HOUSE OF CINNAMON

LOOKBOOK / SOCIAL MEDIA / EMAIL MARKETING

House of Cinnamon offers a curated collection of handmade, limited edition shoes and accessories that are designed and made locally in South Africa. Centered around the ideal that in these times of “Fast fashion” and mass production it is better to own fewer, but beautiful, long-lasting pieces.

Task:
The brand was very well known to many loyal customers who had tried and tested it however it was now ready to grow and reach a larger audience. The core message of the brand being quality and sustainability needed to be communicated to the right people and with the right partners in place. Most sales were done in studio and there seemed to be a missed opportunity online.

With the brands core message firmly in place, Knighted had a solid foundation to build on. The first step was to build on the concept of a curated wardrobe by introducing a curated and intentional social media feed.

Next was to view the engagement levels on social media as well as introduce a growth strategy for the brand. With algorithms making it harder for brands to be noticed we needed to increase our following as well as call on engagement from our community.

We started with a competition calling on clients to tag “like-minded” friends in our posts in order to increase brand awareness as a primary objective and to grow followers as a secondary objective. We made sure to be authentic in the announcement of the winner to show our commitment to our community.

Blogger Campaigns:
We identified bloggers with an ENGAGED community of like-minded people, and made sure we chose bloggers that had engaged with the brand previously which showed authenticity in their love for the brand. We sent @amadacusto one of our products which she styled and showcased to her followers.

Due to the success of the above we decided to run a competition with Amanda to leverage off her 23,7k followers. Amanda showcased a pair of our best-selling shoes on her grid and her stories and asked her followers to tag two friends and follow House of Cinnamon as the entry mechanic.

Result:
An increase of QUALITY and ENGAGED followers who have shown an interest in the brand and are committed to seeing what the brand has to offer next. As well as a noticeable increase in sales on the product that was showcased.

This competition also saw other influential personalities engage with the brand and started up collaboration conversations. In particular @minkivanderwesthuizen. We have run a few campaigns with Minki who represents the brand with style and femininity, her 164k following responded well to the partnerships when offered a discount code or a chance to win one of her favourite items.

Result:
An increase of QUALITY and ENGAGED followers who have shown an interest in the brand and are committed to seeing what the brand has to offer next. As well as a noticeable increase in sales on the product that was showcased.

Press Release:
With the help of an incredible PR company Bespoke Communications a lookbook from the SS/2020 range was sent out to media to be featured in fashion magazines/Blogs.

We redesigned a new improved lookbook for the brand that again spoke to the curation and intentional elements of the brand.

Activations:
We then got involved with a stylist @style_it_simple who had a mission to get like-minded brands showcasing quality fashion together for a SUMMER POP UP. In attendance at the event were high profile bloggers and a large amount of the general
public who came to the pop-up with a PURCHASE INTENT.

At the event we made sure to repost and tag as many of our fellow suppliers as possible in order to leverage off their “like-minded followers” as well as well as show credibility through association.

At the event we made sure to style some of our products with other brands who complimented our own, always tagging them in our posts with the expectation of reposts to their followers.

Result:
New like-minded followers.

Mailer Strategy:
Carrying on with the theme of curation, we custom designed and curated our Mailchimp emailers making sure they were in-line with the brand look and were intentional in their message. We then analysed all stats regarding the mailer send and segmented the database by creating a VIP list after viewing which customers engaged with the mailer more than once and clicked through to the website.

This database then received a VIP SHOPPER mailer. This mailer acknowledged the client as an important customer and offered them a percentage discount off anything from the brand new range.

Overall Results:
50% INCREASE IN ONLINE SALES.
33% INCREASE IN A RETURNING CUSTOMER RATE.
102% INCREASE IN A ONLINE STORE CONVERSION RATE.
INSTAGRAM FOLLOWER GROWTH: From 2352 to 6176 engaged followers.

Client Feedback:
“You are definitely worth every cent and I am very grateful for your hard work and enthusiasm”

We have been given the go ahead for PHASE 2 of the marketing strategy which will be unfolding over the next few months.

Key Elements for Phase 2:
Wardrobe curation thought pieces to be launched on a HOC blog. The Ultimate Curation competition to be launched in association with similar brands hosted by HOC.

Client House of Cinnamon
Website www.house-of-cinnamon.co.za

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