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The Shipt Back to School Bus mobile tour stopped in target markets including New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore from July 20-Aug. 2.Photo: Courtesy of Shipt
The mobile tour, which stopped in target markets New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore from July 20-Aug. 2, featured a branded school bus equipped with custom vignettes highlighting key data that the company discovered after polling parents, caregivers, teachers, and college students about their purchasing plans in order to find out this year's must-have classroom supplies, snack and lunch items, and dorm room essentials. Based on insights from the survey and proprietary data, the company created the Ultimate School Shopping Guide, a shoppable list of school essentials available on the Shipt app.
“The back-to-school season is a major retail moment and one that is super important for Shipt,” said Rina Hurst, chief business officer at Shipt. “Starting as early as July, parents and caregivers, teachers, and college students begin to stock up on all the essentials for the school year, from small items like pens and pencils to larger items like mini fridges. As a parent myself, I totally understand that it can be challenging to decipher what our students truly need and when to buy it,” she explained about the decision to conduct the survey, which included 2,000 respondents.
The mobile activation aimed “to bring the Ultimate School Shopping Guide to life, beyond the print,” Hurst said, adding that “leveraging ‘Shipt Shoppers'—who are also teachers, parents, and caregivers—as brand ambassadors, the tour provided a valuable opportunity for Shipt to interact directly with families where they are in their own communities, and showcase the key differentiators that make the company stand out.”
The activation included family-friendly activities such as coloring stations and reading nooks, as well as a backpack-packing station in partnership with Operation Backpack, where visitors assembled supplies for donation. More than 12,000 people visited the bus activation. Shipt partnered with EventLink, an event and experiential solutions company, to produce the mobile tour.
“We are so thrilled that in-person experiential marketing is back and are looking forward to bringing more key seasonal campaigns to life moving forward,” Hurst said. “As a people-driven company—but with no physical locations—experiential marketing is an important piece of the marketing mix that allows people to experience the Shipt brand and spark connections with consumers through unique, memorable experiences that drive home the value and ease of Shipt.”
See more from the Shipt Back to School Bus activation.
