Gaining Experience: Pandora Live and Ashley HomeStore Turn on the Sound

With Pandora pulling together a concert featuring multiawardwinning artist NeYo Ashley tricked out Goya Studios in Hollywood with an engaging handson experience for 1000 fans The retailer recreated home environments using Urbanology the new midcentury modern style line that is now quotretrocoolquot to that target audience Stationed between fresh donuts in the quotkitchenquot and Air Guitar challenges in the quotdenquot wellknown DJ Jerzy spun songs at the preshow while influencers such as the Stauffer twins bounced on the bed in the quotbedroomquot and Bachelorettes and others milled around striking poses with press and fans It bears noting that the print and digital collateral for the furniture line dubbed as cityinspired is curiously lacking in models of color but a multicultural representation of influencers was present for the live eventSenior marketing director Kelly Davis pictured below right found some time to speak with me as lastminute touches were set in place amp8212 from motiontriggered house plants rigged to play music to an engraving machine customizing cocktail coasters for the guests Note The 80000 worth of furniture from the night39s display was donated to nonprofit A Sense of Home which creates homes for youth transitioning out of the foster care system The following is an edited topline of our conversation Listen here to the quick chat which describes the brand marketer39s goals for the event how they39re approaching the use of sound and more about a refreshing corporate initiative to aid lowerincome families Also subscribe or listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts Apple GooglePodcasts iHeartRadio Pandora Spotify Stitcher TuneIn and YouTubeMoss There39s a lot of research about millennials and Gen Z really loving having experiences almost more than stuff which is underscored in the Pandora For Brands description of live events Is that how this experience came aboutDavis It did We found that we weren39t really reaching the younger demographic and so we wanted to branch out a bit start to build a little bit of brand awareness We know they39re not naturally going into our stores and we want them to touch and see the product have fun interact with it just like they normally would So that39s why we started doing these events about two years ago with Pandora And this is our largest one yetMoss And so how did this particular artist choice come about amp8230 I understand Pandora offers to tap into their listener data and help ID artists that trend in certain marketsDavis We looked into the market demographics at what everyone39s listening to within the Los Angeles area plus we wanted to make sure that it was going to be a mainstream artist And NeYo was top of the listMoss Your brochure quotes the CEO of Ashley HomeStore that Urbanology39s brand position is quotbeing developed to let creativity run free with thoughtful and surprising combinations of color texture style and historyquot Does that feel like the music has come to life with NeYo Does it feel like a reflection of what you39re trying to launchDavis It definitely does and we actually had a oneonone tour with NeYo earlier today amp8230 and he loved itamp8230 This is exactly what he has in his home In particular he said he loved more neutral tonesMoss I also wanted to ask you when this hits stores and other things you39ve done to launch something as big as this whole new brand extensionDavis Urbanology officially launches on October 15th nationally in all stores and it39s on our website We actually started to dip our toe in the water last year with Mane Mason which is another lifestyle product line that we launched last year in August and did a smaller Pandora event We went to New York City and did a press event to give a sneak peek And that was really our firstamp8230 dabble into experience marketing from a product launch perspectiveMoss Where do you place media for thisDavis We leverage a lot of digital and we39re really starting to make a huge digital shift which is different from what our company traditionally has been involved in with on the televisionside of our buy But we really went in hard with YouTube and have seen a lot of success with it lately as well as social channelsMoss What will you consider a win for this experience marketing concertDavis We want urbanology to be trending after this event and amp8230 we do have a hard goal 110 million earned media impressions Again just how do we get more exposure for our brandamp8230 Awareness is a big goal here Changing the mindset that consideration piece with a younger consumer But at the end of the day we want them to buy the furnitureMoss How else are you using audio and sonic branding for exampleDavis Sonic branding amp8230 is something we started to just recently to work on with Steve Keller of Pandora We39re really excited to see where that39s going to take us as a brand But streaming audio is a massive part of our overall buy and we39ve seen a lot of success We have the ability to measure Pandora streaming audio channels through place and see what our actual incremental lift is through store trafficMoss What about podcastingDavis We39re going to do a test as we enter Q4 with some podcasts We39ve selected four podcasts that we39re going to dabble with and hopefully we39ll see good successMoss Our last podcast interviewed three female CMOs How has your path to this career been impacted in one way or the other as a femaleDavis I would say the furniture industry is traditionally a maledominant industry So seeing more and more females within furniture has been very exciting over the past seven years The majority of our corporate office are young females now which is incredible to see Ashley39s extremely passionate about bringing in a younger demographic a more female demographic and they definitely give us the ladder to growMoss Is there any advice that you would give a brand marketer male or femaleDavis I would say just make sure you39re passionate We have a motto at Ashley quotPassion drive and disciplinequot That39s what we follow every dayMoss Is there anything else that is purposedriven that the company gets behindDavis A lot For our founder Ron Wanek and our CEO Todd Wanek that39s important for them and it39s part of our purpose We say quotWe39re here to inspire the love of home and enrich the lives of those around usquot which goes back to the programs we have such as Hope to Dream we39re getting ready give our hundredthousandth bed to a child who does not have one to sleep inClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Gaining Experience: Pandora Live and Ashley HomeStore Turn on the Sound

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