Client: Hutensky Capital Partners + Town Square Wheaton
Title: Reassure. Reopen. Recover.
Category: COVID-19
Challenge:
When timing is not only uncertain, but critical, the ability to pivot is crucial to success.
As the COVID-19 global pandemic caused Town Square Wheaton’s consumer retail and food & beverage venues to close normal operations almost overnight, Strategy+Style was suddenly charged with managing both immediate internal stakeholder and external consumer messaging along with developing and executing a forward-thinking marketing strategy to help gain back lost market share from the unexpected shutdown.
Complicating the health crisis situation was the lack of a known executional timeline beginning with initial store closings to a defined reopening period during the unprecedented pause for the brick-and-mortar retail industry as a whole. Fluid was an understatement.
Approach:
Collaborating closely with ownership and property management as the situation unfolded, Strategy+Style first delivered best practice crisis situation guidance and recommendations. Acting nimbly to quickly pivot from its planned annual marketing strategy and corresponding advertising and promotional tactics, the team moved to the creation and deployment of a robust communications plan. Corresponding visuals targeted all audiences using existing tools such as the center’s website and social media platforms and eblast capabilities were employed.
The team’s marketing approach then turned from the immediate to that of the foreseeable future developing a thoughtful and budget conscious three-phase approach to continue to communicate with constituencies. The resulting strategy – Reassure. Reopen. Recover. – guided the Town Square Wheaton team along its unprecedented journey as the Covid-19 outbreak ran its course with overarching goals to:
Effectively communicate with its internal and external audiences regarding enhanced safety measures and reopening protocols.
Keep consumers engaged during a period of closure.
Inform of store reopenings as they occurred.
Limit spending through the use of existing marketing tools including website, first-party data, social media and boosted Facebook posts for no-cost communications.
Satisfy the shopper’s desire for updates with a new email capture website pop-up module generating first-party data collection.
Document, via a new process for tracking and management, each stores reopening, operating hours and sales/offers as discovery will likely be needed as past rent payment are negotiated.
Welcome back visitors to encourage traffic and sales as state government business guidelines eased.
Tactics:
Developed a complete communications scenario template package and corresponding creative materials including the following elements and topics:
Website homepage modified hours and store closing ticker alert.
Social media creative and corresponding messaging to update loyal followers on property’s open and operating status.
Consumer communications concerning government mandated closures, the center’s enhanced safety measures and available open and operating services.
Tenant memo templates concerning government mandated property closure and reopening protocols, enhanced safety measures and suspected/confirmed on-site Covid-19 cases.
Serving as its primary consumer touchpoint for the most up-to-date information, executed daily content management of Town Square Wheaton’s website with activities that included:
Daily updates to its store directory listing including modified operating hours, store closures and available take-out and curbside delivery services.
Enhanced VIP Shopper Club programming and recruitment tactics.
First-party data capture as shoppers were willing to give email addresses in return for updates and VIP Club membership.
Heightened safety and sanitization protocols communications made available to tenants and consumers on the center’s website.
Operational alert on every page of the website notifying visitors of modified store and restaurant hours.
The addition of a Facebook Messenger menu with frequently asked questions that allowed followers to instantly get answers to common questions about store hours and openings.
Maintained community relations activity via an on-site oversized banner thanking Wheaton’s essential healthcare workers along with a steady stream of locally-focused “feel good” Facebook and Instagram posts highlighting:
Tenant CSR activities such as facemask manufacturing, food/meal donations, etc.
Calendar happenings such as Mother’s Day, National Nurses Day, Earth Day and the like.
Take-out and curbside pick-up options and promotions offered by Town Square Wheaton’s operating food & beverage tenants.
In an effort to maintain enthusiasm for new businesses slated to open, continued dialogue and marketing preparation with Town Square Wheaton’s newest stores (Hotworx, P.S. Flowers and Interiors and McAlister’s Deli) each slated to celebrate grand openings at the center once government mandated Covid-19 closures were lifted.
Developed the center’s Post-Covid Marketing Plan which outlined its three-phase Reassure. Reopen. Recover. program. The plan was distributed to the center’s tenant community along with ownership, leasing and property management teams to outline activity for all stakeholders.
From enhanced safety measure on-site posters, restroom handwashing flyers and social distancing floor markers to open for business banners and curbside pick-up location flag markers, Strategy+Style created, produced and delivered over 40 pounds of printed collateral material for installation prior to the center’s reopening date of May 30.
Results:
In just a 10-week time period, Strategy+Style’s steadfast efforts to keep its internal and external audiences informed of all property and individual Town Square Wheaton retailer and food & beverage developments in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic not only proved nimble and responsive, but effective in terms of timely communications delivered via limited budget dollars of under $5,000.
Select marketing communications highlights during the Covid-19 pause period included:
Deployment of (5) email blasts with an average open rate of 40%, nearly three times the retail industry average open rate of 13.9%.
From March 15 through May 31, created and posted original and/or shared via Town Square Wheaton tenant feeds a total of 47 Facebook and Instagram posts which generated over 17,400 impressions and nearly 785 engagements over the course of the Covid-19 pause period.
Increased total social media audience following by 182% in March through May compared to the previous three-month period.
Increased engagement rate per impression by 356% in March through May compared to the previous three-month period.
During each marketing phase tenants and shoppers alike were kept abreast in real time of enhanced safety measures, available open and operating services and store reopening timelines enabling Town Square Wheaton to welcome shoppers back to the property in a safe and orderly fashion as the state of Illinois pandemic guidelines allowed.
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