Fashion chain retailer Supre has partnered with one of Australia's most popular media programs for an innovative marketing campaign, in a bid to raise brand awareness ahead of expansion.
The clothing label, which has previously advertised with rival radio network 2Day FM, will work with radio station Nova Smallzy’s Surgery on a competition to send two fans to New York City to meet teen band One Direction. Supre will dress the two winners for the trip, which also includes VIP tickets to see the band perform live on NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
The tie-up comes ahead of plans to boost its store network in Australia, with two more stores planned for launch in Western Australia and one more store set to open in South Australia before the end of the year.
However, despite the retail expansion Supre international brand manager Catherine Taouk said online growth remains Supre's main focus for the moment.
“Online growth in our key focus for now. We have invested a lot into that, with the launch into Ebay's Fashion Gallery last year and, most recently, the launch of our mobile e-commerce website. Social media is also top of mind.”
Taouk added that the initiative with Nova, which uses social media, talent endorsement, online assets and in-store POS to leverage the hype created by One Direction’s impending Australian visit, has already has an impact on Supre's social media presence.
“It's all about association, there is no direct link to sales, but initiatives like this attract teen girls in droves and we've seen good results from similar previous campaigns – like with the Pussycat Dolls and X Factor winner Reece Mastin , where we teamed with Sony,” she said.
“A day after posting the news about this partnership with Nova to see One Direction, we got 1,800 likes on our Facebook page and 300 comments, so that just goes to show how much of an impact these kinds of campaigns can have.”
Following the competition announcement, Smallzy’s fans also created some serious online activity which saw traffic on novafm.com.au increase more than 1400 per cent. Supre and Smallzy’s Surgery also entered the top 10 trending topics in Australia on Twitter shortly after the tease and subsequent announcement.