Picture this: It’s a freezing cold day in January and you can’t come up with one good reason to leave your house. You’re curled up on the couch, binge-watching The Office for the hundredth time, and mindlessly scrolling through Instagram.
In the midst of the scroll, you see an email notification pop up that not even a minorly offensive Michael Scott joke could distract you from. It’s an invite to an exclusive shopping event at your favorite boutique happening that evening, complete with in-store fashion consultants, discount codes, and even complimentary wine. Five minutes ago, you were planning your second nap of the day. Now, Netflix is off and you’re dressed, wallet in hand and heading out to brave the cold for this event.
Think this is all happening by chance? Negative. It’s a slew of savvy retail marketers behind the scenes who understand that increasing in-store foot traffic and sales requires some ingenuity. In many cases, this means a killer event marketing strategy they can apply to all stores and watch as sales, traffic, and brand loyalty strengthen.
During NRF Conference in New York, we hosted a panel with some of the top event pros from Kendra Scott, Burton, and Anthropologie to understand how these retail giants are approaching events in 2020. While these three businesses are completely unique, they have one very important thing in common: They know in-person events are key to retail success. Here’s how they’re taking those events to the next level.
When an event strategy involves hundreds of stores around the globe, ensuring scalability can be a massive challenge. While the store a mile down the street from headquarters always hosts events aligned to brand guidelines and business goals, what about the store two continents away? They’re likely hosting events that don’t quite match the beautiful brand HQ works so hard to create.
Kaitlin Cameron, VP of Global Consumer Marketing at Burton, explained the challenges of rolling out what was once a North American event program, globally. “[Splash has helped us] understand the different ways a customer from Germany or Austria interacts with our brand and what events are most successful given the local nuances.” By using the event marketing platform, Kaitlin can ensure that all digital elements of an event are on-brand, while still giving stores the freedom to create events that are attractive to the local audience.
It takes a seasoned (and humble) retail pro to acknowledge this: The marketing director at HQ doesn’t always know best when it comes to hosting events in a country or state they aren’t familiar with. This is why “localization” is one of the most important aspects of a successful retail event marketing strategy.
Amy Young, Director of Retail Marketing at Kendra Scott, explained a key event program that her team runs, “Kendra Gives Back,” where stores donate 20% of the event revenue to a local cause. (Keyword here is local). These events are so powerful because they bring an element of community-giving to the table. For example, a store in Texas might run a similar Kendra Gives Back event to a store in Nebraska, but the causes they are donating to are in their own communities.
This all comes back to the idea of store empowerment. By giving store managers the reins to host their own events (while ensuring brand is never compromised), Amy and the rest of the HQ team can rest easy knowing their store events are relatable to the community they serve, thus gaining larger attendance rates.
“I don’t ever want to be the micromanaging type, but we have the backbone in the event template so [all stores] have the same messaging. Then it gives our store managers room to scale [the event] and adjust it so their customer is going to be attracted to it.” - Amy Young
Actionable event data. I know we beat this drum hard, but it’s for a good reason. If event marketers didn’t have the ability to gather data from every possible event touchpoint, how would they know what worked and what didn’t?
Jessica McGuinn, Experiential Marketing Manager at Anthropologie, explained the power that Splash’s Host App has given her to better understand how events were performing. With about 200 Anthropologie stores around North America, there is no way Jessica can adequately understand how each event is performing by looking at a lengthy event recap document each store would provide. Now, whenever stores host events they can check guests in upon arrival, giving Jessica the ability to monitor event attendance rates in realtime. By leveraging this solution, Jessica is empowered to be agile in the event she decides a strategic shift is in order.
One especially interesting finding Jessica observed as a result of monitoring check-in data: charging for an event actually reduced registration-to-attendee drop-off rates. By charging a small fee of $10 or less to attend an Anthropologie event, consumers were more likely to show up since they felt like they needed to get their money’s worth. Plus, charging for events helped offset costs.
Having these insights from the pros at Kendra Scott, Burton, and Anthropologie are invaluable to both us at Splash and our other retail customers. Although the idea of brick-and-mortar retail might seem uniform, the event strategies these brands are putting to work are anything but ordinary.
These three brands epitomize the idea of “doing it right.” Lucky for you, our team recorded the panel event and have it ready to watch on-demand whenever the mood strikes. Hey, you never know — this might just break up your ongoing marathon of The Office.
