What an incredible day it was on Saturday for Gelson’s Give Back Day! There were smiles all around by kids and adults as they explored the store and activities. I especially loved the Make Your Own Trail Mix! We are so appreciative of the effort that you each put into the day to ensure its success. Thank you for partnering with us and supporting our schools and community.
Hilary Mahan, Executive Director, Manhattan Beach Education Foundation
Whether you call it event marketing, experiential marketing, or any flavor of brand marketing, the goal is the same, to increase customer engagement with your brand.
Businesses that rely on local clientele can greatly benefit from event marketing. Offering customers unique experiences outside the normal day-to-day, helps them to easily align those positive interactions with your brand.
When Gelson’s Markets approached us to help them with their local marketing, we were thrilled for the opportunity to work with them to design a co-branded community event.
Founded in 1951, Gelson’s Markets currently operates 27 full-service specialty grocery stores in Southern California. Although it just opened four months ago in Manhattan Beach, Gelson’s had already been supporting other local groups in the community such as Grades of Green, The Roundhouse Aquarium and Neptunian Woman’s Club. So it was a no-brainer to host a Gelson’s branded event that would allow local residents to give back to Manhattan Beach schools simply while doing their normal shopping.
Gelson’s partnered with the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation (MBEF), a 36-year-old fundraising nonprofit which supplements state funding for Manhattan Beach school programs, to “help make a difference for the next generation.” The overall message of the campaign was: “Gelson’s Gives Back! Shop with us. Support Your Schools.”
From experience, we understood that marketing a successful event required a strategy with clear goals, advance planning and creative, consistent branding.
1. Strategy
Three months out, we worked closely with Gelson’s Corporate marketing staff, the local store manager, and the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation to craft the marketing and activities that would be activated on the day of the event.
We knew that the success of any campaign was dependent on omni-channel marketing. In other words, attacking the marketing from multiple angles. From print advertising to dedicated email campaigns, postcards in community event bags to social media posts, we established multiple touch points with the target market during the months, weeks and days leading up to the event.
2. Design
To maintain message consistency, we chose an image that matched the branding of MBEF and which could be used horizontally or vertically for maximum flexibility across media.
Four weeks out from the event, we designed co-branded graphics to tease the event via the MBEF weekly newsletters. The reach was about 7000 families in Manhattan Beach.
About two weeks out, we created co-branded yard signs that were placed at all 5 elementary schools and the middle and high schools. This greatly helped to maintain consistent messaging. We also created an ad for a dedicated email blast that MBEF sent out to their list which contained more specific information.
About one week out, a dedicated postcard campaign landed in the mailboxes of residents throughout Manhattan Beach. A few days before the event, local newspaper ads, social media posts and email blasts from the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce all hit to drive the message home.
3. Marketing
Many of the best live events often feature one or more of the following: product giveaways, contests/activities, product sales and information/learning. We chose to do it all.
On “game day,” we maximized the onsite experience with activities for the whole family (kids activities, live performances, food and wine tasting, Gelson’s swag, etc).
One of our challenges was communicating that events were taking place during the late morning and early afternoon, but the 5% giveback was in effect from 7am till 10pm (the full store hours). We succeeded by including Shop 7am-10pm on all of the marketing collateral and posting an activity schedule on the ads and in-store signage so the messaging was clear.
Our favorite part of the project was working with MBEF and Gelson’s local and corporate team to come up with activities for the day of the event. We agreed that including student performances from the High School Band and Chorus fit the brand message as MBEF funds these programs as well as the MakerSpace wind tunnel for the Elementary aged students as that is part of their science curriculum.
Overall it was a successful event and we were thrilled to help Gelson’s connect with their customers in a meaningful way. Shoppers learned something new about their local store while helping to give back to their schools is a definite win-win.