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Behind the Numbers: an EMARKETER Podcast
The Unofficial Most Interesting Retailers List (September) — Back-to-College Campaigns and Activations | Reimagining Retail
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- [00:00]
A
Your audience is seeing ads everywhere, even on the screens you'd least expect. Nielsen Ad intel helps you see the whole picture, from creative trends to ad spend and media across all screens. Maximize every media dollar today with Nielsen Ad Intel. Hello, listeners. Today is Wednesday, September 24th. Welcome to behind the Numbers Reimagining retail, the Emarketer podcast made possible by Nielsen. This is the show where we talk about how retail collides with every part of our lives. I'm your host for this week, Arielle Fager. I'm back again to cover our unofficial most interesting retailer of the month list for September, but with a little bit of a twist. This month, we're ranking the most interesting back to college campaigns or activations. Let's meet our guests. Joining me for today's episode, we have Becky Schilling, a longstanding member of the community. Hi, Becky.
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B
Hello. I am ready to talk about football and beavers. Just a little foreshadowing.
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A
Ooh, exciting. We're also joined by Rachel Wolfe. Thanks for joining us.
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C
Thanks for having me. This will be fun.
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A
Yeah. And last but not least, we've got Blake Drosch. Hi, Blake.
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D
Hello.
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A
Hello.
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D
Good to be back.
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A
Awesome. All right, let's jump into the list. So, as you know, the committee, AKA Becky and myself, we're going to present our list in the first half of this episode. In the second half, Rachel and Blake will have the opportunity to make some changes. Here's what we've got this month. Number eight is Pottery Barn for launching a dorm concierge. Becky, tell us, why did that make the list?
- [01:48]
B
Yeah. So the homeroot Sellers dorm concierge provides a lot of logistical help when you're ordering and picking up your essentials for your back to college dorm. Going back to school or going to school for freshmen is a big deal. There's a lot of logistics that take place. A lot of that is put onto the parents. So having something like this to where the student can get in there and pull a little weight, as my family likes to say, is a helpful consumer service for people going back to college or going to college.
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C
Yeah. And there's just a growing trend. Right. Of these sort of extreme dorm makeovers. People are willing to spend a lot of money to make their dorms pretty. So I think there's a huge opportunity for Pottery Barn just to get them into the ecosystem, and then maybe eventually they'll turn to adjacent brands like West Elm or Williams Sonoma down the line.
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A
Yeah. I think it's just a great way to make it a little bit Easier to move in to transition into college. Especially thinking about, you know, college freshmen. Anything you can do to ease that transition is great. Okay, moving on to number seven, we have Wawa for opening a standalone store on the Villanova University campus. The store is going to have the full food, beverage and convenience options according to the Villanova's student paper. So we all know Wawa huge cult following. There's a lot of excitement around going and placing your order and you're kind of standing around and everyone's kind of a community waiting for their Wawa orders. And I think that it just lends itself really, really well to a college campus. Late nights or, you know, all night study sessions, you know, you're like, okay, I gotta take a break. Let's just go to the Wawa and get something to eat. And fun fact, I just went to my very first Wawa a couple weekends ago. So I do feel now newly qualified to talk about this.
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D
Yeah, I think it makes perfect sense for. I mean, it's a no brainer for Wawa, right? I mean, college kids, late night, but I think, you know, for college campuses as well. I mean, I don't know about where everybody else went to college, but the food options on most college campuses are like pretty dismal. And Wawa is sort of like full service of also, like you can get your snacks and your sodas and your staples, but also like fresh foods is something that other convenience stores can't really pull off. Right. And it actually does sort of tie into this larger trend mainly with like retailers like Seven Eleven that are thinking like, okay, is there a market in the US for sort of expanding into fresh and frozen foods a little bit, have a little bit of a heavier presence there from like a convenience store standpoint. So for Wawa just to be able to like take what they do really well already and put it in an environment where it's like almost certainly a recipe for success. Seems like a no brainer.
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A
Yeah, definitely. I wish I had a Wawa on campus when I was in college. I definitely would have benefited from it. Okay, up next, kind of in a very similar vein, number six is Buc EE's. The beloved Texas chain is selling more than 45 of its top products across three locations at Texas A and M's College station campus. Becky, as in Aggie, tell us why Bucky's made the list.
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B
Yeah, so at first blush, to some people this may not sound like a big deal, but the thing you have to know is that Buc Ees has a cult following. And so does A and M. And I can say that because I'm an alumnus there. We are a cult. I can attest to it. A cult in the best way possible. The. It's the loyalty, it's the love, it's the devotion that both of these two brands have. It is incredibly strong. You throw in the Texas pride in there. The Buc ee's founders are Aggies as well. They. They created this brand out of a class project. And so the pairing is just a match made in Texas heaven. And for those of you who have been waiting for the beavers in this podcast, the Bucky mascot is a beaver. And this is where the beaver comes in.
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A
Funny fact I just shared before we started recording my college mascot, also a beaver. So there's some definite synergy there. I guess I'll have to go and Visit a Buc EE's.
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D
I don't think I could add anything to that. That was a pretty. That was a pretty good explanation, Becky.
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B
It was passionate.
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D
It's gonna be hard to talk about.
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B
The Buc EE's fans are a very.
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A
Strong showing of why Buc EE's has.
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C
Such a. I don't think any of us can move Bucky's now. It's gotta stay on the list, I'm afraid.
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A
I do think if you do it, you will make Becky's list. Like, it won't be good. Okay, moving on. Number five, which is Poppy for launching an internship with Alix Earl. The internship, which is taking applications now and will take place next summer, will quote, dive into the world of social influencer, experiential and brand marketing alongside both Poppy's culture team and Alix Earle. I mean, this again, feels kind of like a no brainer. Alix Earle certainly has the kind of Gen Z younger consumer attention. She's very good at branding. She has kind of that cult following. And I think Poppy is also popular again amongst younger consumers. And the, the idea, you know, I think a lot of younger consumers want to get into, you know, influencer creator or, you know, just brand marketing. So I think this, this is just a fun opportunity to extend, extend your brand and give someone the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the world.
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B
Yeah.
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C
And Poppies is one of those brands that's been doing a really good job of, you know, getting in front of this target audience. They've been doing product seeding across all of these campuses in the lead up to rush week. And I think they distributed over a million cans of soda and half, almost half of those have been customized with specific sorority colors and Greek letters. So again, you know, reaching out to consumers. Consumers, but doing so in a way that really speaks to them as an individual and to their identity as well.
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D
Is it a paid internship?
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A
That's a good question. You'll have to ask them.
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C
You get paid in Poppy and for.
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A
Some, that would be great.
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C
Yeah, it's expensive.
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A
On to number four, Skippy the peanut butter, which has launched a tour featuring some student athletes. Now, this is once again Becky's realm, so I'm gonna kick it over to her to tell us why we put Skippy on the list.
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B
You can have back to school, especially in the south, and not talk about college football. And Skippy's new campaign is tapping right into the fervor for college football. And they're embarking on this tour of four colleges and working with some high profile football players. They did miss the biggest campus with Texas A and M, but we'll let it slide. Just Skippy for next year. College station. The campaign takes a look at college food insecurity, which is a problem that many don't always associate with college students, but it's actually a growing concern on college campuses. So it's also aiming to educate and do some good along the way.
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A
Yeah, I really liked the doing some good part of this. I personally do not follow college football, but I do have a tiny, tiny, tiny background in public health. And food insecurity is definitely a cause I am passionate about. And I think you're right. It's often overlooked on college campuses. So I really think that's. That's great.
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D
Yeah, I think that's like something that would. Brands would really benefit from. Focusing more on is like a multifaceted campaign and having different aspects of it that could potentially resonate with different audiences makes it more inclusive without having, you know, necessarily running the risk of investing a ton of money on a major campaign that, yes, you could reach college football, A college football audience, which is totally massive. Right. But you could still sort of do a little bit extra to also reach people who aren't into college football necessarily, but could maybe either still relate to a cause like this or can just add a little bit of an extra layer on top of of an already pretty strong campaign that just expands the ethos a little bit of the brand.
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B
I think that a lot of times when people think about Skippy, they're thinking about the younger student and not necessarily about the college students. So I think it's a really interesting push to try to reach into a little Bit of a different market too.
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D
I mean it's, it's a great like if you are a college student and you kind of like need a meal but you don't have time, couple spoonfuls of peanut butter that you could keep it, it doesn't need to be refrigerated. You could keep it in the dorm room. It's a great way to just get a little bit of extra protein.
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A
Number three is Bath and Body Works. If you're a faithful listener, as I hope you all are, you'll know we did include Bath and Body Works on our August list, but we're not done talking about it. I just think, you know, campus stores, again, let me remind you all who are not faithful listeners. Bath and Body Works is putting their products in I think believe six, over 600 campus stores. And you know, I think it's just a great way to introduce the product to a newer generation of customers and especially campus stores on maybe larger or more rural campuses. It's a little bit of a captive audience, right? You don't have as many places to go. So you're kind of there, you're browsing, you're seeing what's there and you know you're maybe going to pick something up. And I also saw, you know, it's got your kind of body care, lip care, but it's also got some candles and wallflower diffusers. So I, you know, it's kind of like home and body. Although I was wondering if candles are allowed on college campuses. I don't think we were allowed to have candles but maybe times have changed.
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C
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think, you know, I think it's smart. Gen Zers are already super interested in Bath and Body Works. It's the most popular fragrance brand among Gen Zers, the third most popular beauty destination. So you know, this is just a way, as you said, you know, they're a lot of retail options available for students and to just put in the stores, give them an opportunity to buy. I think that's great idea.
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A
In spot number two is pacsun which is featuring its new college capsules and collaborations with the Wild Collective on its multi college tour this fall. Becky, you want to tell us more about that?
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B
This Gen Z loved brand is doubling down on in person experiences. And again when you talk about college campuses in the fall, that means football. So they are hosting game day tailgate podcast pop ups at major college football games. Pacsun also seems to somehow miss Texas A and M. So I'm giving lots of branding advice here today. Giga Mags. We, we won't dock them too much for that, though, because they do understand the importance of using huge college milestones to tap into fandom not only for college, but also for their retail brand. The brand has released new pieces to its wild collective, as well as game dare and game day and classwear. I didn't have any class wear as a category when I went to college. I may be aging myself here, but I would be very interested in having had that opportunity. And the brand is also giving out some gift boxes to incoming freshmen because freshmen love a freebie when they're starting school.
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A
Yeah, new drinking game. Take a shot every time. Becky says Texas A and M.
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D
Becky is really breaking down this list with the precision of a football commentator. I really respect it. It's like you kind of give. You're giving me like a Troy Aikman.
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B
Vibe a little bit, even though he's a cowboy. I'll take it. I'll take it as a compliment.
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A
All right. And number one on our list is Urban Outfitters, which has also been previously featured on our rankings. But I feel like Urban Outfitters is kind of dominating back to college season. It's doing so much. In May, they launched their uo haul marketing effort. Pop ups, brand partnerships, surprise giveaways. They had a dream door makeover contest. Now they're onto their good game promotion, which kicked off with a three day event with a performance by rapper Young Gravy. They've got college shops, surprise giveaways, music performances, game day activations. I mean, it is a lot. And they've also partnered kind of. One of my favorite parts about this is they partner with Chipotle on limited edition dorm collection and also a rewards program for college goers, which I think is just super, super smart. We know that, you know, college students are pinched for money and you know, anytime you can give them a little bit extra is a great idea.
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C
Just looking up the selection of items on the Chipotle and Urban Outfitters.
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A
You want some? You want to get some?
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D
You know, I'm actually, I'm curious to see what this, what it looks like too. Is it like a burrito blanket?
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C
So there's a lamp, I think, with chips that looks like a bag of chips.
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D
That's cool.
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C
Yeah. There is a mat that says leave my Chipotle here, which is, you know, useful when you order delivery.
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D
I like that. Actually. I feel like that those are good details because I was like, all right, this sounds like kind of like normal back to school activation. And, you know, Chipotle's always doing merch. It's like, kind of, you know, their thing, but those are pretty cool. I would encourage your listeners to look those up.
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A
They're having fun with it. It's a little tongue in cheek. It's a little acknowledging their kind of culture, and I think it's fun. Okay, so as it stands right now, our list is number one, Urban Outfitters. Number two, Pacsun. Number three, Bath and Body Works. Number four, Skippy. Number five, Poppy. Number six, Buc EE's number number seven, Wawa. And number eight, Pottery Barn. We also have two honorable mentions. At number nine is Ulta for its College Glow up tour. And at number 10 is target for its hey Mom, I'm at Target campaign featuring young content creators. Now it's time for our second half, where Rachel and Blake will tell us where we went wrong. Both of them will have a chance to move a brand up or down in our rankings. Blake will start with you. What's your move?
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D
All right, I just want to say that I really want to move two things, and careful, make your argument, and.
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A
We'Ll see where we land.
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D
And I'm picking my battles to an extent, but I really want to just flip the beginning and the end of this list.
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A
Wow.
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D
I feel like Wawa and Pottery Barn should be 1 and 2 in no specific order. And then PacSun and Urban Outfitter should be at the bottom of the list in no specific. And I think broadly the clothing retailers, like, it seems like they're doing exciting stuff. Maybe if I was more in tune with Gen Z, I would, like, understand sort of the gravity behind some of the creators that they're working with, et cetera. So maybe I'm missing the boat, but to me, those seem like sort of like your run of the bill activations around, like, getting onto campuses, you know, back to school marketing. The other two, I feel like, are introducing real services that are can really be game changers to college students. Right. So I think that just by and large connecting with an audience that should really resonate to your brand, providing something that, like, is new and unique. I mean, particularly like the Wawa example. Talk about, like, bragging rights to your friends from high school. Like, oh, my campus has a Wawa on it. Like, what are you guys going to, like late at night? I just, to me, those two seem a lot more sort of innovative and just like, fresh ideas than the Urban Outfitters and packs an example. So I know I broke the rules, so it's okay if I.
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A
If I, you know, breaking, you know, Figure it out.
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D
I had to make my piece.
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A
All right, so. So, Becky, what are we. What are we thinking? You know, so, you know, we. He wants Wawa and Pottery Barn in the. The one or two slots, and he wants PacSun and Urban Outfitters in the bottom two slots. You know, I'm not. I'm not 100% buying the pottery Barn. We actually were talking about this prior to getting on the pod. We're not really sure if it's. I mean, it's a great service, but is it really that exciting? Is it really that interesting? Becky, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
- [19:25]
D
I will say that if. If I told my parents that I would want a Pottery Barn concierge when I was moving into my freshman dorm room, I would have been laughed out of the house just so quickly that it wouldn't really have been worth bringing it up in the first place. So. I do agree with you there, Becky. Go ahead.
- [19:43]
B
You know, it. The concept sounds bigger than, I think, what their actual activation is, or at least what I can tell not having gone through the process, because unfortunately, I am no longer living on a college campus. Although I. I really would love to go back to those days. It seems like a glorified logistics of what you could already get with some bells and whistles on it. And so I do think that it is a great package. It's a great marketing and promotional piece for the company. But in terms of actual things that are being done, I don't know that it is as much as what some of these other brands are doing, and that's why we had it lower on the list. So I would not agree with your move to Potty Barn moving up, but I could totally get behind a cult favorite, although it's not my cult favorite, but I could get behind a cult favorite being moved up higher, especially because it's a college campus. And what is a college? That. Not a cult. Be careful there.
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A
I agree. I. I definitely. I think moving Wawa up, I'm. I'm definitely okay with. I think Pottery Barn should stay where it's at. So. So let's. Let's maybe do. Let's. How about we put Pottery Barn at number number three?
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D
It's your list.
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A
You're so right. Why am I asking you?
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D
You don't have to look at me for approval.
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A
How do you feel about that, Becky?
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B
Wawa. I'm good at moving Wawa up.
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A
Okay. Now, the other half of that deal was moving PacSun and. Or Urban Outfitters. Kind of down the list of It. I'm gonna make an argument for Urban Outfitters. Just the. The sheer number of things that it is doing, I think is just a lot. And you yourself, Blake did say it's really great to have a multifaceted campaign.
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D
That's fair.
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A
That's fair. So, you know, with Paxon, I'm a little less. What do you think, Beck?
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B
I would be okay with. I wouldn't move them all the way to the end of the list. I do think that they're tapping into this IRL experience that that generation is demanding and they're seeing impressive results from it. It's not their first time to do something like this. But going onto college campuses and doing things there in the midst of things, I think that that's really smart, and I think it's successful for them, and I think that other brands could take a little bit of a page out of that playbook.
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A
Yeah, I agree. I still think it's a. It's pretty cool. So I'm going to suggest we keep, again, Urban Outfit is where it is, and then we can put Pac's Sun. We'll maybe slot it into how do we feel about number five? So therefore we would. I can read you all the new list because it's getting a little confusing at this moment, to be honest, to keep track of. So I think they would actually push Wawa up to number two. So Blake is getting something. So I believe what we would have as our list according to Blake, and we still have Rachel to go, so don't worry about that. Urban Outfitters, Wawa Bath and Body Works, Skippy, pacsun, Poppy, Bucky's, and then Pottery Barn. Okay. That's where we're at after Blake's moves.
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D
I can live with that.
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A
Okay, great.
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C
After shaking up the rankings.
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A
We are born to make you and you alone happy, Blake. All right, Rachel, what is your move?
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C
So I'm also breaking the rules a little bit, and I'm going to introduce a wild card.
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A
Wow. Exciting. Tell us more.
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C
My wildcard is GoPuff, which recently partnered with the college social app Fizz to allow students to order late night snacks and groceries in 15 minutes or less. You know, we've talked a lot on this pod about how college students need their food and they need it fast. And I think this partnership is interesting for two reasons. One, because GoPuff really got its start as a delivery service for college students, so pertaining to its roots. And the other thing that I think is interesting and I think is really sort of the impetus for the deal is that Fizz is currently suing Instacart because Instacart just launched a Gen Z oriented delivery platform called Fizz. So this is kind of a way for Fizz, the social platform, to get its own back at Instacart and maybe take some of the sales that would have been going to the other Fizz and try and win users back that way. So I think it's interesting for several reasons.
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A
Rachel, little did you know that I am the world's biggest Instacart Fizz promoter. For some reason, when they rolled that out, I was pretty excited about it. And I also heard about the GoPuff and social app Fizz partnership that is. It's a little confusing. Yes, I do think that's a pretty cool. I think it's a smart partnership. Late night, quick delivery. Whether you are in need of a study break or, you know, need a party snack or whatever. I do think that that is, is pretty cool and I do like the idea of it being on the list. Becky, how do you feel?
- [25:27]
B
Yeah. So I covered college dining programs for about 15 years and there has been about. I've been out of it for a bit, but while I was there, there was one successful program that created a delivery on campus delivery program that actually worked that they could sustain. Everyone else is challenged trying to figure out how to do this, but they know that people want it because everybody wants delivery. And so to have an option for delivery I think is incredibly smart for college students because it's what they want. And where they're at is struggling to provide that service.
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A
Right.
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C
And phys is on. I think they're on over 600 campuses. So, you know, it's a pretty huge reach.
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A
Yeah, absolutely. I would even dare to put this pretty high up. I was thinking about putting it in the number three position behind Wawa. Becky, do you think that's too high? Do you think that makes sense?
- [26:20]
B
I'd actually put it, knowing my background, I would put it higher. I would. Yeah.
- [26:26]
A
You think a one or a two? What do you think? One, two.
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B
I think Rachel came in with a new number one. I think she did.
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A
I love it.
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D
Wow. That's gotta be a first.
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B
I think it is a first.
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A
I think. Let's make a note of that. A first in the retail rankings. Okay, I'm honored. Wow. So we've got kind of a pretty shaken up list here. Here is our final list. Number one, Gopuff. Number two, Urban Outfitters. Number three, Wawa. Number four, Bath and Body Works. Number five, Skippy. Number six, Pacsun. Number seven, Poppy. And number eight is Bucky's.
- [27:12]
B
Sorry to we still love you, Buc. Ees. We still. We do.
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A
And our honorable mentions are gonna end up being Ulta and Pottery Barn. So that's all the time we have for today. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you, Blake.
- [27:28]
C
Thanks. This was. It was fun.
- [27:30]
D
Yeah, it was fun. Congratulations on your record, Rachel.
- [27:32]
A
Thank you. And thank you to Becky, my fellow committee member.
- [27:37]
B
Happy to be back on.
- [27:38]
A
Thank you to our listeners, our studio team, and our podcast editors who are always number one for us. Please leave a comment or review and remember to subscribe to behind the Numbers podcast. We'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of Reimagining Retail. And on Friday, join Marcus for another episode of behind the Numbers, an emarketer podcast made possible by Nielsen.