Smurfette an Unlikely Brand Hero, Though Sweepstakes Still the Biggest Liker Drivers
Eddie Bauer hangs onto its #1 spot, while two other retailers – FYE and PacSun – repeat on Media Logic’s Top 10 Facebook Retailers list for the week ending 6/26.
Even without an active giveaway, Eddie Bauer again took the top spot on our list of Facebook retailers. The other two repeaters in the top 10 – FYE and PacSun – had to work a bit harder. Fans of FYEGUY got the chance to win a VIP Lollapalooza experience, and PacSun entered the 1-million fan club with a “1 Million Fan March” Liker threshold promotion.
Other retailers luring fans with sweepstakes this week included CVS, Burlington Coat Factory, L.L. Bean and Old Navy. CVS just wrapped up a liker threshold promotion, adding greater than 7% this week for the #2 spot. Burlington Coat Factory placed #3, fueled by its “Brag About It” challenge. And #8 Old Navy surged with an MLB World Series sweepstakes.
L.L. Bean (#4) made our list for the first time with a sweepstakes that promised $100 a day and a grand prize of $5,000. However, after good spring runs, outdoor recreation brands Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops and Gander Mountain all fell out of the top 10.
The Media Logic Top 10 Facebook Retailer list rounds out with Pier 1 Imports (#5), Build-A-Bear Workshop (#6) and Kohl’s (#10), brands who seem to have achieved liker growth on brand experience alone. This week, Pier 1 Imports filled its wall with notices of clearance sales, product features, summer greetings and a branded mini-series video. In addition, it continues “Flip Flop Fridays,” a promotion that requires fans to check-in via Facebook Places to qualify for a deal between noon and 6 p.m. (Of interest to all retailers should be the comments on some of the Flip Flop Fridays posts; it seems not all in-store staff were notified of the deals, and some customers experienced difficulty.) In addition to featuring products and sales like Pier 1, Kohl’s engaged fans with fill-in-the-blank posts, polls and open-ended questions.
To note: Build-A-Bear Workshop seems to be growing its fan base by capitalizing on something specific to its brand – a collector mentality. It recognizes that its customers crave its new product releases and aspire to own many of the trendiest critters. Take into account its two most popular posts this week. On June 23, in a wall post that earned 6,512 likes and 888 comments, it announced a few new furry friends, and on June 25 (see below), a wall post featuring an upcoming offering – Smurfs, of all things! – earned 4,761 likes and 690 comments.
But the news isn’t all good as summer heats up for retailers. Jones New York and Best Buy Music hit #17 and #18 respectively, but both are mired in very low liker numbers. After more than a year of promotion, neither has been able to climb into the 4K club.
And at the bottom of our list are quite a few brands that seem to be suffering promotional hangovers, after big buy-a-liker promotions. These include former wunderkinds of the week Williams-Sonoma, Macy’s, Amazon.com Movies & Music, Kirkland’s and OfficeMax.
