Rack Room’s CMO Explains Why You’ll Probably Never See a Celebrity in Its Advertisements

The rise of social media has led to the casting of real-life families and individuals in brand campaigns.

The Rack Room Shoes has been at this for a long time.

It all began in 2004 with the creation of its “Models Wanted” contest, which selected a customer to star in marketing and advertisements. The Real People Project was created to celebrate the unique lives of Rack Room shoppers through stories.

Once the families were selected through online submissions, Rack Room sent a production crew to each winner’s hometown to capture their stories, which were shared with the retailer’s online communities. The winners got a prize package.

Due to safety concerns, The Real People Project has been on hold since the start of the Pandemic, but will finally resume this month in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the store.

She said that it is still a fundamental part of the brand. Hartney said that it allowed them to let their customers know that they are true to their core values.

Molly Hartney is the Chief Marketing Officer of Rack Room Shoes.

She said that Rack Room is not over the top with brand ambassadors trying to push the latest trends. The target market for Rack Room Shoes is not who a celebrity is. We use real people because we want to be fair and just in how we market.

The best way to reach customers is through its loyalty program and email messages.

Email has been used to drive in-store revenue. The way that they shop with us has changed. While there may have been more of a digital shift during the Pandemic, we can definitely see that the traffic we’re getting from our email now is in stores. The last time I pulled numbers during back-to-school, the majority of our revenue came from email in stores.

Most of the company’s digital sales come from other channels such as shopping, paid search and affiliates.

There is a back-to-school ad.

Tinuiti has been working with Rack Room to build brand awareness and launch into new channels.

The retailer launched a new account called TikTok on August 16. Hartney said that they believe they can reach a subset of their customers who use that platform.

Tinuiti’s senior director of client strategy pointed to TikTok as an area of opportunity for the family retailer, but was also bullish about OTT advertising.

She said that over 80% of people are cord cutter, and people are streaming three times as much as they are watching live TV. It was expensive to get spots on television. Increased efficiency with online video platforms, where we know our impressions are more valuable, is happening now.