Rothy’s: Site-wide Campaign 2,
Giving Tuesday

Rothy’s has a company policy of never discounting inventory. In order to do something special for Black Friday weekend that would make customers feel good (rather than be upset about the lack of a sale), they decided that a percentage of site-wide proceeds would be donated to a non-profit partner, 5 Gyres, all weekend long.

The structure of this campaign was slightly scaled back from the BCPP campaign, since the entire catalog was featured rather than just a few specific shoes. The Homepage promo banner was still used, as well as the “Welcome Bar” message in the global header, but the icons and alerts were not necessary on individual shoe placements.

The Landing page layout was modified to best communicate this campaign’s needs. The imagery and content incorporated partner photography and stock photos in a way that was in-line with the Rothy’s brand guides, with the goal of emotionally connecting with the customer.

The primary focus was on educating customers about who the non-profit partner is, and why they do what they do, rather than explicitly on shopping (it was Black Friday, customers would be shopping anyway, and would now feel proud to shop knowing their money was being put to good use). I researched details to summarize what the non-profit partner does, and found quotes and statistics that captured an emotional reaction and were hard to ignore. I wanted customers to easily connect with the partner if they chose, promoting this before shopping to help the page feel more genuine (which it was). A few featured shoes were promoted to help customers remember their purchase makes a contribution, and a lightweight share module again implied people could easily get the word out.