Cath Kidston, Bauble Bar driving traffic with Christmas treasure hunt campaigns

UK home furnishings brand, Cath Kidston, is running a cute campaign on its website in the run up to Christmas that invites shoppers to hunt through its pages to try and find Santa.

Every time they spot him they could be in with the chance of winning the products found on that page.

Based on the idea that Santa’s gone into hiding due to having too many wish lists to read through from the retailer’s main Christmas competition, the initiative sends fans on a hunt around its day bags, zip wallets, baby sleep suits and Christmas stocking fillers.

It is of course a clever move to get shoppers searching through the whole site, not to mention popping back on a regular basis, at a time when present inspiration doesn’t go amiss.

US online jewellery retailer, Bauble Bar, is running something similar for the festive season too. Email subscribers are being sent clues to “Buried Baubles” each day – items with serious markdowns hidden somewhere on the site. Meanwhile, its “30-days of Sparkle” campaign – as below – also sees daily discounts and offers being unveiled in the run up to Christmas.

Warehouse fans go #knitbombing in recent social campaign

As mentioned in a recent post about the #topmansprayonjeans campaign, there’s a big focus on user-generated content being seen from a multitude of retailers of late.

One of the others referenced in that same story was Warehouse. The UK retailer launched a campaign in late September focused on #knitbombing, a street art craze involving knitted items being placed to decorate public spaces – think trees, bollards even bikes. It’s not a new phenomenon, but it’s one that hasn’t been claimed by a fashion brand before (to my knowledge).

In a nice example of physical meets digital, Warehouse invited its followers to snap photos of their knit-bombing attempts and upload them to Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag. The best would go on to win a £250 gift card.

To help facilitate the campaign, it offered shoppers free knit-bombing kits in-store when they bought certain knitwear items. It also posted a series of inspirational woolly shots of its own across its Facebook and Pinterest pages (a couple of which are above and below).

Read its blogpost about the initiative: “Knit-bombing groups have been springing up everywhere – warming the soul of grey urban spaces with colourful knitted artwork or ‘graffitti’. Obviously we had to share this amazing phenomenon with you.” It also called for participants to “flex some creative muscle; remember the city is your playground.”

According to @Editd, the campaign saw Warehouse’s fanbase grow 10%.

Fashion Hackathon set for MBFW New York, winning app to be launched by CFDA

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York is set to host a “Fashion Hackathon” this February, tasking teams of tech hackers with building an app that solves a challenge facing the industry.

Hosted by Decoded Fashion, who has previously run conferences focused on fashion and technology in both New York and London, the initiative will see fashion and retail executives joining 30 teams on the morning of February 2 to discuss their pain points, the technology they currently use, and the technology they wish existed.

These conversation will inspire the hackers to come up with the new apps, designing and building them within the space of 24 hours.

The best three will then have until February 14 to prepare (with mentorship) for a finale due to take place at MBFW. There they will present to a panel of judges from both the technology and fashion worlds, including Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), Harrison Weber of The Next Web, and Benita Singh of Source4Style.

The winning team will win cash in the region of $15-$25k as well as the opportunity to have their creation launched by the CFDA.

eBay UK throws festive pop-up party for one of its one million Facebook fans

 

Before the spring/summer 2013 campaigns sweep us away, and the forthcoming autumn/winter 2013/14 shows creep up on us, there’s one last holiday initiative I wanted to share.

eBay recently celebrated the fact it reached one million fans on its UK Facebook page by running a competition that offered one fan the chance to win a winter wonderland-themed party.

The “1 in a Million” contest saw 1,300 entries over three days, with a mother of two called Helen (an eBay buyer and seller of course) selected as the winner. She received a pop-up celebration in her local village just before Christmas that included a horse-drawn carriage, dancers, elves and circus performers.

The video above captures the scene. As Helen said: “The whole experience was really fun and totally unexpected… When a giant elf knocked on my front door it was all a little bit surreal. We all had a great time and we’ll not forget this day.”

A great example of personal, real-world social marketing.

Jean Paul Gaultier celebrates grown-up ‘enfants terribles’ with digital advent calendar

Jean Paul Gaultier has launched an online campaign for the festive period centred on a digital advent calendar.

Created with digital agency Isobar, and housed on jeanpaulgaultier.com, the calendar’s 24 dates appear as the inside pockets of Father Christmas’ coat (in this case with Jean Paul Gaultier playing the role).

Each one reveals a variety of games, entertainment and prizes to be won. Designed for “grown-up enfants terribles“ (Gaultier’s own long-standing nickname), and celebrating “the Christmas of naughty children”, it features animations including sexy reindeers and naughty elves, and names such as “Shake your snowball” and “Eat the log”.

“Once upon a time, it was a Christmas unlike any other. An alternative Christmas, an upside down Christmas, a new slant on Christmas, as only Jean Paul Gaultier could imagine it, “ reads the write-up.

Users will be able to open three pockets at random each day, followed by a further three when they share the experience with their Facebook or Twitter friends. Prizes include bottles and boxsets of fragrance, Jean Paul Gaultier stuffed animals and a special gift due to be revealed on Christmas Eve.

Check out the intro video below:

Physical Pinterest board pops up at Westfield UTC mall

How’s this for a nice example of digital meets physical… Pinterest has set up a life-size pop-up board in San Diego to help celebrate the renovated Westfield UTC mall.

The outdoor concept sees a billboard-like frame housing both images and actual products as though they’re pins. Various brands and retailers from the mall are represented, with the same shown online on the WestfieldUTC Escape Everyday Pinterest page.

Fans are then invited to create their own board for a chance to win all the items (as shown with the rules below). Included is a pair of Oakley sunglasses, a $500 Splendid shopping spree, a $500 J.Crew gift card with a personal shopper, an ArcLight private screening for 20 people with refreshments, a Seasons 52 Chef’s Table for eight with wine pairings and more.

[LaJollaMom]

Swarovski turns to Pinterest for jewellery inspiration contest

Swarovski Elements has launched a contest on Pinterest to help celebrate the launch of its new Made With magazine.

Called “Jewels for Every Occasion“, it invites fans to populate their own boards with images of jewellery and style inspiration appropriate for different events, and then submit their entry via Twitter to @Swarovksi using the #jewels4evryoccasion hashtag.

Each board has to include examples of the five following occasions: #everydaychic, #workitgirl, #streetdesire, #nightfever and #celebration.

The five best will be selected to win jewellery from Swarovski Crystallized as well as other goodies. They will also get a copy of the Made With mag, which features more than 300 creations made with Swarosvki Elements by 85 top designers worldwide.