Alex and Ani is a brand known to dedicate a load of time and effort towards its many social campaigns. As a way to stand beside New England culture, Alex and Ani incorporates its products into a campaign that supports art and entertainment in its backyard.

“While this package is most attractive to local fans, there are no restrictions so we do publicize it nationwide,” said Jessica Woodbury, senior manager of social media and customer engagement at Alex and Ani, Providence. “However, with Alex and Ani’s roots being in New England, our local fanbase is dedicated and vast and it’s a great way to award our existing fans, as well as reach new ones with the help of cross promotion on behalf of the Live Nation team.”

Feel the music
The brand’s promotion of the House of Blues Boston will award one grand prize winner four tickets to an upcoming concert, a live music bangle, VIP access to the members-only lounge Foundation Room, complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a personal shout out on Twitter from Alex and Ani.

Winners will receive tickets to shows on October 9 or October 28. Porter Robinson, Giraffage and Lindsay Lowend are the performers at the show October 9. Capital Cities, Sneaky Sound System and Night Terrors of 1927 are performing October 28.

Alex and Ani has been promoting the House of Blues contest on Facebook and Twitter.

An embedded link takes users to Alex and Ani’s Facebook page, where they can enter their name, email address and phone number to enter themselves in the contest.

Alex and Ani asks users to confirm their age is at or above 18 and also asks if users want to begin receiving emails from the brand.

These campaigns allow the brand an easy way to recruit new high-quality followers, as users do not always willingly hand out their email address for repeated contact.

The Alex and Ani brand relies heavily on social campaigns and general interaction with its most dedicated fans.

“Alex and Ani is extremely passionate about the arts and music in particular,” Ms. Woodbury said. “Becoming the presenting sponsor of House of Blues Boston was a very organic decision for us and we knew one of the things we wanted to leverage with this partnership was a giveaway.

“Creating this VIP experience for one lucky fan per month and three of his or her best friends was a perfect opportunity to activate our fan base and continue to thread the relationship between Alex and Ani and music.”

Perhaps its most successful campaign, Motivation Nation has garnered social success by sharing motivational quotes periodically via the Alex and Ani blog. With this brand, an emotional aspect works into play with user generated content and shared selfies of consumers wearing their bracelets.

“Fashion brands can especially benefit from social media,” said Esha Shah, manager of mobile strategy at Fetch, San Francisco. “Consumer-generated visuals help consumers to see products on real people, build trust and peer validation, and ultimately improve conversion rates and revenue for brands.”

Staying social
Successful social efforts are executed when all teams of a company are involved, agreed representatives from Amtrak, U-Haul and Alex and Ani during a panel discussion at the Social Commerce Summit at eTail East 2014.

While veteran establishments such as Amtrak and U-Haul have implemented social teams into their foundations over the past couple years, Alex and Ani’s foundation rests heavily on social due to the activeness of its customers and the relatively newness of the brand.

Jessica Woodbury, social media manager at Alex and Ani, is constantly approached from different teams asking for social promotions regarding various campaigns the company is running, causing a prioritization process to be implemented so the team could rank each campaign (see story).

This summer, Lord & Taylor partnerered with brands such as Michael Kors and Alex and Ani to deliver content and offers to in-store shoppers via iBeacon technology on their smartphones when they were nearby different departments.

The multi-category, multi-floor beacon deployment represented the most ambitious application of beacon marketing in the retail industry to date, according to Swirl, which provided the marketing platform upon which the program was built.  The program enabled the retailer to connect with users of mobile coupon application SnipSnap when they are inside five Lord & Taylor stores (see story).

“Social media is extremely important to us here at Alex and Ani,” Ms. Woodbury said. “When Carolyn Rafaelian, our founder, creative director and CEO, decided to keep social media in-house, her one request was that no fan is left behind.

“We have had dedicated social media support for a few years now and this fundamental principle still holds true. As our fanbase has grown, so has our team so that we can foster relationships across channels and really build communities.

“While our following is still growing, our share of voice is tremendous and we have been recognized for various prestigious awards and commendations.”

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York