Last night I attended Case-Mate’s Right Case, Right Occasion showcase. Known for designing fashion-forward cases for mobile devices, Case-Mate held its event during the middle of New York’s Fashion Week to emphasize the brand’s trendsetting theme.
Case-Mate’s aims to illustrate that a mobile case should portray individual style rather than just plain protection, so the company hosted a fashion show in which models sported cases that would fit at the gym, at work, or on the go. This also demonstrated the brand’s versatility, variety, and sense of style. Case-Mate streamed the event live to its “social media tribes” to include all of its far-flung customers via the social stratosphere.
“People want their individual sense of style to be reflected not only in their outfits, but in all of their accessories, as well, whether it’s their shoes, or their glasses, or their jewelry,” says Case-Mate’s VP of Marketing Vincent Young. “People want their smartphone case to be a reflection of that individual style, as well.”
The event is just one way the company is reaching out to its target consumer of young, socially connected millennials between 18 and 30 years old. Another is social marketing. Case-Mate recruited brand ambassadors who have a strong social presence and would appeal to the demographic, including celebrities Selena Gomez, Fergie, and Common.
“If you look at the people we’ve chosen as brand ambassadors, they’re amazing social media leaders,” Young says. “Cumulatively, they have over 40 million Facebook fans and over 15 million Twitter followers. [Considering] the size and the scale of those numbers, regular social media engagement…is going to be one of the most effective ways to bring not only their thoughts, but also the visual of how they’re marrying the right case for the right occasion.”
Young’s assumption seems to be correct. During the months of June and August, Case-Mate achieved a 25% increase in Facebook followers and a 20% increase in Twitter followers.
“If you took every smartphone case company and you add it up…you would come to about 500,000 cumulative [Facebook likes]; Case-Mate alone just eclipsed 840,000,” Young says. “We are now number two in Twitter followers in the category, and by far, year to date, the fastest growing in the category in terms of the number of Twitter followers.”
Case-Mate’s decision to design cases for a variety of mobile devices—including smartphones, readers, tablets, and MP3 players—is a smart move. It shows that the brand understands its target customers’ on-the-go, versatile lifestyle. Additionally, the choice to design smartphone cases for a number of brands—such as Apple, Blackberry, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson—proves that the brand understands its customers’ often-limited budget. Not every young adult is going to be able to afford a top-of-the-line model.
Seeing that Case-Mate accessorizes mobile devices, I would encourage Case-Mate to broaden its use of mobile marketing, such as through SMS. In fact, Young says the company is currently redesigning elements of the mobile site and Casemate.com to “bring the campaign to life.” The brand also intends to include television in its marketing mix.
Case-Mate teamed up with several partners including digital studio F360, PR agencies Kaplow, Cornerstone, and Six Degrees, and director and creative consultant Chris Robinson.
Creating a live event that young social millennials could enjoy both in person and digitally truly pushed the social media envelope. Case-Mate drove the fashion aspect home and created an event and campaign Fergie could describe as nothing less than Fergalicious.
