Dr Martens
PR, Media Relations, Blogger Relations, Digital Marketing and Event Management
We’ve helped one of the most culturally relevant brands of the modern era launch their largest store in the UK.
Challenge
Dr Martens were due to open their largest UK store in Norwich and it needed to go with a bang. We were tasked with putting on an in-store launch event along with pre and post-launch activity, creating a buzz around the city about the imminent store opening and ensuring it reached the right target market.
The event had to reflect the brand’s unique style, with its’ links to the alternative music scene and rebellious self-expression. Dr Martens summed up these values with the hashtag, #StandforSomething in a campaign launched earlier in the year, so it was necessary to weave this into our work, reflecting this national slogan through our local activity.
Solution
Pre-launch activity kicked off at the UEA Fresher’s Fair, directly targeting the student market. The prominent DM’s stand featured a giant leather #StandforSomething hide, where students could pledge what they stand for, as well as pick up Dr. Martens boot key rings and discount vouchers for the store.
Local press including the EDP (55K circ), Evening News (16.5k circ) and Outline (9k circ) were involved, focussing on key stories including the store being the largest DM’s store in the UK, its’ creating employment in the local area and also on the shop’s store manager being a local person.
Outdoor media was used in Norwich city centre in the days and weeks leading up to the launch, including a clean graphitti campaign (in the form of the iconic Dr Martens sole print chalked in key city spots) bus creative (showing the opening date, location and the #StandforSomething hashtag), and ad-bikes.
We also started conversations with carefully chosen local bloggers, key to spreading the word to the right people about the store and its opening.
Launch day began with a photo call of the official store opening with local press including the EDP, Evening News and Outline Magazine.
The launch party itself was an exclusive, invite-only event held at the store. Attending were 125 members of the key target audience, including fashion bloggers, people from the local music and creative scene, and employees and business owners of a number of local independent, more alternative retailers, cafes and salons.
The evening was Norwich themed, with locally sourced sausages and mash served with Coleman’s Mustard, Norfolk Cordial drinks and local ale from Woodeforde’s Brewery.
Music came in the form of a live set from local alternative rock band Standing Tall, followed by sets from three popular local DJ’s.
Other highlights were a DM’s photo booth, traditional shoe-shine service, sweet filled Dr Martens and an exclusive 50% discount on products bought on the night.
We knew viral would play a key part in the post-launch success of the event, so we commissioned a local film production company to capture the evening on film. The resultant video was subsequently shared by Dr Martens and has since received in excess of 2,478 views.
Results.
We generated one of the most successful launches of a Dr Martens store with record launch day sales plus over 13 regional pieces of content, with a combined online and offline reach 1.26 million.
One of the most impressive marketing results have been from the blogger videos. Blogger Helen Anderson’s launch party and show unboxing video has so far massed 35,000 views and LLimWalker’s has acheived 17,000 views from the launch party and her unboxing from the event 267,000 views!