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Arielle Feger (00:00):

Your audience is seeing ads everywhere, even on the screens you'd least expect. Nielsen Ad Intel helps you see the whole picture. From creative trends to ad spend and media across all screens. Maximize every media dollar today with Nielsen Ad Intel. Hello, listeners. Today is Wednesday, September 24th. Welcome to Behind the Numbers, Reimagining Retail, an EMARKETER podcast made possible by Nielsen. This is the show where we talk about how retail collides with every part of our lives. I'm your host for this week, Arielle Feger. I'm back again to cover our unofficial, most interesting retailer of the month list for September, but with a little bit of a twist. This month we're ranking the most interesting back-to-college campaigns or activations. Let's meet our guests. Joining me for today's episode, we have Becky Schilling, a long-standing member of the community. Hi, Becky.

Becky Schilling (00:58):

Hello. I am ready to talk about football and beavers, just a little foreshadowing.

Arielle Feger (01:04):

Oh, exciting. We're also joined by Rachel Wolff. Thanks for joining us.

Rachel Wolff (01:10):

Thanks for having me. This will be fun.

Arielle Feger (01:11):

Yeah. And last but not least, we've got Blake Droesch. Hi Blake.

Blake Droesch (01:16):

Hello. Hello. Good to be back.

Arielle Feger (01:17):

Awesome. All right, let's jump into the list. So as you know the committee, AKA, Becky and myself, we're going to present our list in the first half of this episode. In the second half, Rachel and Blake will have the opportunity to make some changes. Here's what we've got this month. Number eight is Pottery Barn for launching a dorm concierge. Becky, tell us why did that make the list?

Becky Schilling (01:48):

Yeah, so the Home [inaudible 00:01:50] Dorm Concierge, it provides a lot of logistical help when you're ordering and picking up your essentials for your back to college dorm. Going back to school or going to school for freshmen is a big deal. There's a lot of logistics that take place. A lot of that is put onto the parents. So having something like this to where the student can get in there and pull a little weight, as my family likes to say, is a helpful consumer service for people going back to college or going to college.

Rachel Wolff (02:20):

And there's just a growing trend of these extreme dorm makeovers. People are willing to spend a lot of money to make their dorms pretty. So I think there's a huge opportunity for Pottery Barn just to get them into the ecosystem and then maybe eventually they'll turn to adjacent brands like West Elm or Williams-Sonoma down the line.

Arielle Feger (02:40):

Yeah, I think it's just a great way to make it a little bit easier to move in to transition into college, especially thinking about college freshmen. Anything you can do to ease that transition is great. Okay, moving on to number seven. We have Wawa for opening a standalone store on the Villanova University campus. The store is going to have the full food, beverage and convenience options according to the Villanova's student paper. So we all know Wawa, huge cult following. There's a lot of excitement around going and placing your order and you're standing around and everyone's kind of a community waiting for their Wawa orders. And I think that it just lends itself really, really well to a college campus. Late nights or all night study sessions, you're like, "Okay, I got to take a break. Let's just go to the Wawa and get something to eat." And fun fact, I just went to my very first Wawa a couple weekends ago, so I do feel now newly qualified to talk about this.

Blake Droesch (03:42):

Yeah, I think it makes perfect sense for... I mean, it's a no-brainer for Wawa, right? I mean college kids, late night, but I think for college campuses as well. I don't know about where everybody else went to college, but the food options on most college campuses are pretty dismal, and Wawa is sort of full service of also like you can get your snacks and your sodas and your staples but also fresh foods is something that other convenience stores can't really pull off. And it actually does sort of tie into this larger trend mainly with retailers like 7-Eleven that are thinking like, "Okay, is there a market in the US for sort of expanding into fresh and frozen foods and a little bit, have a little bit of a heavier presence there from a convenience store standpoint." So for Wawa, just to be able to take what they do really well already and put it in an environment where it's almost certainly a recipe for success seems like a no-brainer.

Arielle Feger (04:50):

Yeah, definitely. I wish I had a Wawa on campus when I was in college. I definitely would've benefited from it. Up next, kind of in a very similar vein, number six is Buc-ee's, the beloved Texas chain is selling more than 45 of its top products across three locations at Texas A&M's College Station campus. Becky, as in Aggie, tell us why Buc-ee's made the list.

Becky Schilling (05:16):

So at first blush, to some people, this may not sound like a big deal, but the thing you have to know is that Buc-ee's has a cult following, and so does A&M, and I can say that because I'm an alumnus there. We are a cult. I can attest to it, a cult in the best way possible, but it's the loyalty, it's the love, it's the devotion that both of these two brands have. It is incredibly strong. You throw in the Texas pride in there, the Buc-ee's founders are Aggies as well. They created this brand out of a class project, and so the pairing is just a made in Texas heaven. And for those of you who have been waiting for the beavers in this podcast, the Buc-ee mascot is a beaver, and this is where the beaver comes in.

Arielle Feger (06:07):

Funny fact, I just shared before we started recording my college mascot, also a beaver. So there's some definite synergy there. I guess I'll have to go and visit a Buc-ee's.

Blake Droesch (06:18):

I don't think I could add anything to that. That was a pretty good explanation, Becky.

Becky Schilling (06:24):

It was passionate just like the Buc-ee's fans are.

Blake Droesch (06:25):

It's going to be hard to argue.

Arielle Feger (06:27):

A very strong showing of why Buc-ee's has such a cult following.

Rachel Wolff (06:32):

I don't think any of us can move Buc-ee's now. It's got to stay on the list.

Blake Droesch (06:34):

I'm afraid-

Arielle Feger (06:37):

I do think if you do it, you will make Becky's list. It won't be good. Okay, moving on. Number five, which is Poppi for launching an internship with Alix Earle. The internship, which is taking applications now and will take place next summer, will quote, "Dive into the worlds of social influencer experiential and brand marketing alongside both Poppi's culture team and Alix Earle." I mean, this again feels kind of like a no-brainer. Alix Earle certainly has the kind of Gen Z younger consumer attention. She's very good at branding. She has kind of that cult following, and I think Poppi is also popular again amongst younger consumers. And the idea, I think a lot of younger consumers want to get into influencer creator or just brand marketing. So I think this is just a fun opportunity to extend your brand and give someone the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the world.

Rachel Wolff (07:42):

And Poppi's is one of those brands that's been doing a really good job of getting in front of this target audience. They've been doing product seating across all of these campuses in the lead up to rush week, and I think they distributed over a million cans of soda, and almost half of those have been customized with specific sorority colors and Greek letters. So again, reaching out to consumers, but doing so in a way that really speaks to them as an individual and to their identity as well.

Blake Droesch (08:10):

Is it a paid internship?

Arielle Feger (08:12):

That's a good question. You'll have to ask them.

Rachel Wolff (08:15):

You get paid in Poppi.

Arielle Feger (08:18):

And for some that would be great.

Rachel Wolff (08:20):

Yeah, it's expensive.

Arielle Feger (08:23):

Onto number four, Skippy, the Peanut Butter, which has launched a tour of featuring some student athletes. Now this is once again Becky's realm, so I'm going to kick it over to her to tell us why we put Skippy on the list.

Becky Schilling (08:37):

You can have back to school, especially in the South and not talk about college football. And Skippy's new campaign is tapping right into the fervor for college football, and they're embarking on this tour of four colleges and working with some high profile football players. They did miss the biggest campus with Texas A&M, let it slide just Skippy for next year College Station. The campaign takes a look at college food insecurity, which is a problem that many don't always associate with college students, but it's actually a growing concern on college campuses. So it's also aiming to educate and do some good along the way.

Arielle Feger (09:16):

Yeah, I really liked doing some good part of this. I personally do not follow college football, but I do have a tiny, tiny, tiny background in public health and food insecurity is definitely a cause I'm passionate about. And I think you're right, it's often overlooked on college campuses. So I really think that's great.

Blake Droesch (09:39):

Yeah, I think that's something that brands would really benefit from focusing more on is a multifaceted campaign and having different aspects of it that could potentially resonate with different audiences makes it more inclusive without having necessarily running the risk of investing a ton of money on a major campaign that yes, you could reach college football, a college football audience, which is totally massive, but you could still do a little bit extra to also reach people who aren't into college football necessarily, but could maybe either still relate to a cause like this or can just add a little bit of a extra layer on top of an already pretty strong campaign that just expands the ethos a little bit of the brand.

Becky Schilling (10:33):

I think that a lot of times when people think about Skippy, they're thinking about the younger student and not necessarily about the college students. So I think it's a really interesting push to try to reach into a little bit of a different market too.

Blake Droesch (10:45):

I mean, it's a great if you are a college student and you need a meal, but you don't have time, couple spoonfuls of peanut butter that you could keep. It doesn't need to be refrigerated. You could keep it in the dorm room. It's a great way to just get a little bit of extra protein.

Arielle Feger (11:00):

Number three is Bath and Body Works. If you're a faithful listener, as I hope you all are, you'll know we did include Bath and Body Works on our August list, but we're not done talking about it. I just think campus stores, again, let me remind you all who are not faithful listeners, Bath and Body Works is putting their products in, I think believe over 600 campus stores. And I think it's just a great way to introduce the product to a newer generation of customers and especially campus stores on maybe larger or more rural campuses. It's a little bit of a captive audience. You don't have as many places to go, so you're kind of there, you're browsing, you're seeing what's there and you're maybe going to pick something up. And I saw it's got your kind of body care, lip care, but it's also got some candles and wallflower diffusers. So it is kind of like home and body. Although I was wondering if candles are allowed on college campuses. I don't think we were allowed to have candles, but maybe-

Rachel Wolff (12:10):

Times have changed. I think it's smart. Gen Z-ers are already super interested in Bath and Body Works. It's the most popular fragrance brand among Gen Z-ers, the third most popular beauty destination. So this is just a way, as you said, there are not a lot of retail options available for students and to just put in the stores, give them an opportunity to buy. I think that's a great idea.

Arielle Feger (12:34):

In spot number two is PacSun, which is featuring its new college capsules and collaborations with the Wild Collective on its multi-college tour this fall. Becky, you want to tell us more about that?

Becky Schilling (12:46):

This Gen Z-loved brand is doubling down on in-person experiences. And again, when you talk about college campuses in the fall, that means football. So they are hosting game day, they tailgate pop-ups at major college football games. PacSun also seems to somehow miss Texas A&M. So I'm giving lots of branding advice here today [inaudible 00:13:10]. We won't dock them too much for that though because they do understand the importance of using huge college milestones to tap into fandom not only for college, but also for their retail brand. The brand has released new pieces to its Wild Collective as well as game day and classware. And I didn't have any classware as a category when I went to college. I may be aging myself here, but I would be very interested in having had that opportunity. And the brand is also giving out some gift boxes to incoming freshmen because freshmen love a freebie when they're starting school.

Arielle Feger (13:47):

Yeah, new drinking game, take a shot every time Becky says Texas A&M.

Blake Droesch (13:54):

I think Becky is really breaking down this list with the precision of a football commentator. I really respect it. You're giving me a Troy Aikman vibe a little bit.

Becky Schilling (14:08):

Even though he's a Cowboy, I'll take it. I'll take it as a compliment.

Arielle Feger (14:12):

All right, and number one on our list is Urban Outfitters, which has also been previously featured on our rankings, but I feel like Urban Outfitters is kind of dominating back to college season. It's doing so much. In May, they launched their UO hall marketing effort, pop-ups, brand partnerships, surprise giveaways. They had a dream dorm makeover contest. Now they're onto their good game promotion, which kicked off with a three-day event with a performance by rapper Yung Gravy. They've got college shops, surprise giveaways, music performances, game day activations. I mean it is a lot. And they've also partnered... One of my favorite parts about this is they partner with Chipotle on limited edition dorm collection and also a rewards program for college goers, which I think is just super, super smart. We know that college students are pinched for money and anytime you can give them a little bit extra is a great idea.

Rachel Wolff (15:15):

I'm just looking up the selection of items on the Chipotle and Urban Outfitters.

Arielle Feger (15:21):

You want some? You want to get some?

Blake Droesch (15:24):

I'm actually... I'm curious to see what it looks like too. Is it like a burrito blanket?

Rachel Wolff (15:29):

So there's a lamp I think with chips that looks like a bag of chips.

Blake Droesch (15:34):

That's cool.

Rachel Wolff (15:34):

Yeah, there is a mat that says, "Leave my Chipotle here." Which is useful when you order delivery.

Blake Droesch (15:41):

I like that actually. I feel like that those are good details because I was like, "All right, this sounds like kind of normal back to school activation and Chipotle is always doing merch." It's kind of their thing, but those are pretty cool. I would encourage our listen listeners to look those up.

Arielle Feger (16:01):

They're having fun with it. It's a little tongue in cheek. It's a little acknowledging their kind of culture and I think it's fun. So as it stands right now, our list is number one, Urban Outfitters, number two, PacSun, number three, Bath and Body Works, number four, Skippy, number five, Poppi, number six, Buc-ee's, number seven, Wawa, and number eight, Pottery Barn. We also have two honorable mentions at number nine is Ulta for its college glow up tour and at number 10 is Target for its, hey, mom, I'm at Target campaign featuring young content creators. Now it's time for our second half where Rachel and Blake will tell us where we went wrong. Both of them will have a chance to move a brand up or down in our rankings. Blake we'll start with you. What's your move?

Blake Droesch (17:01):

All right, I just want to say that I really want to move two things and-

Becky Schilling (17:03):

Careful.

Blake Droesch (17:03):

I'm getting some looks.

Arielle Feger (17:09):

Make your argument and we'll see where we land.

Blake Droesch (17:11):

And I'm picking my battles to an extent, but I really want to just flip the beginning into the end of this list.

Arielle Feger (17:19):

Wow.

Blake Droesch (17:20):

I feel like Wawa and Pottery Barn should be one and two in no specific order. And then PacSun and Urban Outfitters should be at the bottom of the list in no specific order. And I think broadly the clothing retailers, it seems like they're doing exciting stuff. Maybe if I was more in tune with Gen Z, I would understand the gravity behind some of the creators that they're working with, et cetera. So maybe I'm missing the boat, but to me those seem like sort of your run of the bill activations around getting onto campuses, back to school marketing.

(18:00):

The other two I feel like are introducing real services that can really be game changers to college students. So I think that just by and large, connecting with an audience that should really resonate to your brand, providing something that is new and unique. I mean particularly the Wawa example, talk about bragging rights to your friends from high school. Like, "Oh, my campus has a Wawa on it. What are you guys going to late at night?" Just to me, those two seem a lot more sort of innovative and just fresh ideas than the Urban Outfitters and PacSun example. So I know I broke the rules, so it's okay if I [inaudible 00:18:45].

Arielle Feger (18:44):

Rules are made for breaking. It's okay, we'll figure it out.

Blake Droesch (18:48):

I had to make my peace.

Arielle Feger (18:50):

All right, Becky, what are we thinking? He wants Wawa and Pottery Barn in the one or two slots and he wants PacSun and Urban Outfitters in the bottom two slots. I'm not 100% buying the Pottery Barn. We actually were talking about this prior to getting on the pod. We're not really sure if it's... I mean it's a great service, but is it really that exciting? Is it really that interesting? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Blake Droesch (19:24):

I will say that if I told my parents that I would want a Pottery Barn concierge when I was moving into my freshman dorm room, I would've been laughed out of the house just so quickly that it wouldn't really have been worth bringing it up in the first place. So I do agree with you there, Becky, go ahead.

Becky Schilling (19:44):

The concept sounds bigger than I think what their actual activation is, or at least what I can tell not having gone through the process because unfortunately I am no longer living on a college campus, although I really would love to go back to those days. It seems like a glorified logistics of what you could already get with some bells and whistles on it. And so I do think that it is a great package. It's a great marketing and promotional piece for the company. But in terms of actual things that are being done, I don't know that it is as much as what some of these other brands are doing and that's why we had it lower on the list. So I would not agree with your move to Pottery Barn moving up, but I could totally get behind a cult favorite, although it's not my cult favorite, but I could get behind a cult favorite being moved up higher, especially because it's a college campus. And what is a college that not a cult.

Arielle Feger (20:43):

Be careful there. Those quotes. I agree. I definitely... I think moving Wawa up, I'm definitely okay with, I think Pottery Barn should stay where it's at. So let's maybe do... How about we put Pottery Barn at number three.

Blake Droesch (21:09):

It's your list.

Arielle Feger (21:10):

You're so right. Why am I asking you?

Blake Droesch (21:12):

You don't have to look at me for approval.

Arielle Feger (21:13):

[inaudible 00:21:14]. How do you feel about that, Becky?

Becky Schilling (21:15):

Wawa, I'm good at moving Wawa up.

Arielle Feger (21:17):

Okay, now the other half of that deal was moving PacSun and or Urban Outfitters down the list of it. I'm going to make an argument for Urban Outfitters. Just the sheer number of things that it is doing I think is just a lot. And you, yourself, Blake, did say it's really great to have a multifaceted campaign.

Blake Droesch (21:44):

That's fair. That's fair.

Arielle Feger (21:48):

With PacSun, I'm a little less, what do you think, Beck?

Becky Schilling (21:52):

I would be okay with... I wouldn't move them all the way to the end of the list. I do think that they're tapping into this IRL experience that that generation is demanding and they're seeing impressive results from it. It's not their first time to do something like this, but going onto college campuses and doing things there in the midst of things, I think that that's really smart and I think it's successful for them. And I think that other brands could take a little bit of a page out of that playbook.

Arielle Feger (22:21):

Yeah, I agree. I still think it's pretty cool. So I'm going to suggest we keep, again, Urban Outfitters where it is and then we can put PacSun... We'll maybe slot it into how do we feel about number five? So therefore I can read you all the new list because it's getting a little confusing at this moment, to be honest, to keep track of. So I think that would actually push Wawa up to number two. So Blake is getting something. So I believe what we would have as our list, according to Blake, and we still have Rachel to go, so don't worry about that, Urban Outfitters, Wawa, Bath and Body Works, Skippy, PacSun, Poppi, Buc-ee's, and then Pottery Barn. Okay, that's where we're at after Blake's moves.

Blake Droesch (23:28):

I can live with that.

Arielle Feger (23:29):

Okay, great.

Becky Schilling (23:30):

You're shaking up the rankings.

Arielle Feger (23:31):

We are born to make you and you alone happy, Blake. All right, Rachel, what is your move?

Rachel Wolff (23:40):

Yes, so I'm also breaking the rules a little bit and I'm going to introduce a wild card.

Arielle Feger (23:46):

Wow, exciting. Tell us more.

Rachel Wolff (23:48):

My wild card is Gopuff, which recently partnered with the college social app Fizz to allow students to order late night snacks and groceries in 15 minutes or less. We've talked a lot on this pod about how college students need their food and they need it fast. And I think this partnership is interesting for two reasons. One, because Gopuff really got its start as a delivery service for college students. So it's returning to its roots. And the other thing that I think is interesting and I think is really sort of the impetus for the deal is that Fizz is currently suing Instacart because Instacart just launched a Gen Z oriented delivery platform called Fizz. So this is kind of a way for Fizz, the social platform to get its own back at Instacart and maybe take some of the sales that would've been going to the other Fizz and try and win users back that way. So I think it's interesting for several reasons.

Arielle Feger (24:42):

Rachel little did you know that I'm the world's biggest Instacart Fizz promoter. For some reason when they rolled that out, I was pretty excited about it. And I also heard about the Gopuff and social app Fizz partnership. It's a little confusing. I do think that's a pretty cool... I think it's a smart partnership, late night quick delivery, whether you are in need of a study break or need a party snack or whatever. I do think that that is pretty cool. And I do like the idea of it being on the list. Becky, how do you feel?

Becky Schilling (25:26):

Yeah, so I covered college dining programs for about 15 years and there has been about... I've been out of it for a bit, but while I was there, there was one successful program that created a on-campus delivery program that actually worked that they could sustain. Everyone else is challenged trying to figure out how to do this, but they know that people want it because everybody wants delivery. And so to have an option for delivery, I think is incredibly smart for college students because it's what they want and where they're at is struggling to provide that service.

Rachel Wolff (26:00):

Right. And Fizz is on... I think they're on over 600 campuses, so that's a pretty huge reach.

Arielle Feger (26:05):

Yeah, absolutely. I would even dare to put this pretty high up. I was thinking about putting it in the number three position behind Wawa. Becky, do you think that's too high? Do you think that makes sense?

Becky Schilling (26:20):

I'd actually put it, knowing my background, I would put it higher. I would, yeah.

Arielle Feger (26:25):

You think a one or a two? What do you think, one, two?

Becky Schilling (26:29):

I think Rachel came in with a new number one. I think she did.

Arielle Feger (26:33):

I love it.

Blake Droesch (26:34):

Wow. That's got to be a first.

Becky Schilling (26:36):

I think it is a first.

Arielle Feger (26:37):

I think let's make a note of that, a first in the retail rankings. Okay.

Rachel Wolff (26:43):

I'm honored.

Arielle Feger (26:43):

Wow. So we've got kind of a pretty shaken up list here. Here is our final list. Number one, Gopuff, number two, Urban Outfitters, number three, Wawa, number four, Bath and Body Works, number five, Skippy, number six, PacSun, number seven, Poppi, and number eight is Buc-ee's. Sorry to-

Becky Schilling (27:13):

We still love you Buc-ee's. We do.

Arielle Feger (27:17):

And our Honorable mentions are going to end up being Ulta and Pottery Barn. So that's all the time we have for today. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you, Blake.

Rachel Wolff (27:27):

Thanks. It was fun.

Blake Droesch (27:30):

Yeah, it was fun. Congratulations on your record, Rachel.

Rachel Wolff (27:32):

Thank you.

Arielle Feger (27:33):

And thank you to Becky, my fellow committee member.

Becky Schilling (27:36):

Happy to be back on.

Arielle Feger (27:38):

Thank you to our listeners, our studio team, and our podcast editors who are always number one for us. Please leave a comment or review and remember to subscribe to Behind the Numbers podcast. We'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of Reimagining Retail. And on Friday, join Marcus for another episode of Behind the Numbers, an EMARKETER podcast made possible by Nielsen.