Colin and John Nash of Nash Jewellers began an eight-month Magic Moments social media-based campaign to increase the store’s online presence and SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
When the Magic Moments campaign started more than two years ago, radio was the preferred medium. With store owner John Nash’s extensive teaching and professorial background, he has a natural radio voice with a patient and measured quality that lends itself nicely to telling customers’ Magic Moments stories in the commercials.
After a month of radio commercials, Magic Moments quickly caught on in their London, Ontario, market. People started calling the stores (Nash Jewellers has two locations) voicing approval of the real-life stories and sharing their own with the hopes of being part of the campaign. “People just loved the stories,” says Colin Nash, the marketing director for the family business.
Over the first quarter in 2009, John and Colin knew they had hit promotional pay dirt. And with that, Magic Moments went from a series of radio commercials to a full-fledged branding campaign complete with a then-new tagline: “Nash Jewellers, creating magic moments for over 93 years.”
In the first two years, Colin and his father, John, established a solid marketing mix with Magic Moments as the main branding message for the store. But they had mixed results with TV. “We’ve found that the radio commercials are more effective,” says Colin. “Now we only run Magic Moment TV ads during our key annual store events in May and June and the Christmas season.”
Today, Magic Moments commercials make up 50 percent of Nash Jewellers’ annual marketing budget, with most the other half dedicated to co-op ads promoting the store’s strategic vendor partners, namely Lazare Kaplan, TAG Heuer, Rolex, and Mikimoto.
Magic Moments radio commercials rotate about three to four different customer stories a month. Although good Magic Moments customer stories continue to come in, Colin and John are looking to beef up their social media follower and fan numbers, as well as their SEO, with the eight-month social media-based contest.
Colin worked with his Web design team to create a catchy and easy-to-remember web address: nashmagic.com. The social-media–friendly website currently promotes the contest with links to the store’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Contestants can go to the website to submit their 250-word or less Magic Moment story, or it can be done from the Magic Moments profile image link on the store’s Facebook wall. “In the first month of the eight-month contest I received about 30 stories,” says Colin.
Each month a Magic Moments winner will be announced. Winners receive a silver and 18k gold necklace from German jewelry designer Breuning valued at $200. As the contest nears its end, each monthly winner will be asked to produce a two-minute video telling their story.
When the videos are done, each will be uploaded to Nash Jewellers’ Facebook wall and YouTube for voting. The video contestant that receives the most combined votes (“likes” on Facebook, tweets and re-tweets on Twitter, and unique views on YouTube), will win the grand prize: a $2,000 store shopping spree.
The contest is nicely timed to conclude in December, the peak of the Christmas shopping season. That timing is no accident for obvious marketing reasons, but Colin has high hopes for a Christmas present of his own. “Right now we’re at around 550 likes on Facebook,” says Colin. “If we could get 2,000 or more by Christmas, we will have met our goal for this social media campaign.”
“The classical music and my father’s voice, which many in our market know, has branded the campaign. When people hear those first few notes of the campaign’s music, they know to tune in for a Magic Moment customer story,” says Colin Nash.
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