Agent 99 Glitter Gala

Last night I had the awesome opportunity to take part in a genious marketing campaign at Agent 99 (a boutique in downtown Kingston on Princess Street) created my IMC (integrated marketing communications) students at St. Lawrence College.

The campaign was created mainly to increase traffic to the store Monday and Tuesday which are the store’s low-traffic days. Originally the campaign was a VIP event where high school students would come in after hours to the store to try on dresses for prom and graduation and get their hair and makeup done to see “the whole look”.

But on the actual night of, when the event ran, there were also mini cupcakes, goodie bags, a movie playing, and a sale on shoes!

I thoroughly enjoyed this event, but must admit I’m somewhat surprised with my experience. When I first heard the 2nd years present their pitch, I was instantly interested and wanted to take part. I was afraid though that I couldn’t because I felt pressure that I would be obligated to buy a dress if I attended. I was so excited to find out I was under no obligation to buy anything, and when the students came back to our class to put us on the email invite list!

I received the first e-mail invite the night before the event was to take place, and I was bummed that I couldn’t attend because I would be busy baby-sitting that night. I RSVP’d that I could not attend and responded why. I actually by that point already had found and bought my grad dress, but still wanted to attend to take advantage of the hair and makeup; and maybe find jewelry or shoes.

However, when I attended, both my mom and I were very pleasantly surprised. We were enthusiastically greeted in a cheerful environment and what things were available and going on where explained to me. I had lots of cupcakes, took a goody bag, tried on many dresses, and definitely took advantage of getting my hair and makeup done. But the best and most surprising part is I found a dress that my mom and I (and everyone else in the store) instantly fell in love with; and bought it AND a belt!

Overall it was an amazing and completely successful event. (I would be curious to know how many sales they actually made that night!) Great job well done, IMC students!! 😀

 

Direct Marketing

On Thursday, March 28th, St. Lawrence College’s 2nd year Integrated Marketing students presented direct marketing pitches to a client who owns several downtown businesses. The IMC@SLC focus program students got to sit in on these presentations.

In my opinion the top two campaigns are “InstaOutfit” for Blueprint, and “Glitter Gala” for Agent 99.

I think InstaOutfit will be successful because it is simple, and has a very broad target market. Unlike some of the other campaigns, anyone can participate; not just those invited or ones from a specific school. It is used on a media that is fairly universal and appeals to the target audience perfectly. Many college and university students have iphones and use instagram, as well as high school students. The benefits of this for customers is great; without taking too much money from the client. Everyone who participates – which only requires them to post on instagram a photo of them in their dream outfit from Blueprint, and give their name and preferred form of contact on the sign-up sheet – gets a 15% off coupon, and the winner (person who gets most likes on instagram) gets a $40 gift certificate they might use to buy their dream outfit. This campaign fits the client’s needs well in increasing traffic on their social media and instagram and creating exciting buzz about the store.

The Glitter Gala sounds promising in that it is definitely appealing to the target audience. I even wanted to be a part of it myself! The target market is girls in grade 12 or attending prom. A selected number of girls will be invited to the event by email, and may bring up to two friends – though the client commented that it should be up to four friends instead; the more the merrier. The event is an evening to try on prom dresses at Agent 99 and have your hair and makeup done by professionals so that you can see the “whole look”. No additional offer will be added to this campaign, as the night in and of itself is enough of an incentive and reward. This campaign is purely of benefit to the client; no cost for her, and traffic will be increased to her boutique for buying prom dresses. The likelihood that the girls who attend will purchase the prom dresses they try on is high, mostly out of guilt; but also they are much more likely to find the dress they love when they’re able to see the entire look.

Recommendations I would make to improve their campaigns would be to maybe make the Glitter Gala available to more potential costumers. I was very disappointed knowing I probably would not be invited to participate, even though I would also feel guilty to go and not necessarily purchase a dress there – or at least not that night. As far as the InstaOutfit campaign goes, I think it is perfect just the way it is and love the idea.

The main components of a good direct marketing campaign would be appeal to your target market, choosing a correct target market, and meeting the client’s or campaign’s needs or goals. You must choose carefully a target market that is in the client’s or campaign’s needs, and find a way to appeal to them in a way that benefits both the target audience and the client in a proper balance.

I am not sure which presentation was the best presentation necessarily. Or not clearly the best. I found that many of the presentations had group members running late, people unsure what to say when, and a few of the groups even seemed unsure all the details of their campaign and didn’t explain well. Some people tried overly hard to be professional in the way they talked and moved; and in the end just ended up being annoying because you could tell they were trying too hard. However, taking all this into consideration I would have to say that the InstaOutfit was the best presentation purely because their campaign was the best, was explained well, and they did not over-do their presentation.