When the online-only retailer ModCloth was getting ready to launch its first face-to-face event, it had a distinct advantage: The brand already had a deeply engaged and passionate online community of fans, who rally around both the retail offerings as well as the inclusive philosophies behind them. (ModCloth sells clothes in a full range of sizes, and emphasizes comfort and functional features.) They interact on the retailer's site as well as their own social channels using dedicated hashtags like #FashionTruth and #ModCloth.
So the brand used that already-mobilized team both to summon a crowd for the “ModCloth IRL” fit shop held April 9 to 11 as well as to build the buzz around the experience.
Initially, organizers hoped to pull in 1,500 R.S.V.P.s. But after just one marketing email promoting the event, fans responded in droves, forcing ModCloth to cut off the attendee list at 5,000. "We were overwhelmed by how big the response was and within hours we had thousands of R.S.V.P.s," said senior fashion press specialist Aire Plichta. She added that ModCloth had originally intended to market using other channels as well, but hit capacity before going that route.
Beyond that, she said, "We had originally planned to send an email targeted only to the L.A. area but changed that to allow everyone a chance to vote for where they wanted the next pop-up to be," thereby engaging and piquing the curiosity for the larger group.
The event came together in the ground floor of the company’s own office building, a historic bank building in downtown Los Angeles: In new C.E.O. Matt Kaness's first week on the job, he noticed the ground-floor vacancy, and the team—led by creative director Joe DeFerrari, design team including Bree Crum, and general merchandise manager Nicole Haase—seized the opportunity.
"Our landlord [Omni Group] provided the space to us, and we knew we could transform it,” Plichta said. “It's a massive space with high ceilings, and it's also incredibly intricate. While it's beautiful, we realized quickly the biggest challenge would be keeping the space itself from overtaking our presence inside it."
The creative director and design team worked through a number of solutions until landing on a concept that would keep the focus on ModCloth instead of the space, and was also budget-friendly and flexible enough to allow for any necessary changes on the tight timeline.
In six weeks, the pop-up was a reality. But it wasn’t just about bringing out shoppers to use their credit cards and garner on-the-spot R.O.I. It was meant as a space where ModCloth could also learn valuable insights from customers that would both benefit bottom line into the future and facilitate goodwill and buzz.
Plichta explained that, for ModCloth, sales were a secondary goal. “It was about that interaction with the community," she said. It offered the chance to interact one on one [that] buyers rarely get. It was a great opportunity for them to speak to the customers, and learn so much from our customers [about what they want]. We got to give [shoppers] that experience, and for us we got to hear what they liked and didn’t like."