Bridal dress manufacturer Dessy Group will use Foursquare to promote its new Cynthia Rowley line of bridesmaid dresses to consumers in coming weeks. The company will hold a launch event for the collection June 3 at the Cynthia Rowley store in New York in coordination with LovelyBride, a local bridal retailer.
The company will offer incentives to consumers who check in to the event through Foursquare, such as gift certificates to purchase accessories online, according to Alan Dessy, CEO of Dessy Group.
To promote the event, Dessy Group is working with digital agency eRoi to distribute e-mail invites to 100,000 customers. Dessy called it a “significant e-mail campaign.”
Consumers who want to attend the events must reply to an RSVP invite in their e-mail. Customers will have the opportunity to enter a sweepstakes to win additional products during events.
“Our target audience is a young audience, and we’re finding they’re more and more on social networks,” he said. “Foursquare has become a larger audience for young brides. As people check into [our] stores, we’ll be ready to market to them.”
The company is not adding a specific Foursquare badge, but the special will remain on the social site for a week, so anyone who checks in to a location within a three-block radius of LovelyBride will receive a message about it.
Dessy Group will roll out additional events through this summer, including one in Chicago on June 15. Local retailers will also offer Foursquare incentives, Dessy said.
The manufacturer sells its wedding apparel in 1,500 stores in the US, Canada and the UK. An appearance by designer Cynthia Rowley is expected to be a draw for New York customers.
Dessy is also promoting the event and collection through social media channels, including its Facebook and Twitter pages. Macala Wright Lee of Fashionably Digital in Los Angeles provided consulting on location-based marketing for Dessy. Laura Henson Consulting is handling PR, including outreach to bridal blogs.
“We’ve devised a unique strategy that brings the retailer, manufacturer and the designer all working collaboratively to create a social campaign,” said Lee. She noted that Dessy Group will have the opportunity to retarget tech-savvy consumers after they sign up for the sweepstakes in store and provide their e-mail addresses.
Dessy said press and possibly sponsored blog posts would further promote the collection and events.
The company will measure the campaign’s success through online sales and event attendance, he added.
