Warner's Fit-to-a-T Bra Fitting House Party Gives Women What They Want
July 08, 2009
By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk
Last year about this time I wrote this post on a really cool promotional event that Hershey's sponsored and executed with an interesting marketing firm called House Party to help launch their new Hershey's Bliss Chocolate line. House Party integrates actual social events that happen in the real world with social media in the online world. Since last year House Party has really been expanding and they helped to create a party earlier this year called Warner's Fit-to-a-T House Party that I just have to share with you all here.
Now a House Party™ is thousand parties on one day taking place across the country with an exclusive brand experience at the center of the action. These specially designed parties are sponsored by a leading brand and take place in the homes of carefully selected consumer hosts who can invite their friends, family, neighbors, classmates , co-workers, whoever they wish, to experience these uniquely fun parties and the products they feature.
Warner's wanted to sponsor bra fitting parties to help support the launch of their new Invisible Bliss bra which is designed for women to wear under t-shirts. So House Party recruited 1,000 hosts for this event and also got Redbook on board as a co-sponsor.
House Party's CEO, Kitty Kolding, shared this with us the following: “The experts at Warner Bras have data that show that most women do not wear the correct bra size nor do they know how to select bras that fit them perfectly. So we worked with Warner Bras to design and deploy a national program of parties that gave women a trusted setting – the home of a close friend – in which they could learn, share and find the perfect bra. And at the same time, they had fun and shared that fun on the event website that ties all the parties together. To make it work, we did what we always do which is make a brand or product experience into an authentic, legitimately fun social gathering that delivers real value to consumers and extremely powerful marketing tools to our Fortune 500 clients.”
Each host received a party kit that included a DVD explaining the subtleties of bra fitting, a tape measure, two sample bras, some REDBOOK/Warner's T-shirts, "Boost Your Breasts" exercise tip sheets and a Redbook article about girlfriend get-togethers. Also, to help promote sales of the new Invisible Bliss bra they provided two-for-one coupons for the hosts to give to their party attendees. In the post-event period, House Party reminded partiers to go to the store and get inside one of those bras.
House Party's technology platform hosts a custom microsite for each event, sending party hosts reminders and tips, and letting them upload photos and videos during every phase from party-planning to the post-event wrap-up. The microsite includes a group blog that hosts can leave comments about their event. Here's a few that I liked:
Shannon Vasque wrote: "This has got to be the funnest party ever! All the girls agreed this was their first time being measured in front of others!! I had fun being the "fitter" and demonstrating the exercises!! Everyone was surprised with their size results." The DVD was okay, but a little hard to follow. The bra fit me so I was able to model the before and after. The coupons should be redeemed soon as I told them they expired at the end of the month. The bra really feels nice on and to the touch. It looks great too! The t-shirts were great, I wore mine shopping today! Thank you! Can't wait for the next house party. I was able to make new friends in my building. A great ice breaker for sure!!"
Sweet Lisa wrote: "It was a super evening...we had margaritas, Mexican food and bra fittings...took bra cup sizes as they came through the door and then awarded the free samples to the ones who fit those cups...the t-shirts were a big hit, too! We even did a drawing for the Redbook magazine. Thank you Warners, Redbook and House Party!"
Miz Leeza wrote: "We had a nice get together which ended up being coed. Why shouldn't gentlemen understand more about ladies lingerie? A nice social event for all of us young and old."
So from the many comments that I read on the blog and all the photos that were uploaded I'd say it was a pretty fun and successful event. Now I only wish that they'd do it again because I could really use a good fitting myself!
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