Articles and News

New York, NY—Planning to launch a new social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube? Don’t kick it off on a Friday, says this report from VentureBeat.com.

According to a three-month study by YesMail Interactive, which studied 20 major retail brands including Ralph Lauren and J. Crew, marketing campaigns that bow on a Tuesday get the most interactive results. Saturday and Sunday also show high engagement levels. But retailers also have to know their demographic—just because one study or one blog says don’t do it, if it works for your customer base, go ahead.

Another surprising finding from the study is that when it comes to social media, less can be more. Counter-intuitively, the brands in the study that ran fewer but better coordinated campaigns had much better engagement than those running more campaigns but that weren’t tied together across multiple channels. The top five most engaging brands in the study ran about half as many campaigns as the bottom five, but used a variety of channels (Facebook Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.) to draw attention to them.

Finally, a surprising finding of the study is that “less is more” especially applies to YouTube campaigns. It was the only social media site in the study that showed steadily increasing use by brands, matched by steadily decreasing engagement by consumers. The lesson? Invest time and effort to produce a quality video with real appeal. That can be highly worthwhile, but don’t just throw up any old thing and hope it will go viral. VentureBeat suggests celebrity guests or incentives and prizes to engage users, or clever, unusual titles that require users to click on the video to understand.

Separately, some leading luxury brands have seriously amped up their social marketing efforts in the second quarter of this year, according to this report on Luxury Daily.

The website recently listed its top 10 picks for the luxury brands whose social media efforts stood out and encouraged interaction with consumers in the second quarter (April through June 2012.) The brands—including retailers, apparel, hotels, and more—used a variety of techniques to engage consumers, many of which can be adapted by a luxury jeweler in his or her home market.

Consumers don’t want a brand talking “at” them, says Luxury Daily. These brands used all forms of social media—Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube—to engage their followers in creative ways, says the site. Here is their list in alphabetical order, with The Centurion’s suggestions for adaptation in italics:

• Bergdorf Goodman, New York, used contests, store imagery, daily campaigns, and collection updates, and plans to bring back its popular “Today I’m Wearing” daily feature of one of its employees dressed in Bergdorf fashions, to engage its affluent female customer base. Jewelers can adapt the “Today I’m Wearing” concept easily, either featuring employees or also inviting consumers to participate. If security is a concern, show the piece and the name but not the face.
• Barneys New York has an interactive setting on its e-commerce site, allowing consumers to make shopping lists, share favorites, and shop from user-recommended products. They also have an option to shop curated lists from selected fashion experts, called “The Influencers,” such as Kate Moss or the Olsen twins, creators of The Row. Jewelers can adapt this idea by posting photos of celebrities wearing jewelry and showing similar styles available in store. Be sure to credit the photo with the site or magazine it came from.
• Christian Dior, Paris, took to social to promote the launch of its latest fragrance, Addict, The social media push included a Facebook app game, four social videos, and a Twitter hashtag campaign to push its upcoming “Addict to Love” film. Jewelers can employ a similar campaign to push a YouTube video they’ve posted.
• The Four Seasons, a global luxury hotel brand, continues its push for bridal business by positioning itself as an expert on luxury wedding planning. It uses Twitter and Pinterest to share expert tips from the hotel’s staff and stories from real Four Seasons brides around the world. The second quarter featured a Pinterest contest for brides to pin photos inspiring their dream wedding in hopes of winning a $2,500 Four Seasons gift certificate. It also established a wedding app on its Facebook page.  Jewelers can easily adapt this concept on a local level, encouraging area brides to post images of a dream ring, a dream jewelry ensemble for wedding-day wear, ideas for bridesmaid’s gifts or the groom’s wedding gift, and so forth. Partner with other local wedding-centered business for joint promotions.
• Not surprisingly, London-based retailer Harrods’ social media efforts for the second quarter featured the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee to celebrate her 60th year on the throne. Daily Facebook and Twitter posts related fashion to the monarchy, while a Pinterest contest asked users to create their own store window around the theme “Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Street Party.” Jewelers can adapt this idea to any local celebration, whether it’s a town milestone or an annual event that occurs in the area.
• German fashion label Hugo Boss leveraged social media for its huge digital campaign, New Dimension Beijing, featuring a runway show for its Black collection and live-streamed in 3D. It also used Facebook to promote its Boss Orange watches, via a “50 watches in 50 days” giveaway competition. Jewelers may not want to give away 50 watches in 50 days, but 50 prizes in 50 days can build both traffic and your database. Offer small tokens like personalized jewelry cleaner or polishing cloths, a free watch battery replacement, and so forth.
• Footwear icon Jimmy Choo asked consumers to help create a user-curated fashion Web site named after its Choo 24:7 collection. The Choo 24:7 microsite showed user-submitted photos from major cities such as New York, London, Beijing and Tokyo. By asking users to sign up or link a Facebook account to post personal style photographs, the brand also strengthened its database of addresses. Jewelers can invite users to post photos of themselves looking their most glamorous, perhaps with a prize for the best accessorizing with jewelry.
• Land Rover North America’s second quarter social media reinforced the on- and off-road capabilities of its vehicles by creating June as an “off-roading month” and offering adventure advice on Facebook throughout the month. It also launched an online magazine. Many jewelers already feature an online newsletter or a custom-published brand magazine. Jewelers also can invite consumers to submit adventure photos of their own.
• Luxury hotelier Mandarin Oriental began a yearlong social campaign, titled 365 Reasons, on its Facebook page, to share photos and qualities of its New York location each day for one year. The campaign will run across multiple social media platforms. The brand also partnered with Barneys New York for a Mother’s Day promotion. Jewelers certainly can find 365 reasons why fans would want to shop in the store!
• Fashion brand Michael Kors, which tied for the No. 3 spot in the 2012 L2 ThinkTank Facebook IQ index, reversed its poor showing of the 2011 index with its “Living the Kors Life” campaign, hosted on the brand’s website, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Each season, the brand follows three different “Insiders,” (i.e., employees), covering their fashion, culinary, and entertainment choices and, of course, showing the women in the brand’s apparel and accessories. Again, employees, customers, or both can be tapped as “influencers” and asked to share favorite jewelry, favorite restaurants or recipes, fashion, books, or local trips of interest.

Read full details and see examples of each brand’s campaign here.