Thomasville Furniture Archives - Clairemont Communications

Award-Winning Social Media Campaigns

March 13, 2017January 31, 2023 Dana PhelpsBlog, Case Studies, Social Media + Influencer Engagementaward winning PR, Facebook, Inspire Award, NCPRSA, PR social media, Sir Walter Raleigh Awards, Thomasville Furniture

The trends and best strategies for social media campaigns seem to change faster than our Facebook feed, but that’s an exciting challenge for us at Clairemont Communications. We’ve received 20 awards over the years in social media –eight Sir Walter Raleigh awards from the Raleigh Public Relations Society and an even dozen InSpire awards from the North Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (NCPRSA).

The InSpire Social Media awards we’ve received every year since 2011 include four Best in Category or Best in Show awards for one of our first social media clients, Thomasville Furniture. We began managing the company’s Facebook page in July 2010 at a time when social media for business was relatively new, after confirming Facebook’s potential as a customer engagement channel.

Established in 1904, Thomasville Furniture is a leading name in the home furnishings industry. We helped the company honor its long history by visually documenting its milestones with historic photos on its About page.

At the same time, we developed strategies to help younger customers understand Thomasville Furniture as a fashionable brand as well as a venerable one. Videos featuring younger actors and a more relaxed feel, and creative content about interior design increased the company’s 18 to 34-year old Facebook fans from 20 percent to 30 percent of the total fan base.

Our work with Thomasville Furniture exemplifies the passion that helped start Clairemont Communications — developing strategies that use both traditional and emerging forms of communications. One campaign for the company and its sister company Drexel Heritage combined local media and trade magazines with blog posts and Facebook content to boost brand recognition among consumers.

At Clairemont, we stay on top of new social media tools and their potential to help our clients. In 2015 we built and managed a customer application using the social engagement platform Shoutlet to host a special giveaway promotion for Thomasville. The company asked us to help it build brand awareness during its annual Memorial Day Sale; the resulting giveaway campaign increased its Facebook fan count by nearly 11,000 likes, created at least one million total daily impressions, and captured more than 100,000 new consumer leads.

A key to using social media effectively is understanding that it is not a broadcast medium; success comes from creating interaction and active engagement. We had confidence in our Memorial Day campaign because our previous experience managing Thomasville’s Facebook page had shown giveaways to be effective traffic-driving tools. In 2011 we promoted special giveaways throughout the year to build and sustain fan engagement. We also designed our interior design posts to get fans talking about their own design ideas. As a result, weekly interactions increased 155 percent, and the total Facebook fan base increased almost 178 percent from the previous year.

Since our work with Thomasville in Clairemont’s early history, we have had the pleasure to work with several other clients to develop social media strategies and support the day-to-day management of social media tactics. Examples of other client campaigns and our thoughts on emerging digital communications tools can be found on our blog under the social media category.

Maybe you love social media as much as we do. Or maybe keeping up with its constant evolution feels daunting or too time-consuming. Either way, we’d love to help you put social media to work for your business! Email me at d@clairemontcommunications.com to schedule a call.

What Does A PR Agency Do? Videos for PR

August 15, 2012January 31, 2023 Josephine ButlerAwards, Blog, Case Studies, Furniture PR, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, Social Media + Influencer Engagementanalytics, Facebook videos, research, results, social media measurement, Thomasville Furniture, video production1 Comment

People commonly ask us what a PR agency does. We thought the best way to answer that question would be to share case studies from our work that was recently recognized at the North Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (NCPRSA) InSpire Awards. Clairemont won 14 InSpire Awards, and we hope that this “Award Winning Wednesday” blog series will inspire you, too!

Client: Thomasville Furniture, established in 1904 and a leading name in the home furnishings industry.

Objective: Create a series of videos to showcase Thomasville’s new furniture and upholstery at High Point Market, as well as demonstrate the versatility of the Reinventions collection, a multi-functional collection designed to maximize space in smaller homes, with the following goals:

Boost overall interactions on the Thomasville Facebook page, with special emphasis on increasing interactions among 18 to 34-year-olds by 5 percent.
Increase the number of likes on the page by 100 percent.

Execution: Commissioned research provided insights on media consumption preferences of Thomasville’s existing customers and younger target consumers. Focus groups revealed that younger consumers often see Thomasville’s furniture as special occasions furnishings, while they seek more of an everyday, comfortable look. Additionally, informal feedback from employees and customers indicated that previously produced videos weren’t necessarily viewed as targeting a younger demographic due to the fact that the on-camera talent didn’t match that desired age group.

To gain fans and keep them engaged, we provided creative content with quality videos focused on the following areas:

An Insider’s View to Furniture Market: The fact that furniture market isn’t open to the public didn’t stop us from sharing the collections that Thomasville debuted at market with its fans. A series of videos featured team members sharing information about new collections. To reinforce the idea that Thomasville’s furniture is so comfortable it makes you want to “kick up your feet,” each person was interviewed relaxing in her favorite vignette in the showroom, as she offered design tips or revealed sources of decorating inspiration. Collectively, these videos received 234,764 impressions.

How-to Videos: A mini-series was produced to showcase Reinventions, a new, multi-functional collection designed for everyday living. These videos demonstrated how to maximize space with the versatility of the collection’s pieces. For example, the Slater Mill Drop-Leaf Table can be folded down to a mere 13-inch deep sofa table or expand to a dining table to accommodate six people – ideal for city apartment living. These videos received a total of 88,055 impressions.

Results: Through our promotional efforts, including these videos, Thomasville’s fan base on Facebook increased from 11,249 to 31,256, approximately a 178 percent increase from 2010. Additionally, we boosted average weekly interactions from 2,964 to 7,571, a 155 percent increase, engaging the target audiences of existing customers and young consumers alike. Specific to the videos, we received nearly 322,819 total impressions, 102 likes and 43 comments, exceeding our goals.

What did you think of this social media case study? Was it helpful? Be sure to check out our last case study featuring the Thomasville Facebook page.

Have questions? Interested in Clairemont’s video production services? Drop us a line!

What Does A PR Agency Do? Furniture Industry Social Media Campaign

June 27, 2012January 31, 2023 Josephine ButlerAwards, Blog, Case Studies, Furniture PR, Marketing, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, Social Media + Influencer Engagementawards, engagement, Facebook, InSpire Awards, measurement, NCPRSA, North Carolina Public Relations Society of America, PR case studies, PR case study, Social Media, social network, Thomasville Furniture1 Comment

Client: Thomasville Furniture, established in 1904 and a leading name in the home furnishings industry.

Objective: Manage the Thomasville Facebook page. Based on our research and several meetings with Thomasville executives, the Clairemont team identified the following objectives:

Boost overall interactions on the Facebook page, with special emphasis on increasing interactions among 18 to 34-year-olds by 5 percent.
Increase the number of likes on the page by 100 percent

Execution: Research provided insights on existing customers and younger consumers, including media consumption preferences. Focus groups revealed that younger consumers often see Thomasville’s furniture as special occasion furnishings, while they seek everyday furniture (of course, we know that Thomasville is very fun and fashion-forward these days!). Clairemont also evaluated social media networks and confirmed Facebook’s significant potential as Thomasville’s primary customer engagement channel.

We focused creative content in the following areas:

Interior Design: To position Thomasville as the fashionable brand that we know it to be, we shared ideas from shelter magazines, such as Elle Décor and House Beautiful. We uploaded product photography featuring new collections designed for a young demographic and shared decorating tips via professionally produced videos. Our chatter posts got fans talking and sharing their own interior design ideas, too.
Sweepstakes: Recognizing the traffic-driving power of sweepstakes, Clairemont generated steady fan engagement with giveaways throughout the year. The Best Bridal Shower Gift Ever Giveaway targeted 18 to 34-year-olds by awarding a bedroom suite as a wedding gift to a young couple. Our Best Seat in the House Giveaway earned more than 1,900 content likes, posts and comments, as fans couldn’t resist the chance to show off photos of their beloved pets. With a prize of a new sofa, our 1 Sofa 4 Looks Giveaway increased page likes by 13,767 alone. Along with additional giveaways such as the Bright Idea; Backyard Barbeque; No Tricks, Just Treats; Thanksgiving Dinner Disasters (with many hilarious accounts of Thanksgiving dinners gone wrong); and Stocking Stuffer giveaways, the Clairemont team successfully raised the fan count and interactions on the page.
Customer Relations: Because it’s our policy to allow fans to have a voice, when questions or complaints were posted, we worked closely with Thomasville’s corporate customer service team to provide quick responses instead of deleting or ignoring negative posts.

Results: Thomasville’s fan base on Facebook increased from 11,249 to 31,256, approximately a 178 percent increase from 2010, and we boosted weekly interactions from 2,964 to 7,571, a 155 percent increase. Additionally, we increased the number of 18 to 34-year-old fans from 20 percent of the fan base to 30 percent, exceeding our goal of a 5 percent increase. Based on the success of 2011, Thomasville has retained Clairemont to continue to manage its page on Facebook in 2012.

What did you think of this social media case study? Was it helpful? Have questions? We’ve got answers!