, I was quite fed up with painting every day for over two weeks in a row, so there was a decent chance I would give up on this painting. Fortunately, I didn’t.
@mleczny_mlecz x Żabka
I tagged Żabka’s official Instagram profile on my photo, and it turned out to be a game-changer. I wasn’t following Żabka on Instagram, and I had no idea what they do there. My only intention was to tag them so that my post would show up in their profile under the “Tagged” tab – perhaps someone would see it and like it.
A few days later, they DMed me and asked if they could share my post on their feed. I said, “Sure, go ahead!” They also sent me some free coffee codes (though they didn’t work 😆).
So, they posted my art on their profile and promoted it with Meta Ads, as they do with all their posts.
The next day, when I opened the Instagram app, I was flooded with likes. In just one day, I gained almost 1,000 followers.
Ultimately, that one Żabka post with my painting received almost 27k likes on their profile and boosted my profile with +1,200 followers.
What happened next?
- Currently, I have around 1,490 followers. My new posts generate approximately 100 likes on average, and new followers don’t really come in much. Despite that…
- … the followers I have are really great people. I’ve received many wonderful messages, with people telling me they love my paintings. Some of them have even asked if I sell prints!
- I’m slowly moving forward, focusing on what I love. I paint, create 2D animations, started a newsletter (which has gained some subscribers), and now I’m playing around with my own website.
Summary
That’s the long story short! I never, even for a second, thought that the post would shake up my Instagram profile. So, keep creating art and sharing it – you’ll never know who might see it and where it might take you.
If you’re curious about :
- my Instagram profile statistics and how this event influenced them in detail,
- what happened to me after painting for 30 days straight,
be sure to check out my upcoming articles.
See you!
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