White House Black Market celebrates individuality and social media in new campaign
Apparel retailer White House Black Market is urging women to embrace their individuality in an effort to solidify positive brand sentiment via a social media campaign featuring musician Marissa Jack.
For marketers such as White House Black Market, it is vital to portray a positive brand image that coincides with their consumer?s ideals and values. Its newest campaign is doing just that, driving a conversation, which celebrates individual style kick-started by Ms. Jack, known as The Gold Hippie to drive the social media discussion with a video on YouTube, an effective method in grabbing consumers attention.
"This campaign is inherently social," said Donna Noce, brand president at White House Black Market. "It started with the song, Drums Make Me Happy, by The Golden Hippie, recording artist Marissa Jack.
"We chose her track for our Fall TV campaign because the song?s emotional lyrics, strong rhythm and Jack?s powerful delivery are the heartbeat of White House Black Market and an anthem of empowerment for all women," she said. "The social experience includes user generated content hosted through Olapic, influencers, video and the hashtag, #BeatOfYourDrum.
"We also tapped street style photographer, Bill Gentle aka Backyard Bill, to shoot 20 women on the streets of NYC, showcasing how they live to the beat of their drum. The hashtag will be on the TV spot and we will amplify the campaign through social channels including organic and paid media on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter."
Mobile and music
The apparel retailer launched a video on YouTube featuring The Golden Hippie's song, Drums Make You Happy, which encourages listeners to be excited to be themselves. White House Black Market is encouraging women to share on social media what their hopes, dreams and passions are and how they inspire others with the hashtag #BeatOfYourDrum.
The video features a woman modeling the brand?s apparel while the song plays.
The Golden Hippie embodies the belief of celebrating individuality and inspired the campaign with her song. The brand is enticing users to get involved through a contest, in which social media users share a picture on Twitter or Instagram of how they beat to their own drum for a chance to appear in a music video.
The winter of the contest will be flown to Los Angeles and make an appearance in The Golden Hippie's music video for the song Drums Make You Happy.
An aggregate landing page will be mobile optimized and featured on White House Black Market?s Web site, which will feature the multitude of content from the #BeatOfYourDrum campaign. The brand also filmed women all over New York explaining how they march to the beat of their own drum.
It is fitting for The Golden Hippie to be the face of social media campaign, as the performing artist Prince discovered her through Twitter. White House Black Market is leveraging numerous other popular social media names such as Louise Roe, Mary Alice Stephenson and Damsel in Dior.
Fans will be treated to a free download of the song, as well as a video interview with the musician. This fall a multitude of advertisements will roll out through social media, digital and television for the campaign.
Social media leverage
The brand is cognizant of the importance of social media and often rolls out marketing tactics through various platforms. For instance, White House Black Market?s introduction of a public Snapchat account was an example of how retailers are embracing the platform for its potential to more effectively draw in younger consumers compared to other social platforms through a mix of behind-the-scenes pictures and spotlighted products (see more).
Similar to this campaign, french beauty maker Lancôme is encouraging each of its consumers to ?love [her] age? through a sponsored post on Facebook (see more).
"We built the entire experience to be device agnostic," Ms. Noce said. "The content is available where she wants it, whenever she wants it.
"#BeatOfYourDrum is a movement," she said. "It is about staying true to who you are. As a brand, we celebrate women, style and individuality. This philosophy is at the core of our brand DNA. We believe style and substance should coexist because women deserve to look and feel both beautiful and accomplished.
"#BeatOfYourDrum kicks off our Fall 2015 collection, which was created and curated for today's woman, modern pioneers, entrepreneurs, those who lead, teach, empower and dream. Our style story is one of modern femininity, new proportions and classic silhouettes reinvented for the way women live now. It?s a collection that is highly versatile and carefully curated for the modern woman's beautifully complicated life where the new 9 to 5 is 8 to 11."
Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer