America Today: A Case Study
America Today a fashion retailer from Holland was looking to create a better brand awareness. Looking for new oppertunities they looked towards Facebook to engage their fans. During the time their new site is being built, it is necessary to find a platform on which they can show their friends and followers the latest collection for Fall – Winter 2011. The fanbase was asking on the Facebook page to see the new collection. This was the main reason for engaging them on Facebook.
America Today already had a Facebook page but very little was done with it, every once in a while they would post something on their wall. For this reason very few people followed this page, let alone responded to the posts. A plan was made to create better brand awareness through Facebook. The intention of this was to intensify the interaction between brands and fans, and actively engage their following. By doing so, the fans got the feeling they were being heard.
Three different sweepstakes were thought of: ‘Great Demin Perfect fit’, ‘Knitwear’, and ‘Great Gifts Today’. All three were designed to increase brand awareness and to attract their fans.
The Great Demin Perfect Fit:
The goal was to increase interaction with the fans. Over a three week period, three pairs of men’s jeans and three pairs of women’s jeans were showed to the fans. These jeans were all from the fall/winter collection of 2011. The fans could rate the various jeans, leave a comment and also share the product with their friends. The comment would automatically be posted under the jeans of their choice. At the end of the sweepstake ten fans who gave the best “endorsement” on their favourite jeans won a free pair.
Knitwear
This was not really a sweepstake but instead a nice way of engaging fans by showing them knitted jumpers from the new collection.
Christmas gift
This ran for a whole month and was based on the idea of an advent calendar. Each day a new box could be ‘opened’ to show the item of clothing for that day. Fans were triggered to have a look with a ‘call to action’ based on the Christmas Carol ‘Twelve days of Christmas’. This way all previous items were mentioned too.
By engaging their fans America Today listened to what their fans wanted. By doing so they adapted to a ‘new’ situation in which the customer is part of the marketing of a brand. By doing this they managed a steady growth in fans. One can say America Today is embracing Social Media and using it to their benefit.
