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Williams-Sonoma touts an upper class image with new social campaign

Author

Brielle Jaekel

Cookware retailer Williams-Sonoma is hoping to embody a high-class image for its products and overall brand image in a new social media campaign that could land a customer in London.

Customers are being offered a chance to be selected for a trip to England through social media and a mobile-optimized site. The campaign aligns the cookware retailer with a classy, high-end experience to drive sales with customers who have a keen eye for the finer things.

Social contests
Social media followers of Williams-Sonoma are being prompted to enter its contest online, with an image that entices readers to come to London. The contest, which lives online, can be accessed seamlessly through mobile devices via an optimized dedicated page.

Partnering with luxury department store Fortnum and Mason, Williams-Sonoma is giving away a trip to London and South East England, where winners can take tour and attend high tea. Williams-Sonoma’s post saying, “You could be here! Enter for a chance to WIN the ultimate culinary getaway to #London with @Fortnums,” was shared on multiple social networks.

The link included in the post brings users to a mobile optimized Web page where they can enter to win. Contestants simply enter their name, email address and zip code to be considered to win.

Selected at random, winners will get a chance to win free airfare to London for two, a six-night stay in a luxury hotel, dinner, high tea, cocktails, a cooking class, wine-tasting tour and take-home products.

Social innovation
The brand is often taking on innovating mobile marketing techniques to appeal to users.

For instance, Williams-Sonoma, in partnership with Visa Checkout, blended mobile video with shopping to make it easy for on-the-go consumers to purchase showcased products by clicking directly from a video.

The program included a four-part video series called “Time to Savor Summer” and was one of the first in-market examples of leveraging YouTube’s new TrueView technology that makes video ads shoppable. The strategy points to how marketers are increasingly focusing on visual elements to provide inspiration on mobile while streamlining use cases such as shopping (see more).

Williams-Sonoma also partnered with Weldon Owen Publishing in a subscription-based application to capitalize on the forever question, “What is for dinner?”

Recipe of the Day from Williams-Sonoma originally launched for the iPad and is available for the iPhone as well. The specialty retailer released many cookbooks through the years and the idea is to bring this content to the mobile screen (see more).