The days leading up to December 25th are filled with companies attempting to get a consumer's attention for the biggest gift giving day of the year. Last minute deals fill content across all platforms and outlets. We decided to involve the influencers who create the content we sell merchandise for in attempts to reach the right audience, at the right time, in the most genuine way and drive them to 685 Hot Topic stores to get that last minute gift.
Hot Topic is known for their pop culture and music merchandise. Who better to sell you that merchandise than the actors, voice actors and artists themselves? We partnered with celebrities and influencers to take over our Instagram via Stories and Lives to spread the message about our merchandise and promotion. We included countdowns and reveals of each day's takeover on Hot Topic emails and hottopic.com's homepage.
We asked them to:
A. Post on their Instagram they would be live on @hottopic to drive that audience to our channel
B. Go live for a minimum of 10 minutes while they shop around Hot Topic and point out their favorite merchandise
C. Post a few slides to the @hottopic Instagram Story to highlight what they purchase
We aligned promotions with the celebrity or influencer as follows:
December 1st:
Celeb/Influencer: Madelaine Petsch, Plays Cheryl Blossom on Riverdale
Promo: Entire Store, including Riverdale, Buy One, Get One 50% off
December 8th:
Celeb/Influencer: Jenna Ortega, voice of Princess Isabel in Disney's Elena of Avalor
Promo: Entire Store, including Disney, Buy One, Get One 50% off
Deceber 13th:
Celeb/Influencer: Holly Madison, television personality and huge Harry Potter fan
Promo: Harry Potter Buy Two, Get One Free
December 14th:
Celeb/Influencer: Rob Liefeld, creator of Deadpool
Promo: Deadpool Buy Two, Get One Free
December 15th:
Celeb/Influencer: Jeremy Ray Taylor, Plays Ben in 2017's IT
Promo: Funko Pops, including IT Pops, Buy Two Get One Free
December 16th:
Celeb/Influencer: Osric Chau, played Kevin Tran on Supernatural
Promo: Supernatural Buy Two, Get One Free
December 17th:
Celeb/Influencer: Vic Mignogna, voice actor of Broly in DragonBallSuper
Promo: Dragon Ball Z Buy Two, Get One Free
December 18th:
Celeb/Influencer: Hayley Law, plays Valerie Brown on Riverdale
Promo: Riverdale Buy Two, Get One Free
December 19th:
Celeb/Influencer: Christopher Sabat and Justin Briner, voice actors of My Hero Academia's All Might and Deku
Promo: My Hero Academia Buy Two, Get One Free
December 20th:
Celeb/Influencer: Alanah Pearce, creator and gamer including Overwatch
Promo: Overwatch Buy Two, Get One Free
December 21st:
Celeb/Influencer: Andy Black, lead singer of Black Veil Brides and solo artist and huge Nightmare Before Christmas Fan
Promo: Nightmare Before Christmas Buy Two, Get One Free
December 22nd:
Celeb/Influencer: Josh Dun, drummer of Twenty One Pilots
Promo: Super Saturday Buy One, Get One 50% Off including Twenty One Pilots
December 23rd:
Celeb/Influencer: Tati Gabrielle, plays Prudence on Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Promo: Super Sunday Buy One, Get One 50% Off including Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
December 24th:
Celeb/Influencer: Ashley Eckstein, voice of Star Wars' Ahsoka Tano and founder of fangirl fashion company Her Universe (including Doctor Who fashion)
Promo: Doctor Who Buy Two, Get One Free
- Drove traffic to Hot Topic stores during the busiest time of the year
- Reached 30M+ potential new customers via Influencers' Instagram reach
- Gained 50k+ new @hottopic Instagram followers
- Engaged our audience in a genuine, authentic way
- On average, saw a 75% completion rate on Instagram Stories
- Saw 500k+ likes across Influencers' Instagram posts
