Roots Canada Ltd. is taking an aggressive position in multi-channel initiatives with social media, participating in social networks such as Facebook and social shopping sites such as ThisNext, director of e-commerce, digital marketing and new media James Connell told Internet Retailer.
“We’re really trying to generate interest by having associates in my department actively participate in those communities,” said Connell, during an interview for an appearance at Internet Retailer’s 2007 Conference & Exhibition Media Center. Associates participating in the sites recommend organic and environmentally friendly products from both Roots Canada and other retailers. They are encouraged to include their association with Roots in their site profiles.
The topic of one initiative is Flick Off, a government/business effort that seeks to reduce individuals’ personal energy consumption. Roots is selling a t-shirt with the Flick Off logo. “Our audience, especially around this product, is very cause-oriented. For this campaign, we are trying to promote it to a youth audience that hasn’t been targeted before with environmental messaging,” Connell explained.
For the Flick Off campaign, associates included in the relevant product description posted at the social sites a brief explanation of the meaning of the campaign. “This gets out the information on the campaign and the product on a peer-to-peer basis as opposed to the company dictating what we think people should buy,” Connell said.
Connell added he’s measuring the success of this type of campaign in links to Roots.com from other web sites as well as activity in various blogs to determine what is being said about the promoted products and what people are buying. And he sees a day in which such social media marketing will regularly integrate with conventional online marketing.
“In the future we may start to launch products that are only introduced initially in this way. Then we’ll plan on doing a broader push in our stores through e-mail and also use more traditional campaigns once we determine what the actual effect is,” Connell says.
Roots Canada is No. 490 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
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