After Steaz, a brand of organic teas, got shelf space at 1500 Target stores, it wanted to generate nation-wide awareness and drive sales at Target to show the retailer what a great choice it had made. The only problems were a small marketing budget and the fact that its products were virtually unknown in all the new Target stores nationwide.
The company turned to Chemistry for help and the agency decided to rely upon social media to have an immediate impact at low cost.
Paul Magnani, SVP of Digital Strategy at Chemistry, explains the strategy employed on iMedia Connection. He says that Chemistry felt that the brand (socially responsible, health-focused) and product (natural, organic, healthy) were ideal for word of mouth (WOM) among moms, the primary buyers. So it began a campaign that relied on:
- Internet coupons: Many family shoppers use social networks to share “deals.”
- Social media marketing: Listening tools such as SocialMention.com and Viralheat, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
- Twitter party: on the subject of how and why to select organic and natural foods when at the grocery store. The event generated 2,830 tweets in a one-hour period.
- Pay Per Click search: That drove roughly 20,000 site visits.
- Facebook Ads
- Blogging:
- Email: To all 68,000 in the company’s opt-in list.
Actual results were 250,000 coupon downloads (with a 20+ percent redemption rate), 6,000 blog and social network mentions, and more than 3,000 new fans/followers. Steaz’s December sales were double its previous best month ever. And Steaz shelves in Target stores nationwide were emptied.
