The advent of social media has altered how retailers invest in media and advertising opportunities. In fact, retailers across verticals are focusing more on driving earned media, or user-generated content, across social networks. This feedback is used to develop paid and owned marketing campaigns that are more relevant and tailored to target consumers.
Kate Spade Saturday, a subsidiary of Kate Spade New York, is converging paid, earned and owned media by integrating social strategies into the online shopping journey ― for both U.S. and Japanese shoppers. By partnering with Mass Relevance, a real-time social engagement platform, the brand has incorporated Twitter and Instagram feeds into multiple pages of the e-Commerce shopping site. As a result, the retailer has been able to generate more interest for the Kate Spade Saturday brand, and has created a more compelling and immersive brand experience for new and prospective consumers, according to Kyle Andrew, SVP and Brand Director of Kate Spade Saturday.
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The current focus for Kate Spade Saturday is to “celebrate the social side of shopping by leveraging real-time integration with our Twitter and Instagram on both our Japan and U.S. e-Commerce homepages,” Andrew said in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. The Saturday team achieves this integration by encouraging consumers to participate in social conversations and share images via Twitter and Instagram of how they style key products. These photos then are cross-published on product pages.
“We want our customers to engage with the Saturday brand by sharing pictures of how they wear our clothing and accessories on our web site,” Andrew explained. “Specific hash tags also are created and shared to reflect products, so we can aggregate conversations taking place across social media more efficiently.”
Creating An Immersive Shopping Experience
User-generated content enables Kate Spade Saturday to have more authentic conversations with consumers, especially across social media. These detailed insights also help the retailer create more relevant and valuable marketing campaigns and initiatives.
In one case, Kate Spade Saturday partnered with Refinery29, a fashion and lifestyle blog, to hold a social media contest. The brand and Refinery29 invited consumers to use Instagram to “show how they bring the spirit of Saturday to every day of the week,” Andrew explained. The campaign was promoted across paid and owned media such as banner and social ads, she added, “which increased the number of brand-relevant, user-generated Instagram posts being created, and also increased overall social conversations.”
Since the inception of Kate Spade Saturday in March 2013, social media has played a pivotal role in helping the brand boost awareness, buzz and customer engagement, Andrew reported. In fact, as a relatively new company, the retailer makes social integral to all marketing strategies and campaigns, largely due to young target consumers’ innately social shopping behaviors.
“Prior to launch, we successfully leveraged our growing Instagram and Twitter channels to drive brand awareness, social conversation and customer acquisition,” Andrew said. By first generating that buzz, the retailer was able to “launch in the U.S. only with an e-Commerce site. So overall, our social channels were vital in sharing playful content, brand inspiration and exclusive imagery to help bring the spirit of Saturday to every day of the week.”
