Dorothy Perk…ing up your winter wardrobe
Overview
As a household name for more than 100 years, Dorothy Perkins has long been established as a part of Britain’s retail heritage.
With many high street brands, including Dorothy Perkins, seeing store closures in 2019, Awin and Dorothy Perkins saw a strong opportunity to show the value of the affiliate channel to push users online, as well as engaging them in-store.
In a changing retail climate where there is increasing talk about ‘the death of the high street’, the two businesses partnered with Groupon Reach Network (GRN), who pitched a seasonal campaign that demonstrated how Dorothy Perkins could maintain growth while retaining loyal customers - even as the structure of the business evolves to the ever-changing retail environment.
What was the role of digital in the media mix?
Dorothy Perkins wanted to deepen its relationships with key publishers who could deliver more than just sales. It wanted to create true partners who could demonstrate brand awareness and sales performance across a series of media, while producing deeper insights about its customers. This would coalesce around a key seasonal push for the new winter wardrobe clothing range.
Working together with The Groupon Reach Network, Dorothy Perkins and Awin developed a plan to fulfil these objectives:
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Increase overall sales volume and revenue over the course of December
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Target existing Dorothy Perkins customers in areas where stores had previously closed, pushing them online to retain their loyalty
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Produce an interactive campaign to engage customers and further understand their shopping behaviour
The Groupon Reach Network has the ability to target consumers across a variety of proprietary platforms, as well as partners who it powers commerce solutions for.
Part of the attraction for Dorothy Perkins in partnering with GRN was the range of opportunities to target both existing and new customers, not least the geo-targeting capabilities available via its popular Vouchercloud app.
Throughout December 2019, Dorothy Perkins was able to connect with users in areas where there had previously been a store closure. This allowed the company to collect data from key locations from customers who had the app installed.
Subsequently GRN targeted these users with an exclusive multichannel code that could be used both in-store and online. GRN also targeted users who shop with competitor brands with a similarly strong discount.
As part of a wider branding campaign, GRN developed a Dorothy Perkins and Vouchercloud branded microsite. This offered visitors a chance to win £250 to spend in return for completing a ’Find Your Winter Wardrobe with Our Personal Stylist’ quiz.
This was paired with strong exposure across GRN’s voucher portals, social media channels, and the white label sites it runs for publishers including The Guardian and The Mirror, further publicising the exclusive offering and competition.
Through the tie ups with these mass media publishers, GRN was able to secure advertorial coverage. One article published in The Mirror focused on winter wear which was then pushed via social platforms, supported by an exclusive discount. Overall, these exposure pieces added incremental traffic and branding for Dorothy Perkins.
One of the more creative undertakings with this campaign was bringing ‘Wheel of Fortune’ to Dorothy Perkins’ flagship Oxford Street store, which the account contacts from both Awin and GRN helped out with. There were various online and in-store discounts that customers could win by spinning the wheel, and for added incentive, higher value prizes were included to increase participation.
Key statistics
What results did you attain? What was the biggest achievement?
Through the use of geo-targeting capabilities and strong exposure throughout December, Dorothy Perkins saw extremely strong year-on-year performance from the Groupon Reach Network. Revenue increased 193% YoY, sales increased 209% YoY; while maintaining a 33.6% conversion rate.
Amongst Dorothy Perkins’ key competitors on The Groupon Reach Network’s sites, its market share also grew substantially, increasing to 54% compared to just 26% in December of the previous year.
Overall a successful campaign for all parties that proved the ability of the affiliate channel to drive customers online in a fast-changing retail environment.
In a sentence…
Dorothy Perk…ing up your winter wardrobe
