Jones Social & PR

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Pacific World Cosmetics was the number one cosmetics brand in the United States at the time, and the number two nail-care brand. They sold primarily in food, drug, and mass retail to places like Wal-mart, Target, CVS, and Walgreens. 

What is your position?

I was the vice president of sales strategy, sales administration, and trade marketing. I also ran the e-commerce business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Jones Social & PR?

The first goal was to augment or replace TV and print advertising for a year-two product called SensatioNail. TV is good for gaining distribution, but it's difficult to justify the expense. We wanted to pursue digital marketing.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Jones Social & PR put together a package that included not just community management, content creation, and guerilla marketing individually, but also a combination of these three at the same time. They were able to do it very efficiently. We ran a series of campaigns ranging from Valentine's Day and Mother's Day to back-to-school offers. In addition to creating unique vignettes like a street-action video that was posted on social media and amplified, they were also in charge of a campaign that gave away a free car, which would be painted with the color of whatever nail color the winner wanted. Jones Social & PR worked directly with our customer, Walgreens, in order to secure a free placement on their site, which had an exponentially greater reach than our own.

We were able to garner value from a very modest campaign of 50,000 emails, mostly driven by social amplification and on-site activations done in a couple of Walgreens locations. Jones Social & PR did a good job of identifying our critical business issue: namely, to increase sales and generate the interest of a broad audience for a brand that was in the second year of its lifecycle.

The second brand we worked for was aimed at an 18-to-35-year-old demographic, with the target being around age 34. Jones Social & PR helped us relaunch the brand with a new logo, package design, and product. They used the same concept of organically embedding brand messaging into existing social media conversations, using a guerilla team. For example, when people were talking about nail art, a team of ambassadors would step in and recommend our product. They hired nail artists to create content and amplified that content.

They put a team on the street in order to interview people about our product. That content was captured and rebroadcast through various channels.

We worked on six or seven goals in total. The number one aim was to broadcast and amplify e-commerce offerings. Number two was to tie in our campaigns with retailers digitally. Number three was create content, expose the content, and engage new consumers for the brands that I mentioned. Next would be amplifying content using an ad-buying division consisting of community managers in the firm, which act as a sort of customer service. Finally, Jones Social & PR produced very nice videos for us. All the fun videos available on YouTube for our company were done by them.

We worked together during the switch made by Facebook to their algorithms, making it more difficult for brands to get followers. At first, we tasked Jones Social & PR to get us more followers, but we realized that it's not about that, but rather the people talking about us and their engagement levels. Our focus became the conversions made on our website and retail stores. This required a combination of trade marketing, brand marketing, and digital marketing.

How did you come to work with Jones Social & PR?

We quoted around four different agencies on a national level. Selecting our agency took around three months. We interviewed people who were quite buttoned up, but we kept receiving more of the same: namely, people who spent more on community management and would not give me specifics around storyboarding the potential campaigns ran by them. The major requirement was for them to be able to insert themselves into conversations and knowing how to include retailer collaboration for those campaigns.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We spent $250,000 per quarter. Overall, we spent between $500,000 and $1 million. Our initiative was on a large scale.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2014. Our engagement lasted for about a year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

During the time in which Jones Social & PR was onboard, we maintained our number one position from an items standpoint. Our brand positioning remained in third place. Year-two brands usually see a big drop-off. Jones Social & PR was able to help our brands maintain high levels, regardless of the fact that we had less support from a dollar standpoint.

How did Jones Social & PR perform from a project management standpoint?

The collaboration was perfect. I loved the fact that they were able to sit down with our team, understand our critical business issues, and adjust to our needs. We had a couple of management changes, which Jones Social PR adapted to. They helped us deliver our organizational goals from a marketing standpoint.

What distinguishes Jones Social & PR from other providers?

They provide big agency capabilities with a small agency feel.

Is there anything Jones Social & PR could have improved or done differently?

Not at this time.

BACKGROUND

Silver Jeans Co. ™ is an extension of Western Glove Works, a family-owned business that has produced quality denim products since 1921. Silver Jeans Co. ™ gives its fashion-savvy but cost-conscious customer the latest styles and best quality at a price that he or she can afford. Today, the brand has grown to a $100 million dollar denim giant, with sales in over 30 countries across North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

I am the Social Media and E-Commerce Marketing Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

The challenge was to expand our social media presence.

Our target metrics were to grow our social footprint, customer engagement, and social conversions.

SOLUTION

Jones Social & PR worked with our marketing and e-commerce team to set up an advertising strategy and social campaign that fit into our overall marketing objectives.

They accomplished this by defining our campaign goals, strategizing a social campaign, training us to implement the social campaigns, and implementing a brand ambassador program to support the campaign. They managed all parts of the process, and the project duration was four months in total.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

We saw significant growth in our social presence, up to 50% on some platforms over last year. Jones Social & PR covered the agreed scope and deliverables in the agreed schedule and budget.

They were flexible and willing to work with us on our very unique demands within our budget. Jones Social & PR went above and beyond for us, answering every question we had, and giving us tools to help us succeed.