Future Shop has launched a new back-to-school marketing campaign called “We are tech forward” that targets adults 18-34 with a particular emphasis on first-year college and university students.
Back-to-school is a crucial period for the electronics retailer from a sales perspective, second only to Christmas, according to Burnaby, B.C.-based director of marketing Nikki Hellyer.
Created by Cossette, the campaign broke Friday and runs through mid-September. It is targeting a consumer segment that views technology as a routine but crucial part of everyday life, as well as a personal statement.
“Technology really isn’t a big deal [to this group] anymore in that they don’t find it overbearing,” said Hellyer. “We know students carry technology as a badge of honour. It’s a part of their personality and it’s part of a statement about who they are as people. We wanted something that really touched on that.”
The campaign is highlighted by a Facebook contest called “El Trucko,” in which entrants are invited to submit their own “tech forward” slogans – sample entries include “How do you set up a laser printer to stun? Ask us!,” “If it’s not HD I’m not interested” and “Got tech?” – for the chance to win a grand prize of $10,000 in Future Shop store credit, along with secondary prizes and the chance to have their slogan printed on a t-shirt.
The company has also introduced a new advertising unit called the “out of app gyro-enabled mobile ad” that enables users to scroll through a variety of Future Shop products simply by tilting their mobile device.
“It’s a more engaging and simpler way to scroll through products than we’ve seen in the past,” said Hellyer. The ad unit will showcase smartphones, tablets and laptops and will be updated weekly, said Hellyer.
The campaign will also include a 30-second English and French TV spot. The spot is still in production, but will begin airing nationally on Aug. 13 and run for four weeks.
While Future Shop has used only conventional TV for previous marketing campaigns, it has changed the TV mix to a 60:40 specialty/conventional split this year based on advice from media AOR Media Experts.
“It’s a pretty big shift for us,” said Hellyer. “We wanted to make sure we were pushing the boundaries, doing things differently and getting our message to the right audience. It’s a little bit difficult to do in TV because the buying parameters are so broad, but we think moving to a higher percentage of specialty is really going to help us this year.”
Future Shop parent Best Buy Inc. controls an estimated 5% of the estimated US$1-trillion global electronics market, according to Morningstar. But the company has seen revenues erode – particularly in the U.S. – in the face of stiff competition from online vendors and warehouse stores such as Costco.
But while Best Buy plans to close 50 of its U.S. big box stores in fiscal 2013, Hellyer characterized the 149-store Future Shop chain as “extremely healthy,” and said there are no store closings planned.
The company also recently launched a new service to counteract the trend of “showrooming,” in which consumers browse products in-store only to purchase them cheaper online. The new “Price Beat Promise” states that if either an online or bricks-and-mortar retailer is selling an item for less, Future Shop will beat the price by 10% of the difference.
“We believe once you take price out of the equation, showrooming doesn’t exist,” said Hellyer. “We wanted to make sure that Amazon and other online pure plays didn’t get that foothold, and I think we’ve got a pretty strong plan against that.”
