THE CHALLENGE
Canadian luxury apparel brand, Kit and Ace, established a two-year brick-and-mortar location in Winnipeg’s Exchange District and hired Jane to lead the brand and marketing strategy and implementation throughout Manitoba. The aim of the physical location was to create a cohesive brand experience and utilize the space as ‘more than a retail store’ getting into the hearts and day-to-day conversations of guests, influencers and the public throughout Manitoba.
In the long term, the company vision was for online sales to support the continued growth of the business after the local community had built a positive relationship with the culture of the company and the exceptional quality of the product. Creating an impact in the Winnipeg market would support ongoing engagement with the brand via kitandace.com once the brick-and-mortar, pop-up location wrapped.
THE SOLUTION
Jane’s strategic plan included a robust experiential marketing mix with more than 70 activations over a two-year period. Her mission was to utilize Kit and Ace’s space as more than a retail location creating very memorable brand touch points and experiences. It was necessary to communicate the brand’s authentic interest in community connection to set it apart from traditional luxury retail. Three events per month were planned ranging from art openings to intimate supper clubs to panel discussions to pop up shops to hip hop and indie rock concerts to meditation workshops in the retail space. Mutually beneficial relationships and positive memorable exposure was always paramount with partners involved. Guest lists were created to activate sectors of the local community with an authentic interest in shopping and engaging with the brand.
THE IMPACT
Creating authentic connections with the local business community and the creative community led to a proliferation of buzz for the brand locally. Jane’s memorable events supported local artists and business while creating a dramatic spike in visibility for the Kit and Ace brand with more than 7 million impressions measured across the two-year series of events. This drastically furthered brand awareness in the region along with a final measure of 150% to quarterly product sales targets. The events also created measurable peaks in website traffic and e-commerce sales in the Manitoba region.