1-800-Flowers.com chooses ONE/x on AMC’s “The Pitch”

CULVER CITY, Calif. - Sept. 27, 2013 - PRLog -- Los Angeles based ONE/x announced today that the agency won (http://blogs.amctv.com/movie-blog/2013/09/the-pitch-qa-tom-westrum-and-ben-tiernan-onex) its “Pitch” last night on AMC, besting the veteran ad team at COR for work on the 1-800-FLOWERS.COM account. As the world’s leading florist and gift shop, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc.  is looking to create awareness around its continued expansion into the growing space of social commerce.  The episode reflected many of the profound changes in the agency business, with ONE/x emphasizing social planning, transmedia storytelling, and programmatic media buying in its effort to win over young shoppers through social media.  1-800-Flowers.com has elected to proceed with the campaign that was actually pitched on TV with the official launch today of its #JustBecause website: http://www.justbc.com.

Social Gifting

E-commerce pioneer 1-800-FLOWERS.COM has vigorously moved into social commerce — an area that Gartner Research predicts (when combined with mobile applications) could account for 50% of web spending in 2015.

“1-800-FLOWERS.COM has consistently been on the leading edge of new technology innovations, today we’re embracing social commerce to connect deeper with our customers.” said 1-800-FLOWERS.COM President, Chris McCann (http://blogs.amctv.com/movie-blog/2013/09/the-pitch-inter...).  “We challenged the agencies on ‘The Pitch’ to create a campaign that is social by design, that helps our customers engage with our expanding family of brands, and to deliver smiles to their friends much more frequently.”

Overcoming Challenges

To position 1-800-FLOWERS.COM as the go-to gifting destination in social media posed a unique challenge as social commerce is an emerging space, largely untapped by e-commerce retailers.

“Millennials simply do not respond to overt or flashy marketing tactics. Rather than being interrupted by clever commercials, they want to be engaged with an authentic dialogue in which they are a co-creator of that brand communication,” said Jason Wulfsohn, partner and Executive Creative Director of ONE/x.

West Coast Approach

Winning over Gen Y required a strategy of immersing the brand into the cultural conversation and earning attention via compelling content that seemingly sprang organically from that culture. Tactically, this translated into a multiphase campaign. First, by seeding unbranded messages and memes, the campaign would seek to inspire consumers to create similar messages and memes to spread and make trend. Second, the campaign would then introduce spreadable content, sponsored tweets, branded videos, native and social ads, and so on that pick up on the best variations of the campaign’s core narrative and expand that conversation to a larger circle of consumers. Lastly, the campaign would switch to more performance messaging; retargeting previously engaged consumers with offers appropriate for their current position in the purchase funnel.

“Being an LA agency, we’re intimately familiar with the transmedia storytelling techniques used to build audiences, engage fans and effectively market entertainment properties. We take a similar approach to telling a consumer brand’s story, not a single idea simply pushed across multiple channels but as a participatory platform that promotes sharing in ways that are native to each of these channels,” said Thomas Westrum (http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomwestrum), partner and Head of Digital for ONE/x, adding “As Henry Jenkins says, if it doesn’t spread, it’s dead, and that exactly what our emerging form of storytelling aims to achieve.”

Big Data Storytelling

To create the campaign strategy and inform the overall creative direction, ONE/x conducted a rigorous planning phase that included not only traditional qualitative and quantitative methods of consumer research but also deep analysis leveraging social listening technology. “Much of what we do at ONE/x is a process to find a signal in the noise of online conversation that best captures the sentiment of our prospective consumer. With gift giving, the phrase ‘just because’ popped time and again in our data as the phrase most likely to resonate with our target audience,” said Ben Tiernan, Head of Strategy at ONE/x. “Of course storytelling isn’t an exact science,” added Wulfsohn, “but with the ‘just because’ meta-narrative established and supported by data, we can more accurately develop creative that feels deeply authentic, credible and unexpected in ways that ultimately drive sharing.”

Closing The Loop

The ultimate success of the strategy rested on the ability of big data media technology to target promotional messages directly to people who have engaged with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and/or were exposed to upper funnel campaign activity. “We need to ensure that we deliver lower funnel messaging only when it’s likely to result in a conversion. This retargeting strategy draws a direct line from the tactics that build emotional positioning and cultural relevance to more ROI driven tactics,” said Westrum. "The reach and quality of the technologies that drive programmatic buying are growing quickly, and we try to leverage the full capabilities of those technologies to connect traditional brand building with the performance marketing that is at the core of 1-800-Flowers’ DNA" added Tiernan.

------

About "THE PITCH"

"The Pitch" first premiered on AMC in April 2012 and earned a Critic's Choice nomination for best reality series –competition. "The Pitch" is executive produced by Eli Holzman, Stephen Lambert, Domini Hofmann and Aaron Saidman of All3Media America ("Undercover Boss"). Season two, which premiered on August 15th, consists of eight, one-hour episodes. "The Pitch" chronicles advertising agencies as they prepare campaigns to try and win a major new piece of business.

See: http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-pitch

About 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc.

1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. is the world’s leading florist and gift shop. For more than 35 years, 1-800-FLOWERS® (1-800-356-9377 or www.1800flowers.com) has been helping deliver smiles for our customers with gifts for every occasion, including fresh flowers and the finest selection of plants, gift baskets, gourmet foods, confections, candles, balloons and plush stuffed animals. As always, our 100% Smile Guarantee backs every gift. Shares in 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. are traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, ticker symbol: FLWS.

About ONE/x

ONE/x is a full-service advertising and digital agency that helps brands create stories that people love to share. Based in LA, ONE/x leverages big data to produce transmedia experiences and results-driven campaigns that engage and inspire. Past and present clients include Vizio, Microsoft, Intel, Logitech, Y-Volution, USC Credit Union and many others. ONE/x is located at 3535 Hayden Ave., Suite 250, Culver City, CA 90232 and can be reached at 310.289.4422 or online at http://www.one-x.com.