The Urban Barn‘s downtown Vancouver store is right in the heart of Olympic territory. And while its location seems ideal for taking advantage of the massive swell of visitors in town for the Games, Rick Bohonis, president and co-founder, figured that because he doesn’t sell Olympic souvenirs, business would take a 50% hit.
Instead of worrying about it, he saw a huge marketing opportunity. Putting his head together with his ad agency, Vancouver-based Spring Advertising, and his PR firm, Elevator Communications in Toronto, Bohonis transformed the 3,600 sq.ft. store into a Big Brother-like set.
Store manager Robbie Romu, has moved in for the 17 days of the Olympics, and the store is set up like a house with a welcoming lounge where visitors can drop in for a coffee, relax on a couch, check their e-mail, play Nintendo Wii or attend one of the themed parties that run every night during the Olympics. So far they’ve had a Jamaican night with music and food, rock bands and a movie night.
Cameras stream the action to another 11 Urban Barn stores–there’s 36 across Canada–and to the public at HomeOnHowe.com.
"The expectation wasn’t to sell anything at all, it’s all about exposure and it’s fun for our staff more then anything else," said Bohonis. "And the second thing was the exposure to our customers and possibly new customers."
Romu has turned into a reality star of sorts. "People are coming off the street saying we want to meet Robbie," said Bohonis.
Rob Schlyecher, creative director at Spring put together some quirky print ads–featuring Romu taking a nap and in his dressing gown–to run in the two city dailies and transit papers, Metro and 24..
"It’s all about the theme of Robbie being there and hosting all of the events," said Bohonis. "We wouldn’t ordinarily use 24 and Metro for Urban Barn because their market is generally more transit riders, but because everybody is using transit right now they are a great medium for us."
Bohonis is also offering a chance to win a $5,000 Urban Barn gift certificate for anyone who donates to the Canadian Paralympic Foundation via the company website.
"Charities are a big part of our company and a big part of our culture, so we are trying to raise $20,010 for the Canadian Paralympic Foundation," he said.
