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 Company: Grow Marketing
Company Description: Grow Marketing crafts compelling brand experiences that forge emotional connections, fuel loyalty and build communities of brand advocates.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Communications or PR Campaign
Nomination Title: Zafu.com Consumer Launch
- Tell the story about this nominated campaign since January 1 2007 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Mission
In August 2006, Zafu.com set out to change the way women shop through the launch
of their groundbreaking jeans “fit finder.” Essentially a “Match.com” for women
and their jeans, women answer 11 simple questions online with no measurements
required, and Zafu identifies jeans available on the market that best suit their
style, size and fit preferences. In 2007, Zafu launched additional fit finders
for products including plus jeans, bras, and casual and dress pants. Grow
Marketing partnered with Zafu from the time of launch through the summer of 2007
to help create awareness, interest, and buzz around this new, never-before-seen
site and service – and the results were tremendous.
Grow’s charge was to take a brand from the unknown and develop it into becoming
the premiere and go-to resource for women when it comes to issues of blending
fit and fashion. We aimed to help make Zafu relevant and recognizable in
consumers’ lives when shopping for pants and intimate apparel.
Strategy, Planning & Execution
Grow implemented a battery of innovative PR tactics and designed a robust,
efficient and effective campaign that generated awareness, built brand caché and
created buzz around this revolutionary new service.
• Influenced the Influencers
o In order to ensure success, Grow first targeted key media mouthpieces to the
entire fashion, retail and online community. Briefings and meetings were
scheduled weeks prior to the site’s official launch to engage industry analysts
and ready them as possible references.
• Secured a Trade Exclusive
o Grow secured an exclusive with WWD to time with the launch of the site.
• Landed Face-to-Face Introductions and Meetings
o We sent Rob Holloway, Zafu Founder and CEO, to New York on a whirlwind,
week-long media tour to garner one-on-one face time with key fashion, online
retail and women’s interest reporters at top national long-lead publications,
dailies, weeklies, and fashion-based Web sites, as well as producers for
nationally syndicated lifestyle programs.
• Executed Timed, Strategic Announcements
o Although we don’t rely on press releases to sufficiently convey our news, we
feel they are a necessary and worthwhile media tactic when aiming to disseminate
news quickly and broadly.
o Grow established a rigorous and compelling series of news releases* to cross
the wire throughout the year, keeping news fresh and constant. A copy of each
of the 6 press releases is enclosed.
• Secured a Consumer Exclusive
o With the success of the jeans fit finder and significant brand awareness under
its belt, Zafu was primed for a consumer exclusive touting the new bra fit
finder. Grow secured an exclusive with DailyCandy that ran on July 18, 2007,
the first of many outlets to report on Zafu’s bra service in a significant way.
• Engaged Bloggers, the New Media Elite
o Grow worked with and pitched bloggers as media, as the blogosphere served as a
natural environment in which to spark conversation and awareness around Zafu.
Grow stayed continually connected to and engaged with bloggers by reaching out
to fashion/consumer blogs on a consistent basis. Grow joined many conversations
and chat rooms, and posted many comments to spread the word of Zafu and the
solutions it provides to legendary fit and fashion challenges.
Results
The press coverage resulting from Grow’s campaign was unprecedented. The
campaign was smart, strategic, targeted, and relentless - resulting in
88,744,410 media impressions! In addition, the site has enjoyed more than 2
million visitors to date, as media coverage has played a key role in growing
public awareness. A full clips packet of all press generated is enclosed.
Key Zafu Spikes in Traffic Relative to Press Hits (the ultimate measure of
success!):
o Atlanta Journal Constitution (Oct. ‘06): 400% increase in traffic day of; 200%
increase next 2 days
o New York Times (Nov. ‘06): 600% increase in traffic day of; 300% next day; 50%
sustained increase
o Time (Dec. ’06), InStyle and Real Simple (Jan. ‘07): 50% sustained increase
o DailyCandy.com (Jul. ’07), O, The Oprah Magazine, InStyle, Woman’s Day, USA
Today (Aug. ’07): 200% month-long increased traffic spike
- List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www-grow-marketing.com
Supporting materials for this entry were submitted offline.
- Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that carried out this campaign:
Gabrey Means, Creative Director at Grow Marketing, possesses over 15 years of
non-traditional marketing expertise. Before launching Grow in 2001, she worked
at Banana Republic as Experiential Marketing Director, the leader of the
cross-functional team charged with revolutionizing the customer experience. She
also worked at GQ as in-house creative on co-branded programs.
Cassie Hughes, Strategy Director at Grow Marketing, has over 20 years of
marketing and publicity experience. Prior to co-founding Grow, she was Managing
Director at Ammo Marketing; and has served as Vice President, Client Services
for Convergence Media Group. She also created award-winning marketing and
publicity programs during her days at Levi Strauss & Co.
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