A Real-Life Content Factory
We used this activation to teach independent womenswear sellers the in’s and out’s of creating effective, captivating visual content.
Situation
In the process of consulting on the big picture plan for LulaRoe’s annual sales conference, we were asked to re-think what a sales conference is. How can we provide an entertaining educational experience that provides tangible to guests and can furthermore translate to an uptick in sales and social presence?
LulaRoe is a women’s clothing manufacturer with a Mary Kay business model. Founded in 2012, the company has exploded across the country, now pulling in over $2.3 billion dollars in revenue each year. The company relies on individual sellers around the country to market + sell their products. As such, it is up to each seller to strategize their own marketing techniques. The channels that are primarily used for this are word-of-mouth, private Facebook groups, Instagram, e-mail marketing, and in-home private selling parties.
In taking a close look at our demographic, we noticed that the person we were trying to resonate with was a middle aged stay-at-home mother, living somewhere in the Midwest/middle America. Most sellers run their businesses out of their homes.
We took a look at the success stories of top sellers. The common themes were:
Consistent, quality, eye-catching images pair with a human/relatable story.
Frequent Instagram story posts.
Good blend of on-figure and off-figure clothes with styling tips.
Engaging in the comments with followers.
When we took a look at content and engagement rates within a sample of sellers (across the board), we noticed a significant inconsistency in the quality and relevance of the content being shared and thus identified our educational opportunity!
Solution
Our solution to this was a multi-tiered education program that would allow sellers access to exceptional education and live-training as well as a handbook for use after the conference.
On the conference show-floor we built a realistic series of environments (“The Content Factory”) that mimicked at-home scenarios for attendees to relate to (a living room, a kitchen floor, a room of windows showing various instances of natural light). Within each space was an experienced professional, covering topics such as: product photography (flat lays, merchandising photography, product photography styling), posing tips and tricks, lighting (natural and artificial), grid flow, technical photography tips + tricks (camera settings etc.), editing + color stories, social/community engagement, build-your-own-photo booth tutorials, and more.
Our “students” were also given a Photo 101 Handbook, written by us (and a bunch of pro photographers we admire!) that covered all of the fundamentals of photography for users to take home and study. These books containing beautiful imagery (that we made!), visual examples/before-and-afters, suggested camera + lighting equipment, tips + tricks gleaned from professionals, and more.
Result
This program was a huge success and the most attended activation at the convention (20,000 guests), with constant and flowing lines of eager sellers. We printed 40,000 books and ran out before the end of the event. We tracked major improvements in Lularoe content shared and heard tremendous feedback from students who took what they learned and applied it to their business. Following the event, we were extended another opportunity to re-create this experience.
Say what you will about multi-level marketing, but at the end of the day we were able to teach thousands of awesome moms a useful skill that they can apply far beyond their LulaRoe e-boutique.
