The back-to-school season is like Christmas for retailers, but for consumers, it’s like the New Year—a time for reinvention.
With this in mind, Cadillac Fairview launched a back-to-school campaign called #WhoWillYouBe.
Working with its own stylists and Toronto-based Traffik Group, CF created several tableaus with different fashion looks from retailers, and no models. Cut-outs of the tableaus were set up at 19 CF malls across Canada, allowing kids, teens and older students to pose behind their favourite looks to see how they’ll look in the outfits.
Students (or their parents) are encouraged to take a picture and share it on social media using #WhoWillYouBe for the chance to win a $500 CF gift card.
“If you look at the omni-channel universe… the amount of choice that’s out there right now is pretty insane,” said Craig Flannagan, vice-president of consumer marketing at Cadillac Fairview. “We want to help our shoppers simplify that choice and give them great fashion that’s curated by experts.”
The main insight behind the campaign is that back-to-school is a time of reinvention—almost like a new year, said Flannagan.
“If you’re later in your academic career, you’re getting close to who you’re going to be as an adult.” Younger students, meanwhile, are starting to figure out social interactions and “who they’re going to be out there in the world.”
The campaign is being rolled out in three phases to target different types of back-to-school shoppers, which were identified through CF’s internal data and consumer research from Google. For example, a Google survey from June 2014 found 6% of consumers start back-to-school shopping in June, 10% shop in July, 75% shop in August and 9% shop in September.
“We want to really make sure we’re using insights so that we can make campaigns that are more relevant and hit consumers in a more clear way,” said Flannagan.
To target the early birds, CF worked with its PR and social agency North Strategic to seed #WhoWillYouBe in social and digital channels. Digital agency SapientNitro added the back-to-school looks to CF’s app.
To reach the bulk of consumers who shop in August, the push includes the in-mall tableaus, social media contest and a series of videos running on social media. Created by Notch Video, a division of North Strategic, the videos include audio interviews will real shoppers (a 7-year-old, a teenager and a 22-year-old) who answer the question, “Who will you be?”
A PR push includes a national media tour with designer and stylist Christine Dovey, who is discussing back-to-school shopping tips and tricks.
In the later phase of the campaign, CF will promote “hot tech” in digital and social channels to reach “wait and see” consumers who do their back-to-school shopping in September.
“We know that tech is one of those later-bought categories; we can see that in our own data,” said Flannagan. “Quite often, students want to make sure that they’re making the right technology decision… or they want to see what [devices] other students have, or see what’s allowed or expected in class.”
