Learn how FISKARS uses targeted online campaigns and consumer behavior analysis to increase sales while gaining valuable insights into the effectiveness of different advertising channels.
Laura Schüssler
Marketing Activation DACH| FISKARS
Laura, please explain a little about yourself and your role at FISKARS!
I am part of the Marketing Activation DACH team and therefore involved in the planning and implementation of national marketing measures. In our regular campaigns, it becomes clear time and again that advertising in and around the market is highly relevant. The topic of retail media has therefore become an important part of our marketing plan.
You tested socialPALS for the first time in 2023 to provide your retailers with high-quality campaign content. Furthermore, why did you decide to integrate this form of automated retail marketing into your communication concept?
We have always provided retailers with a digital template package for advertising our campaigns. However, the individual adaptation and implementation was always associated with some effort on the market. With socialPALS, we can minimize the effort on the retailer side and achieve impressive results on both sides at the same time.
What was the aim of the two campaigns and how much internal effort did you put into marketing to get them off the ground?
During our fall campaign, consumers were able to secure great prizes when purchasing Fiskars products. For participating retailers, the campaign was a great lever for sales. Our aim was to make the campaign more visible and thus increase sales. Consumers should not only become aware of the promotion at the POS, but should realize beforehand “Hey, there’s a great FISKARS promotion at my hardware store around the corner, I have to go there!”. Ideally, the higher visibility then ensures more visits to the store and higher sales.
How successful was the campaign for you?
The campaign was a complete success for us. We achieved our goal of giving the campaign greater visibility. In 3 months, the ads and posts were seen around 8 million times and clicked over 600k times. For an enormous number of consumers, we have thus created an additional point of contact before the actual store visit. We benefit from this result as a brand, but so do the participating stores. Because the sender of the ads was always the retailer account, including the store logo. An effect on sales can be assumed, but has so far been difficult to measure with this setup. We would like to enter into a closer exchange with individual stores and are looking forward to their assessment.
How has the automation of the campaign via socialPALS affected the efficiency and scalability of your marketing measures?
Thanks to the automation of the campaign via socialPALS, we reach significantly more consumers than before by manually providing a communication package. Participating stores receive a ready-made marketing package that they can publish without any effort or online marketing expertise and – if desired – measure precisely. The efficiency of the campaigns continues to grow with the number of participating retailers. I would therefore be delighted if we could inspire even more stores to participate in the future.
What were you able to take away from the platform - for example, which channels/formats are best suited for which purposes?
The platform offers us many opportunities to measure different channels and formats against each other. For example, we have noticed that some retailers’ ads with product images are clicked better than those with purely lifestyle motifs. A learning that we are happy to take with us for the next campaign.
How difficult was it to motivate your retail partners to participate?
Most markets are aware of the relevance of online marketing, but often lack the time to deal with the topic more intensively. Our sales team is therefore currently engaged in an intense exchange with retailers and is using initial success stories to show how easy it can be to get started with online marketing thanks to a socialPALS campaign. Stores that already work with socialPALS were simply delighted that they can now also run FISKARS campaigns with a single click.
How do you see the future of bricks-and-mortar retail amid the dominance of the major online players?
Today’s consumers generally gather information online before making a purchase. However, this does not mean that they also buy online. With premium products in particular, consumers often want to see the quality of the product for themselves. As a retail store, I therefore believe that relying on effective online marketing alongside an attractive POS is the perfect recipe for success.
Laura, would you like to give us an insight into what is planned for FISKARS this year in terms of marketing activities?
2024 is an anniversary year for us as a brand. To mark our 375th anniversary, we are rewarding FISKARS consumers from March to November with a wish bonus for purchases of €50 or more. For participating stores, the promotion is a great lever for sales. We are therefore supporting selected retailers with a campaign for the promotion to boost reach and sales. Any of our distributors that are interested are welcome to contact their relevant FISKARS field representative.
How would you rate socialPALS' customer support?
The collaboration with the socialPALS team is on an equal footing. Questions, issues and ideas are addressed openly and both I and our sales team receive optimal support. We are in close contact with competent account and marketing managers from socialPALS, and retailers can also contact the team by email and hotline with any questions. Shared success is a top priority here.
Do you have any suggestions? How can socialPALS as a retail marketing platform support you in mastering current challenges (even better)?
I'm always happy when new functionality is added to the platform. The partner list is a great new feature for me. Export options for reports, the bundling of multi-location markets and retailers in a campaign, or a character tracker when writing captions would be great additions for the future.
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