Jan 27 (Inc) – Last month, I was scrolling through Instagram and came across an image on Beyonce’s feed. The artistry of it completely captured me. I couldn’t stop looking at it. I shared it with my girlfriends, and we ended up having a 15-minute conversation about Beyonce.
From then on, I started noticing promotions from the marketing campaign for Beyonce’s new fashion collaboration with Adidas, for Ivy Park, her athleisure line.
The new collection launched on Friday, and it’s been reported that on the first day, everything sold out except for some socks. And by the time the weekend was over, everything was sold out.
It’s a time-tested and proven strategy that many brands employ when they are launching something new. But true to Beyonce form, she took that strategy and elevated it several notches to make receiving the samples a remarkable experience for those who received them.
Kelly Rowland, Ellen DeGeneres, Reese Witherspoon, Janelle Monae, Kylie Jenner, and many more took to their own social media accounts to showcase the unboxing of the massive orange special delivery they received — the entire collection of Beyonce’s newest Ivy Park line.
As you work to launch new products, services, and experiences to your audience, you need to reinvent the wheel to make a big impact. Follow Beyonce’s lead by taking proven strategies and executing them in a remarkable way.
1. Elevate your product photography.
There’s nothing new about producing photography for your products. But you can elevate those photos into something that is worth paying attention to, worth talking about, and worth sharing with others.
Beyonce and her team did this by making the photos more editorial in nature. Some looked like they could be cover photos in fashion magazines. The team focused on making beautiful images that the clothes were a part of. For instance, the attention to detail with the Ivy Park beading in Beyonce’s braids is what caught my eye and made me stop and pay attention to the first photo I saw. I noticed the clothes later.
2. Deliver better experiences with your influencer marketing.
There’s nothing new about influencer marketing. But you can elevate the experience you deliver to those influencers, people who are accustomed to getting gifts and samples from all kinds of brands, to make it something that impresses them. Something they feel honored and excited to share. Beyonce did this with the surprise delivery of the mysterious big orange boxes.
It may cost a bit more, or take more time and effort to transform common approaches into something that is indeed remarkable, but the benefits of doing your work in a way that stands out are worth it. That’s definitely how it played out for Beyonce.
Get started by setting the intention to be remarkable from the very beginning.
When you look at Beyonce’s Instagram feed, one thing you’ll notice is that most of her photos don’t have captions. But with the Ivy Park photography, where she models all the products in the line, the same caption reads on six different posts “adidas x IVY PARK E-comm takeover”
The intention of her and her team for this launch was to “take over” the conversations happening online, by giving people something worthwhile to talk about with regard to their new merchandise.
Whenever you are working on a campaign for a new product or service for your brand, don’t limit your goals to sales numbers. Include how you want your potential customers to feel about your work and what you’re producing.
Consider the various aspects of your customers’ journey as they go through your launch, and brainstorm ways you can elevate each of those touch points to deliver a greater degree of delight.
Whether you want them to feel like your brand is “everywhere” over a specific time period, or to be delighted or excited about the various elements of your campaign, set some time aside for you and your team to plan the elements of your campaign that will deliver on that intention.
You don’t have to be Beyonce or have the resources she and Adidas do to plan and execute a sold-out product launch. Give your product launch the best chance it has to succeed, by planning to be remarkable from the start. Get the ball rolling by setting your intentions of how you want to show up and what you want the outcome to be. Then let your imagination flow as you build a plan to make it possible.
