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

Launches new social campaign urging Gen Y to give “just because”


WEBWIRE

Culver City, CA - September 27, 2013 --- Los Angeles based ONE/x announced today that the agency won 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. (NASDAQ: FLWS) 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.  “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, 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.
 
Not Just for TV
While not all winners of “The Pitch” get to see their ideas come to fruition, 1-800-Flowers.com announced today the launch of it’s #JustBecause campaign produced by ONE/x. For details, go to http://www.justbc.com.
 
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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.  1-800-FLOWERS.COM has been honored in Internet Retailer’s “Hot 500 Guide” for 2013. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM was recognized for our mobile site with a Gold Award in the Ecommerce/Shopping category of the 2012 Horizon Interactive Awards. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM was also rated number one vs. competitors for customer service by STELLAService in 2011 and named by the E-Tailing Group as one of only nine online retailers out of 100 benchmarked to meet the criteria for Excellence in Online Customer Service in 2011. The Company’s BloomNet® international floral wire service (www.mybloomnet.net) provides a broad range of quality products and value-added services designed to help professional florists grow their businesses profitably. The 1-800-FLOWERS.COM “Gift Shop” also includes gourmet gifts such as popcorn and specialty treats from: The Popcorn Factory® ;(1-800-541-2676 or www.thepopcornfactory.com); cookies and baked gifts from Cheryl’s® ;(1-800-443-8124 or www.cheryls.com); premium chocolates and confections from Fannie May® confections brands (www.fanniemay.com and www.harrylondon.com); gift baskets and towers from 1-800-Baskets.com®  (www.1800baskets.com); incredible, carved fresh fruit arrangements from FruitBouquets.comsm ;(www.fruitbouquets.com); wine gifts from Winetasting.com® (www.winetasting.com); top quality steaks and chops from Stock Yards® (www.stockyards.com); as well as premium branded customizable invitations and personal stationery from FineStationery.com® (www.finestationery.com). The Company’s Celebrations® brand (www.celebrations.com) is a source for creative party ideas, must-read articles, online invitations and ecards, all created to help people celebrate holidays and the everyday. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. is involved in a broad range of corporate social responsibility initiatives including continuous expansion and enhancement of its environmentally-friendly “green” programs as well as various philanthropic and charitable efforts. 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.
 
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Contact Info
Ben Tiernan
ONE/x
btiernan@one-x.com
310.289.4422

Aaron Henry
Found Agency Media Relations
aaron@found-agency.com
310.245.8218
 



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 The Pitch
 ONE/x
 AMC
 1-800-Flowers.com
 Westrum


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