Etailer my-wardrobe.com stepped out of the virtual high street and into the streets of two of the UK’s biggest cities for an all new operation. Operation Dockers was launched last week, a treasure hunt which saw two secret keys hidden in both London and Manchester. The keys, once found, would open a limited edition World War Two ammunitions box which housed a Tee and a pair of Chinos from the latest Dockers collection, which takes inspiration from World War Two fashions. This elaborate marketing stunt utilised the brand’s online social media channels to interact with customers and give them clues as to the where abouts of the hidden keys. MFN spoke to Director of PR at my-wardrobe.com, Lauren Stevenson, about Operation Dockers.

What did my-wardrobe.com hope to achieve from this stunt?
 
The key objective was to drive awareness of the my-wardrobe.com brand, as well as creating a personality that was aligned with the male fashion consumer. The online execution of the campaign through our social media channels helped to drive traffic and engagement with the site.
 
Why did my-wardrobe.com choose, this time, to include Manchester within the hunt?
 
Building the awareness of my-wardrobe.com across the UK has been key for us this year, which has included looking at target customer groups by region. When we looked at the Dockers brand, Manchester was an essential city to target as part of our marketing campaign to launch the exclusive chino. 

Was my-wardrobe.com able to identify event specific traffic and interactivity on its website, facebook and twitter channels?
 
The great thing about implementing social media campaigns is that they are completely trackable through the traffic to the site and engagement with the Facebook page and Twitter feed. Within minutes of the campaign going live, we were able to see the results of new customers engaging with the my-wardrobe.com brand and site.
 
Whilst at the 'An Audience with ...' event in Manchester you were asked about my-wardrobe.com's recent move into Menswear. Was this event part of the overall marketing strategy to promote this new arm of the company or was it a one off special?
 
The Operation Dockers campaign was part of the marketing campaign for menswear. The social and digital media channels are a key focus for menswear, as it’s the way that men consume media in today’s consumer landscape. To engage with our male shopper, it’s about getting creative and creating a personality and providing a reason to shop at my-wardrobe.com. This type of campaign ticked all of these boxes as well as creating a brand buzz and word-of-mouth in a key region for us.  It also gave us an exciting and different event proposition to talk to the digital menswear media, which resulted in support from the social media arms of FHM, Men’s Health and GQ.com among others.

Does my-wardrobe.com recommend this form of marketing and event organisation?
 
We believe that offline as well as online marketing concepts are a key way to engage consumers, whether they are male or female. You cannot ignore the power of social media now and the opportunity to use these channels as a marketing tool can provide a really accessible platform to communicate with a huge target audience.  As an online retailer, the opportunity to track the results of the campaign from the moment it starts is a million miles from the days of launching an advertising campaign and waiting six months to evaluate its success.  You just have to be aware that any social media campaign opens up your brand to consumer discussion and comment, which can be positive as well as negative.

The lucky winner of Operation Dockers with his prize.

Does my-wardrobe.com hope to host similar events in the near future and will Manchester once again be a part of the action?
 
We are definitely looking as a whole host of online and offline events across the UK, which will include Manchester. The changing media landscape is creating really exciting ways to market brands in very engaging ways.

Interview by Jordan McDowell.

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