Sports retailer Fanzz tapped Major League Soccer stars on social media to rev up sales of certain apparel pieces by 70 percent and leveraged MMS and mobile-optimized QR codes as part of the successful campaign, proving that celebrity partnerships are still valuable for retailers.

Fanzz aimed to ramp up its offline and online customers, as well as increase sales of Major League Soccer items via the campaign. The retailer turned to social media and mobile to ensure widespread exposure, a move which resulted in 2.8 million campaign impressions and increased year-over-year in-store and online merchandise sales by 70 percent.

“The results from this campaign highlighted that Google AdWords/re-targeting and Facebook provided the maximum engagement and conversion per dollar spent,” said Amielle Lake, CEO of engagement platform Tagga, Vancouver, Canada. “The Fanzz demographic responds better online through social media and at a lower cost than when interacting with print or traditional media.”

Star partnerships
Fanzz joined forces with professional soccer team The Real Salt Lake to showcase its official new MLS gear. In particular, right full back player Tony Beltran was the focus of the campaign and would engage with customers on social media to ramp up exposure.

Mr. Beltran leveraged social networks to post his favorite eateries, stores and restaurants in Salt Lake City, his local region, for guests to visit. Users were then given incentives to repost these items and also post their own favorite local hotspots on social media pages.

Fans that reposted were also eligible to win prizes such as field-level tickets to The Real Salt Lake’s team matches and tickets to College Football championship games.

To drive foot traffic to bricks-and-mortar locations, Fanzz also offered player signings at select stores, which were promoted via social media. Mr. Beltran helped drive sales of Adidas gear by announcing a signing at a Fanzz store evening and using the #teamadidas hashtag.

That particular tweet was able to reach 121,000 fans, and received over 1,100 retweets.

Mobile communication channels
Fanzz also leveraged additional mobile communication channels to promote the campaign, including targeted emails, QR codes and MMS alerts. The retailer saw 257 consumers opt-in to email prompts, 26 in-store QR code scans and 31 SMS click-throughs.

The campaign also drew 71 percent of traffic from mobile devices, as opposed to 24 percent from desktop. Google AdWords proved to be an optimal source for references, as 53 percent of customers interacted with Fanzz content thanks to the advertising platform.

Ultimately, the retailer experienced a 30 percent increase in RSL gear sales in Utah from previous years, and credits mobile as bringing the campaign to the forefront of many consumers’ hands and minds. Social media was also a top performing channel, suggesting that a celebrity partnership with a retailer can best be leveraged by connecting the star directly with consumers via communication avenues that they use every day.

“In this campaign, mobile won over 70 percent of traffic to the campaign site, and desktop only drove 24 percent of the traffic,” Ms. Lake said. “We would recommend that Fanzz create more mobile-focused incentives and promotions leveraging SMS or MMS alerts to allow for even better campaign engagement.

“The need to increase exposure of retail locations would also suggest implementing geo-location for finding retail store locations on campaign sites to drive users through to purchase.”

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York