Background
An American workwear and accessories company has long-served men and women who lead a hands-on lifestyle. The brand’s popularity comes not only from the quality and longevity of its products, but also its unique online presence and distinctive retail locations.
Over the past four decades, the company has positioned itself as the go-to brand for hands-on work for older professionals. But in order to continue its steady growth, the brand needed to take a more forward-looking approach, marketing to the next generation of craftspeople and outdoor enthusiasts — something that traditional advertising methods simply couldn’t do at scale.
So the retailer’s go-to-market team began considering other out-of-the-box solutions. In their evaluation, card-linked offers stood out as an emerging strategy, and Kard had the flexibility, audience, and experienced team the brand was looking for.
Goals
With Kard, the top 50 retailer aimed to:
Attract a young, highly valuable audience
Partnering with Kard, the retailer could advertise directly to a Gen Z and Millennial audience in a format that would draw them in — instead of turning them away. Unlike pop-up ads or rote affiliate campaigns, card-linked offers would feel more like coupons, surprising and delighting new customers and forming their purchase behaviors for decades to come.
Boost AOV
The brand already had a fairly high average order value, thanks to its high-quality workwear, boots, and other durable gear. But incentivizing Gen Zers and Millennials — who may not have that equipment in their closet yet — could kick that number up a notch. Giving that audience cash back could nudge them toward big purchases and bump up the brand’s overall AOV.
Plant the seeds of loyalty
Showing up in modern banking environments alongside other popular merchants would get more eyeballs on the retailer’s brand. And combined with other omnichannel strategies, a compelling offer could be the final conversion point for a Gen Z or Millennial. The brand hoped that hooking in brand loyalists at that stage of life would ultimately lead to a higher average customer lifetime value.
Results
In collaboration with Kard’s account management team, the retailer set up a 60-day campaign with offers displayed in the Kard Network with a 10% commission value.
Post-campaign, the retailer had hit over $1M in total sales, with over 10,300 offer redemptions — roughly 1,500 per week.
At the same time, the brand:
- Increased AOV by 28%, going from $78 to over $100
- Reeled in a younger demographic, with 45% of campaign redeemers under 52
- Saw a remarkable $10:1 ROAS by only paying for performance
- Pushed omnichannel sales, with 51% of purchases in-store and 49% online
Maintaining a competitive edge
The retailer’s core objective was to promote brand awareness among new potential customers, and, with Kard, they blew that goal out of the water. Nearly 75% of campaign purchasers had not purchased at the brand before the campaign.
Perhaps even more impressive was the retailer’s shift in market share post-campaign. Thanks to Kard’s vast transaction-level dataset, we can track consumer movement from one retailer to another, and the customer’s card-linked offers spurred a +13% market share shift in just 60 days.
Because of this campaign’s success, three more are now in the works, designed to upsell specific segments of the brand’s ICP and acquire new customers, who, up until now, were just outside the brand’s reach.
