Bassett Furniture is a leading home luxury brand, committed to providing customers with beautiful, custom furniture and direct access to skilled Design Consultants at more than 100 retail locations.
In 2019, the brand sought to further elevate its southern roots and showcase its dedication to quality home furnishings. Bassett started to significantly reduce traditional TV spend, and instead focused on rich storytelling content through social and influencer marketing. As part of this initiative, Bassett tapped influencer, Jenni Holmes of Dear Lillie Studio for a several-month long partnership. More specifically, this campaign’s objectives were to increase social engagement with the brand, particularly within Instagram and Instagram Stories, drive more inbound interest for Bassett Furniture product, as well as drive site traffic and encourage new customers to find local Bassett stores via the website. More broadly, the brand also wanted to get in front of a younger audience.
With the push into more storytelling around the brand through social and influencer marketing, Bassett Furniture had a goal of shifting its image from less traditional to more modern and fun, without losing the integrity of their legacy and heritage product. The target audience for the Jenni Holmes campaign reflected this shift, with a focus on younger audiences aged 25-44, with family and functionality, in addition to style, being a focus. Styling, product choice, finishes, and attention to American-made product reflected this movement into modern home decorating.
The Jenni Holmes engagement was also a geo-specific play to highlight the brand’s Bench*Made and Custom Upholstery factories in Newton, North Carolina and Bassett Virginia.
One of the most creative and impactful aspects of the influencer program with Jenni Holmes was the fact that Bassett didn’t simply send already made products for Jenni to share via her channels. They instead invited Jenni to visit their Bench*Made and Custom Upholstery collection factories to tour the facilities, and be a part of the design process to have her own custom products made. This resulted in a highly authentic experience of the brand by Jenni and her followers. Jenni’s experiences of the Bassett Factories, as well as her custom-designed products, were shared in the form of four blog posts, as well as several social media posts across Instagram and Instagram Stories.
The Jenni Holmes partnership is just one example of where Bassett intelligently invested in a program that would garner more authentic, memorable experiences of its brand. While a simple execution, it was incredibly impactful for elevating brand recognition, driving social engagement, and site traffic. And as part of the brand’s push into influencer marketing, Bassett was not only able to drive business performance, but they were also about to meaningfully and relevantly engaging a younger audience demo.
The Jenni Holmes engagement produced four blog posts with custom product reveals, as well as several social posts on Instagram and Instagram Stories, and over 220 image assets. More specifically, the campaign, which lasted from August through December 2019, drove impressive traffic to Bassett's site, a significant portion of those visits being new-to-site. The brand also achieved a notable increase in "Find a Store" inquiries.
