Prospecting: Macy’s Flower Show Attendance Grows Via HopStop Ad Campaign

Iconic cross-channel retailer Macy's launched a multimarket advertising takeover of online transit guide HopStop.com to bring excitement and visitors to its annual spring flower show. Macy's was attracted to HopStop.com because it believed its large, urban consumer base (4 million monthly consumers and tourists) and geo-ad targeting capabilities in major metropolitan markets would drive visitors to the events, which took place March 27 through April 10 at Macy's stores in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

"We wanted to direct high-volume foot traffic to the Macy's Flower Show events in key markets, and our advertising takeover program with HopStop.com was a key component to accomplishing this goal," says Orlando Veras, a Macy's spokesperson.

For the takeover program, the city web pages of HopStop.com where the shows took place and the HopStop.com homepage exclusively featured Macy's half-page ads and leaderboard banners. The display ad creative was unique for each metropolitan market to highlight the different floral exhibits.

"For example, Macy's ad running on HopStop.com's Washington, D.C. page drew attention to the local Cherry Blossom Festival, which Macy's participated in for the first time," says Joe Meyer, CEO of HopStop.com. "Based on the timing of this campaign and the opportunity to engage with brides, there was also a wedding season tie-in for Macy's ads on HopStop.com. When users clicked on the ads, they were directed to a landing page with an offer for $20 off gift registry purchases of $100 or more."

Macy's was pleased with the results of the HopStop.com campaign. "Performance of our HopStop campaign was very strong, with a clickthrough rate that exceeded expectations," Veras says. "Macy's 100 percent share of voice on HopStop for several days leading up to the events strongly contributed to those positive results. The Macy's Flower Show events were a huge success."