Zellers: FESTIVE FINALE

Credits & Description:

Category: Best use of Social Media Marketing in a Promotional Campaign

Advertiser: ZELLERS

Product/Service: ZELLERS

Agency: JOHN ST

Creative Director/Partner: Angus Tucker (john st.)

Creative Director/Partner: Stephen Jurisic (john st.)

Art Director: Hannah Smit (john st.)

Copywriter: Keri Zierler (john st.)

Agency Producer: Cas Binnington (john st.)

Group Account Director: Heather Crawley (john st.)

Account Supervisor: Jared Applebaum (john st.)

Account Executive: Joelle Woodruff (john st.)

Online Production/Design: (Amoebacorp.)

Production Company: (Hard Citizen)

Executive Producer: Jacinte Faria (Hard Citizen)

Executive Producer: Eva Preger (Hard Citizen)

Executive Producer: Link York (Hard Citizen)

Line Producer: Chris Boddy

Directors: (The Perlorian Brothers)

Editor: Brian Wells (School Edting)

Flame Artist: Paul Binney

Transfer House: (Colr)

Audio House: (Vapor Music)

: (john st.)

Media placement: Facebook Campaign - Zellers Facebook Page - Nov.1st, 2011

Media placement: Youtube Videos - YouTube - Nov.1st, 2011

Media placement: Twitter Feed - Twitter - Nov.1st, 2011

Media placement: Radio Ads - Canadian National Radio - Nov.23rd, 2011

Media placement: Facebook Ads - Facebook - Nov.1st, 2011



Describe the objective of the promotion.

Zellers is an 80 year-old department store in Canada that had been purchased by the American retail giant, Target. Christmas 2011 was going to be their last Christmas sale ever. The objective of the Christmas 2011 promotion was to sell a ton of merchandise but with a promotional budget that was a fraction of previous years'.



We decided to do something they had never done before. We would run the entire sale on Facebook and to get the kind of engagement we would need to make it a success, we would let the Zellers customers run the sale.



Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation.

Rather than ignore the fact that Target was taking over Zellers, we embraced it.



We told our customers that with Target coming in, Zellers’ senior management was taking early retirement and leaving Zellers' Facebook fans in charge of the Christmas Sale (or what we called the Festive Finale).



So if consumers wanted a say on what products would be going on sale, and for how much, all you had to do was 'like' the page, and then vote. The Festive Finale built a highly-engaged online fan-base and exceeded every single metric set out for it.



Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service.

A Canadian retail icon for over 80 years, consumers (and Zellers employees) were understandably upset that 'their Zellers' was being taken over by the big bad American retail giant.



By putting the sale in the hands of the consumer and the Zellers employees, it gave them a sense of control of Zellers’ final days. (And of course, it gave them a chance to get amazing deals on exactly what they wanted to get a deal on.)



But it was also fun. What could have felt like a funeral was anything but.



Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results.

The campaign exceeded every metric set out for it. Our videos had over 500,000 views on YouTube, Facebook ads drove 30% more traffic to the page than expected, and coupon engagement was off the charts – 28 times higher than the expected rate. Customers using Festive Finale coupons had an average basket 2.5 times bigger than the average Zellers shopper.



Overall, our online fan base tripled, we built a highly engaged social media community (people 'talking about Zellers' on Facebook was 5 times the average rate in their category) and Zellers had its best fourth quarter in 10 years.