In September, the MarketR team was asked to put on an event for Toni&Guy Vancouver to promote their latest hair collection.
The MarketR team designed a very successful Online Guerilla Marketing campaign that brought Toni&Guy Vancouver significant exposure, new clients and community engagement.
The concept was to allow people to pay what they want for a new collection haircut. All the donations would be given to the David Suzuki foundation. The event would last one day and it would be on a first come first served basis.
The event was promoted primarily online with a few ads being placed in the university newspaper and the 24 Hours. The company raised $1,200 for the David Suzuki foundation and had over 30 people lined up outside the salon waiting for a haircut.
*Note: Toni&Guy was able to raise more money for charity than what they spent on marketing. Unfortunately this is not always the case for many fundraiser events.
The event was covered by the 24 Hours, Miss 604, HummingBird604, Vancouver is Awesome, MartiniBoys, Vancouver Magazine and MallVibes. The event was also talked about on Twitter and Facebook.
Market Research:
All attendees to the event were asked how they heard about the event. Out of the 30+ attendees only 2 had seen the ads in the 24 Hours and University Newspaper. Most attendees stated that they saw posters on the street, paired with Facebook ads and people talking about it on their online social networks. Others said they saw it on popular online blogs.
Remember:
Toni&Guy spent over 75% of their marketing budget on traditonal marketing. In the end it only brought in 2 new clients. The other less than 25% was spent on posters and online marketing that brought in roughly 30 new clients.
Yes, traditional reaches a very large audience. But online reaches the people you care most about. When done right, online is focused and targeted and reaches only those individuals in your target market.
Guerrilla Online Marketing
PR 2.0 - Crazy Haired Eggs and the Power of Twitter
MarketR and Toni&Guy Vancouver teamed up to deliver one of the most exciting egg hunts Vancouver has seen.
Toni&Guy Vancouver is one of MarketR's largest clients. This means almost all marketing, events, promotions, and PR is handled by the MarketR team.
After the success of the Toni&Guy Declares W.A.R. event, we were very excited to come up with another affair that was going to attract a lot of buzz.
After taking a look at the Calendar we immediately saw an opportunity during Easter. Egg hunts have been around for many years, but over time have become dull and are mostly geared towards young children.
The MarketR team came up with a way Toni&Guy could rejuvenate the Easter egg hunt in a way that was unique to Toni&Guy.
The 1st Annual Crazy Hair Toni&Guy Egg Hunt.
The Objective
Raising brand awareness while building upon the existing branding that Toni&Guy is a fun, and creative salon that is constantly thinking outside the box.
The Campaign
Over 40 plastic eggs were decorated with crazy hair by the Toni&Guy team and placed around the city. Inside each egg was chocolate and a Toni&Guy gift card valued at up to $100. (Values ranged from $5-$100).
Samples of the eggs:
Visit the Toni&Guy Egg Hunt FlickR page for pictures of all the eggs.
Results:
The Toni&Guy Crazy Hair Egg Hunt created large amounts of buzz for the salon.
People were talking about the egg hunt over Twitter.
(Twitter Screenshot) The egg hunt was featured on multiple local blogs.
MartiniBoys.com
TinyBites.ca
"This was the coolest egg hunt I’ve heard about this year! 40 coiffed Easter eggs will be hidden all over Kitsilano and downtown Vancouver. Each contains the requisite chocolate plus a T&G gift card ranging in value from $5 - $100.
To join in on the scavenger hunt, follow the clues that will be tossed out Friday afternoon and Saturday morning on the Tony & Guy blog and their Twitter account."
FashionMagazine.comMiss604.com
TheStyleSpy.com
People who found the eggs started posting pictures online.
The Toni&Guy Vancouver website doubled in traffic and the Toni&Guy Twitter account acquired 70 new followers. Because of the websites dynamic content, traffic continues to grow everyday.
(The first spike in traffic was when the campaign launched. Twitter, and Facebook messages drove traffic to the site. The second spike was organic traffic from referring sites talking about the campaign. The third spike was when the egg hunt actually happened. Community involvement such as conversations on twitter and users posting pictures of their egg finds drove traffic to the website.)-If you want your brand to be perceived as fun and creative, make sure your events and promotions are fun and creative. (Sounds simple, but so many companies don't follow this rule)
-Utilize your staff: We were able to harness the talent of the Toni&Guy team to decorate the eggs. Instead of paying a street team to promote the event on Robson St, we used the Toni&Guy staff who were already enthusiastic about the event and loved showing off the eggs they decorated.
-Do not underestimate the power of Twitter: All communications to local bloggers was done through Twitter. Once the event was covered by one popular blog the event was quickly covered by many others. By engaging Twitter users, conversations about the event grew organically both before and after the event.
Leverage = Doing More With Less
MarketR was featured once again on a popular PR blog. Check out the post about leveraging social media.
Again this shows why the internet is so powerful. When done right, publicity about your company can spread like wild fire.
When we developed the marketing strategy for Toni&Guy's W.A.R. show, we knew it was going to be a huge success. We had no idea about the publicity MarketR would get.
The key is to leverage everything. Turn something small that your company does, into something big.
I just had a meeting with a client who donates to local charities on a regular basis. I asked who knew about their donations? The client replied, the company's staff know about the donations and clients when they come visit the store. This is great initiative, as it builds company moral and clients feel great about patronizing a store that gives back to the community.
The internet allows you to take it one step further. By posting the annual donations on a company's twitter account, blog and e-mail newsletter you take it to the next level. Now thousands of people know about your great contributions. Potential clients are more likely to patronize your store and individuals looking for a job in a company that values giving back are likely to give you a call.
Where it gets really good, is when other bloggers and twitter users start talking about your contribution. Now thousands more people are talking about your company's donations and thousand more potential clients know why your company is different from others.
You never know what is going to be picked up by people on the internet, but there is only one way to find out. Remember to leverage everything!
PR 2.0
As noted in a previous post, MarketR worked with Toni&Guy Vancouver to deliver an incredibly successful Fashion event on Thursday February 5th 2009. This post will explain why the event was so successful and how you can achieve the same success at your next event.
Step 1: Develop A Strong Theme
The reason for the show was that Toni&Guy had been in Vancouver for 10 years. Toni&Guy wanted to celebrate with a fashion show. This did not mean the theme of the show had to be about the 10 years in Vancouver. Instead, the MarketR team and Toni&Guy felt it would be more exciting to highlight fashion from revolutionary times in history. The show would highlight periods involving industrial, sexual and art revolutions. To end the show Toni&Guy Vancouver would show off their creative skills by delivering a collection inspired by the revolution happening right now. The show was named W.A.R. - WorldArtRevolution.
The theme was controversial, it got peoples attention and more importantly it was inspiring.
Step 2: Continuity
MarketR made sure that everything about the show revolved around the theme.
-Posters, tickets, flyers,
-The Venue: The Penthouse Night Club was chosen as the venue for the show. This venue was chosen because of the historical significance to Vancouver and it fitted perfectly with the theme of the show. The MarketR team decided to add a touch of Toni&Guy to the venue: Toni&Guy videos were projected onto the building, a red carpet and planters were set up at the main entrance, all inappropriate pictures were removed or covered with Toni&Guy images and a runway was set up.
-The Media and Press Packs
To fit the theme of the show all media and press packs were hand delivered in document envelopes marked "Top Secret." Envelopes were personally addressed and labeled with a return address and a Toni&Guy stamp. Inside the envelopes was a press-release, a personal letter inviting them to the show + a guest, a letter indicating that a donation in their name had been made to Beauty Night for the enclosed tickets and a mini poster to put up in his/her office.
Step 3: Use The Most Powerful Tool Your Company Has, The Internet.
Because Toni&Guy Vancouver has been a client for some time now, MarketR was able to leverage the blog, email newsletter, twitter account, Facebook marketing, and online contacts to take the fashion show one level above the rest.
-The Blog
MarketR set up a blog for Toni&Guy almost a year ago. Toni&Guy Vancouver Hair Salon Blog. The blog has been incredibly successful and is growing at an incredible rate.
MarketR constantly updated viewers with small bits of information as the event was being planned. When the team secured the venue or found a new act for the show, readers were the first to know. MarketR also developed a mini-site widget for the blog in order to create buzz. We gave away VIP tickets on the blog and had live picture updates on the day of the event.
-E-Mail Newsletter
MarketR has developed initiatives in order to build a strong client email list for Toni&Guy.
Updates regarding the show were sent on a weekly basis through email to a large client list. Chances to win VIP tickets, buzz about what would be in the gift bags and behind the scenes pictures created a feeling of engagement for clients before the event even started.
-Twitter
MarketR recently launched a twitter page for Toni&Guy and it has blown away expectations. We get reports daily about new people following the twitter page.
The twitter account kept followers updated about new blog posts. It was kept personal with updates such as "WHAT, one of the models is sick and is bailing out of the show!" When new door prizes were secured the twitter followers were first to know. Conversations with the Beauty Night were open for Twitter followers to see.
-Facebook
A Facebook page was created by Toni&Guy staff. This allowed viewers to see the Facebook page as a behind the scenes look of the show. Candid pictures and personal messages were posted here. MarketR stepped up the Facebook advertising during the run up to the show. This resulted in an increase of 40% in viewers to the blog site.
-Online Contacts
Probably the most important strategy in this whole campaign. MarketR built relationships with local blog writers and sent them invitations to the event. This started a chain reaction of blog posts about the show. Combined with all of the strategies above, the buzz began to grow quickly.
Vancouver.com
Style.by.fire.com
Miss 604
vancouver magazine
hummingbird604
Mall Vibes
canadianblogs.com
cosmetology association
Canada.com/North Shore News
and the list goes on...
The Result: Not only did the event raise $3,000 for the charity Beauty Night, but it created an incredible amount of buzz for Toni&Guy Vancouver.
By leveraging the power of the internet we were able to create a buzz before the event even started. Individuals were able to see the behind the scenes of the show and feel engaged in the event planning process. The internet was the reason why the event was so successful.
Look out for pictures, video and reviews to pop-up about the show next week, as MarketR circulates press packs about the shows success around the internet.
Call MarketR to plan your next event and see the result immediately.
