A Career Profile: Working in CSR At Matalan
We caught up with Vicki Connolly, Senior Brand Manager at Matalan about what it's been like working on their latest CSR project, 'Beanie Vs Bobble' in partnership with Alder Hey Children's Hospital Charity.
Can you tell us about your latest campaign and why you have chosen to do it?
Charity is extremely close to our hearts at Matalan and this year we were excited to launch the ‘Beanie vs. Bobble’ campaign in partnership with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Charity, one of our official charity partners. The objective was to raise both funds and awareness for this amazing charity, with 100% of the profits from sales of the official Alder Hey hats going to the charity and specifically towards the new research, education and innovation centre in the state of the art ‘Alder Hey in the Park’.
This campaign builds on the success of last year’s Alphabet Scarves campaign, where we raised more than £650,000 for Alder Hey. We really wanted to use last year’s campaign as a springboard for Beanie Vs Bobble and re-engage everyone who got involved last year.
How did you execute the campaign?
The execution was a real team effort with absolutely everyone from across the business playing their part in its success. Everyone from the designer who created the product, to the retail team who sell it to our customers – we really did rely on the whole Matalan team to pull off something amazing and make this a real success. In terms of marketing, we wanted this to be a complete through-the-line campaign, ensuring full multi-channel engagement and promotion across everything from online, social media and email, to direct mail, PR and advertising.
What have been the results so far?
The results have been phenomenal so far with over 80 high profile celebrities sharing their Beanie and Bobble selfies including Little Mix, (who are the face of the campaign) Britney Spears, Dame Judi Dench, Matt LeBlanc, Diego Costa and Carly Rae Jepson. In terms of social media, the reach so far has included 64 million impressions, 4,416 hashtag mentions, 1,144 photo uploads from celebrities and customers, plus over 50 pieces of media coverage – and these numbers continue to grow daily. We also wanted to make the festive period really special at the hospital, especially for the children who will be staying at the hospital over Christmas. On that front the campaign has been extremely successful, including an exclusive Little Mix performance and ward visit. We don’t want to reveal the amount raised just yet – you’ll have to wait for the big cheque handover!
With Christmas approaching, how does Matalan plan to increase its share of the festive consumer spend?
One of our key USP’s is that we offer something for everyone and Christmas time is no different. We have everything that our customers need to have the perfect family Christmas. Our Beanie and Bobble charity hats play a part in this as they have helped to shine a light on our Christmas offering, demonstrating our key brand pillars of value, quality and style. They’re the perfect feel good Christmas gift for both children and adults.
The Beanie and Bobble hats come in six vibrant colours with children’s hats priced at £4 and adults’ at £8. For more details head to: http://www.matalan.co.uk/beanievsbobble