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Banana Republic wields in-store, online tools for bigger social influencer impact

Author

Brielle Jaekel

Published

Feb. 10, 2017

Gap Inc.’s Banana Republic is building on its relationship with brand ambassador Olivia Palermo through in-store popup shops that are live streamed on YouTube to drive sales.

Ms. Palermo, socialite and former reality star, is lending her product recommendations to Banana Republic to make a bigger impact as a social influencer with on-site activations, supported by social platforms. In an attempt to promote its spring collection and future collaboration with the ambassador, the popup shops appeared on Feb. 9 in various stores but online as well with a 360-degree video stream.

Influencing through social
Social influencer programs are showing a direct correlation with sales increases, and brands are jumping to include a variety of high profiled social media users into their marketing schemes. Banana Republic is taking this one step further by wielding offline and online strategies for its brand ambassador program.

Ms. Palermo hosted popup shops at Banana Republic locations in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. While she only attended the Soho location in New York, all three locations featured Ms. Palermo’s favorite products from Banana Republic, as well as other brands.

Since the popup stores are only featured in a few locations, consumers from all over were able to join the fun by watching a 360-degree live stream. The live stream showed off the popup shops and Ms. Palermo’s meet and greet.

Consumers are able to find the products to purchase online through Banana Republic, or other brands that were featured. Showing a range of brands other than Banana Republic makes the campaign much more authentic, as fans can be sure these really are Ms. Palermo’s favorite things and not just a brand push.

The Instagram account for Ms. Palermo’s online community, @OliviaPalermodotcom shared a variety of behind the scenes content on the social media application’s Stories feature.

Social importance
During a Luxury Daily webinar, executives from TapInfluence emphasized that social influencers have a dramatic effect compared to traditional ads, but marketers should be valuing transparency, authenticity and audience targeting.

During the webinar, “10 Key Influencer Marketing Predictions,” the executive explained that celebrities, bloggers and other individuals on social media are having a direct impact on sales and campaign results for marketers by leveraging their bond with followers. However, brands need to pay attention to performance data, influencer data and audience data to see the right results (see more).

Banana Republic Factory is no stranger to leveraging mobile to drive sales. The brand recently tested a mobile rewards program called Perks! at 40 stores to enhance the in-store shopping experience by engaging with customers via digital loyalty, chat and AI.

The value-priced apparel and accessories chain, a division of Gap Inc., worked with third-party loyalty and customer experience platform flok for the test. It kicked off on Father’s Day, with customers who have the flok app now able to engage with the retailer while at a store to enhance their shopping experience (see more).