OFFICIAL LIVEBLOG: BlogHer Business '09 - Coach Case Study

Session Description: Coach wanted to reach a new, younger market for their bags, and they wanted to engage those women in a totally new way. They worked with social media marketing solution, Brickfish, to launch a “Design a Coach Tote” program that went completely viral. Facebook, Twiiter, MySpace, blogs…working across those apps and more Coach received over 3,200 design submissions and millions of trackable engagements. Come hear from Vanessa Flaherty, Coach's Public Relations Coordinator of New Media and Celebrity Relations, as well as Brickfish's EVP of Sales, Jamie Dicken, and blogger Stephanie Rahlfs, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Adventures in the Stiletto Jungle, to find out why this program went viral, from everyone’s point of view.

 Jory: This was such a compelling case study. We want to delve into this
amazing Crowdsource campaign. Went to the ocmmunity and asked
their ideas for buidling a new bag. What is so compelling is that they
still did this in a way to hold on to their brand while releasing to
the community.

Vanessa: Wanted to delve into a younger demographic and thought
interent was the best way to do that. Went to Brickfish and we would
decide the campaign and have them build it. We think it was such a
success because it was a simple idea. We didn't say they had to use
logo. We encouraged a lot of creativity.

Jamie: The campaign started with the conversation.Coach
came to us and said we want the consumer to put their DNA on a bag. The campaign promised consumers that if  we choose your design for the tote we will have a party for you and
your firends in your home store.  We received 3200 entries in a period
of six weeks.  Uploaded the tools from a widget. People were spending
days and weeks on the coach site . At Brickfish we encouraged people to
post it wherethey were living. People posted it on Facebook, Twitter, MySPace.During the period of six weeks 8 thousand individualURLs about the campaign.

Got a viral buzz that Coach actual cared what consumers think and
wanted input on next bag. Used Brickfish technology to track every
entry and where they are living online as well as they were living
geographically.  Generated a record 6 million consumer engagements.
3200 entries on over 8000 URls. Each entry in campaign drove an
additional 1, 729 engagement activities. Each campaign pariticipant spent
an average of 8.5 minutes with the brand.
Far Exceeded expectation.

Stephanie: Coach was brave and allowed people to interact with the
brand. Huge with our readers.  Our readers could
take  the widget to their blog and have their readers interact with it and have
them vote for their design. We really enjoyed being able to work with
the Coach brand and we were able to increase SEO for Coach Contest. Our
traffic went up.  The two or three weeks after we launched it it was
our number one post.

Vanessa: It was a no-brainer. Our CEO is a big fan of Brickfish. Going
forward it let us know that consumers want to interact with the brand. 
We're  creating a promo in conjunction with new Poppy Collection - Are
You A Poppy Girl?

Question: Are you selling the bag?

Vanessa: We actually did sell the product in limited edition in a few
speciality stores. It was $228 and sold out. Small Run. It was a PR
project so we didn't tie it to revenue. We wanted to drive engagement, enhance our brand and increase our awareness.

Jory: what was the social currency?

Jamie: Three reasons  why people participated:
1.I can do it. Drag and click made it easy.
2. I'm a creator - it's my goal in life to design a bag of Coach.
3. I want to be a acelebrity. Younger generation -one out of four believes they will be a celebrity.

Question:  Do you think people will want to do this kind of thing in five years?

Jamie: People want to be heard. If you give them a platform they will do that.

Melissa: It will never get old to be involved with a brand you care about

Question: Do you have to worry about de-valuing main brand?

Jamie have to make sure its the right message to your audience.

Vanessa: Poppy is for a younger audience. The great thing about Coach Tote  campaign  crossed our various audiences.

Jory: Why was the company so willing to open up for interpreation for the brand?

Vanessa: Started as a small idea. The top really beliebved in it. Most people used the logo and manipulated it in some way.

Jamie:  Coach still remained in control of what bag they produced. It
had to be viral but chosen by Coach. Lots of brands say we want to hear
what you think. Coach said we want to hear what you think and did
something about it.

Jory: How did you promote you built a bag based on the campaign?

Vanessa: Coach did not do anything specific to promote they actually created the bag.

Jamie : Still a lot of conversation going on about it.At Brickfishwe keep info on the campagin available on line.

Question: You seemed to hit the right balance between consumers and brand.

Vanessa: Are you  a Poppy Girl Campaign takes the same approach. The
company is taking a larger role in social media. Facebook page has
grown. Opened people's eyes about the benefits of social media.

We just finished events with bloggers to reach out to different
demographics. Have plans to future events. Have been doing giveaways on
blogs to help build database.

Question:Are you using the information from the tote contest?

Vanessa:We're using the information to help us with future products.