Client: Lane Bryant
?Agency: In-house?
Objective: A specialty apparel company continues to build ?a strong brand personality by ?appealing to its core customers.?
To help spread the word about its new line of “Tighter Tummy Technology” slimming jeans and slacks, dubbed “T3,” curvy fashion designer Lane Bryant pulled out all the marketing stops: giveaways, a Facebook sweepstakes, direct mail, TV spots, email and mobile. ?
Customers were also even given the opportunity to mingle with the cast of TLC’s reality show “Big Sexy” and get fitted in T3 trousers at a preview “Fashion’s Night Out” party held this September at Lane Bryant’s downtown Brooklyn store.?
The campaign was robust and integrated, but its success was about more than just the quality of the product, which Lane Bryant technical design director Richard Zielinski called ?”revolutionary.”?
Kathy Quickert, Lane Bryant’s director of business management and marketing, said that the campaign is rooted in the intimate way in which Lane Bryant interacts with its customers. “We answer nearly every Facebook question out there and we do that to keep it on a very personal level,” ?she said. ?
The technology behind the T3 jeans, which Lane Bryant says makes women appear up to two sizes smaller, was developed by scanning the bodies of 65,000 customers to determine the most universal silhouette.?
STRATEGY: The multichannel campaign targeted existing customers through direct mail, email, TV, mobile and social channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Inside Curve, Lane Bryant’s proprietary online community. In all, 1.32 million pieces of collateral were mailed to Lane Bryant credit card holders while nearly 7 million customers were exposed to the campaign through magalogs mailed in September and October. ?
The magalogs, which were emblazoned with the campaign’s primary image of five scantily clad, full-figured models, wearing only heels and T3 jeans, created a slight stir on the Web. “Either you like it or you don’t, but Lane Bryant is continuing to shatter the long-held society notion that large can’t be sexy,” said Quickert. ?
Lane Bryant also sent mobile messages to its 300,000 mobile opt-ins, as well as roughly 3 million opt-in emails featuring T3. The “T3 Spin and Win” contest on Facebook gave visitors a chance to win daily prizes, including a jeans giveaway and discounts.?
To build pre-launch buzz, 50 bloggers were invited to the Lane Bryant Blogger Conference in June, where they got a sneak peak at the look and were among the first to try on the pants. ?
Customers were personally introduced to T3 at the in-store fashion night event in September, where they were invited to sip “Lane-tinis” while learning about the technology behind the pant. While there, they could enter a giveaway to win a $500 gift card, a full-day consultation with a personal stylist and a photo spread in Plus ?Model Magazine.?
Finally, the look was featured nationwide in the windows of every one of Lane Bryant’s 704 stores for ?six weeks.?
RESULTS: Lane Bryant customers are particularly active online. In its roughly two-month run, the Spin and Win Facebook contest garnered 144,687 spins, with an average of 2,400 spins per day. The company’s Facebook page has more than 449,000 fans, but at Lane Bryant, it’s “not about just driving tons of Facebook ‘likes,’ it’s about creating a relationship with the customers,” said Quickert.?
The T3 TV spot, which was prominently displayed on the Lane Bryant homepage throughout September, ?resulted in more than 94 million ?impressions. ?
According to Quickert, T3 was the brand’s biggest launch in 2011, and sales at the Fashion’s Night Out event in August were robust. “T3 is doing really well for us,” said Quickert. “We’re even going to start going into new product categories now — into shorts, crops and maybe even skirts. The franchise keeps building.”
