Denim is to play the main character in a new marketing campaign for Maje that seeks to build on last year’s influencer-heavy road trip.
The company’s nine-piece denim capsule — which experiments with patchwork and oversize pockets on wide-leg pants, belted jackets or shirtdresses — will be highlighted beginning Saturday at Bloomingdale’s New York flagship on 59th Street, where Maje will set up a pop-up shop on the second floor. There will be events and on-site embroidery of the denim capsule pieces through April 8. From there, the capsule — which will be shuttled around in a vintage Renault 4L complete with a Maje denim interior — will head to the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood, Calif., on April 19 for a celebrity- and influencer-heavy lunch. The next day it will move to Maje’s Beverly Drive boutique for another store event.
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Each stop or event is expected to generate content that the brand hopes will then help drive traffic back to the site.
It’s a fresh take on what the company — part of Paris-based SMCP Group, which also owns Sandro and Claudie Pierlot — did last year shuttling a group of fashion bloggers and other influencers to places such as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Prada Marfa in Texas and the site of its ad campaign at the Goldstein House in Beverly Hills.
“Our customers are highly engaged and respond very well to influencers and celebrities and this is a 360 marketing strategy that builds on last year’s successful campaign, which was focused on the SS16 collection, building content and brand awareness as well as aiding in overall sales,” said Paul Griffin, president and ceo of SMCP North America.
Shany Ellenberg, who heads up Maje’s marketing, said last year’s program generated some 160 posts across three days, but the content continued on in the days that followed. There were also followers of the bloggers who ended up going into stores asking for the looks they saw posted online.
“It was the ability to give influencers the opportunity to really create a lot of content, but it wasn’t a huge retail driver for us,” Ellenberg said. “There wasn’t a specific capsule or collection we were trying to push, whereas this time we’ve made some headway on our brand awareness in the U.S. and we’re looking to drive sales.”
The company also partnered with Who What Wear, similar to last year, to double up on the exposure of the campaign. For Maje, the goal is to continue building out the brand Stateside and, while headway has been made, Ellenberg said there’s always work to be done on that front.
“For Maje, specifically, what we found is those who know us absolutely love us, but for those who don’t, we don’t have huge awareness in the U.S.” Ellenberg said. “Here in the U.S., we have just close to 50 points of sale so it’s not a huge footprint, but it’s a decently sized footprint and we have very loyal customers.”
That traction will help as the company looks to continue growth in the U.S.
“There is a large space in accessible luxury for Maje to grow into in the U.S. market and we aim to continue to tap into that opportunity by reaching customers who are looking for our Parisian chic collections at an accessible price point,” Griffin said.
For More on Maje in WWD:
Maje Taps Langley Hemingway Fox, Bloggers in Digital Marketing Campaign