Old Navy is not letting the end of summer pass by without a final attempt to drive sales for its warm weather apparel, leveraging the pull of fashion bloggers and Twitter to help extend the appeal of these items into fall.

The apparel brand is cross promoting its summer wear with a variety of big name bloggers through unique sponsored posts through social media and on their Web sites. The goal is to entice consumers to incorporate Old Navy summer clothes into their fall wardrobe with small style tricks, not missing a chance to relinquish the remaining merchandise from the season.

“Our social media channels are essential platforms for us to engage with customers at all stages of her shopping journey, from when she’s hunting for style inspiration to considering a new trend and then ultimately making a purchasing decision,” Taylor Bux, director of digital and social media at Old Navy.

Blogging benefits
As schools begin to start and the warmer temperatures cool, consumers flock to stores to stock up on colder weather apparel. While Old Navy has the sweater market figured out, its summer collections are still hanging around and the retailer is introducing popular bloggers to help unload the merchandise.

Old Navy has sponsored numerous blogs, who’s writing are incorporating its summer looks into autumn apparel and discussing these tactics through social media. Web sites such as the Stylish Housewife, Advice from a 20 Something, M Loves M and Miss Louie are working the retailer’s collections seamlessly into their content and are engaging with their followers on Twitter.

For instance, Old Navy sponsored posts regarding a city swap with writers Mara and Amanda from blogs M Loves M and Advice from a 20 Something respectively. The two women visited the other’s city and documented their experiences, photographed while wearing the retailer’s apparel, sharing the posts through Twitter and linking to Old Navy’s mobile and desktop commerce site to purchase.

Erica from the YouTube channel Miss Louie shared a video of a fashion challenge in which she used only Old Navy to style everyday casual outfits, while slowly transitioning into fall fashion.

While the video was not sponsored, Old Navy did share through its Twitter page. The endorsement from Miss Louie without a sponsorship gives the retailer a more genuine appeal to consumers.

Jenn from the Stylish Housewife shared images of how to style one romper from Old Navy. A post on her blog displayed to readers how she was able to take a summer outfit and transform it into a cosy, chic style for autumn.

Seasonal shift
The retailer is highly focused on sharing seasonal marketing content, and develops new strategies for each season.

For instance, the brand’s original summer campaign put a new spin on emojis with a mobile-optimized site that predicts shoppers’ perfect pair of flip-flops based on their icon use (see more).

Also, Old Navy engaged millennials by showcasing its new spring line on microblogging social media application Tumblr and its Yahoo parent (see more).

“We use our platforms to speak to our consumers at different stages of the shopping journey,” Mr. Bux said. “Instagram and Pinterest often start the journey with inspirational style content whereas Facebook is where she’ll go to learn about our promotions.

“We constantly explore new technology and platforms that collapse the marketing funnel, enabling customers to purchase more seamlessly from any social environment,” he said. “Our general approach is to test, learn and iterate based on sales conversion performance.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily