The above video interview is from the ANA Brand Conference in NYC.
Sponsored by
Lisa Gavales, Chief Marketing Officer at EXPRESS, aka @ExpressLisaG, spoke at the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Brand Conference in NYC this week.
Lisa made a conscious decision in 2008 to join the Twitter-Sphere as the voice of EXPRESS. Lisa talks directly with her consumers to provide ‘behind the scene’ content and access to a real person inside EXPRESS. Lisa shares fun and interesting information to make her followers feel great about the Express brand. “Follow our CMO on Twitter at ExpressLisaG” can be found on most of EXPRESS marketing communication including the bottom of their store receipts!
In her presentation, Lisa focused on how EXPRESS successfully leveraged their CMO’s professional and personal tweets to build their brand through direct and honest dialogue with their consumers. Lisa also shared tips on how she attempts to balance her professional and personal life while representing the EXPRESS brand.
In our conversation, Lisa talks about EXPRESS’ marketing mix and media plan across digital and offline channels. Online, EXPRESS wants to be where its customers are – facebook, twitter, music web sites, fashion blogs – as well as traditional channels such as TV and print.
Increasingly, brands are becoming content producers. EXPRESS films and takes photos at fashion shows, music festivals and other events and features that content through social channels and on the EXPRESS.com Web site so that fans can access the content online.
In 2011 EXPRESS will focus on making that content more discoverable so that content continues to be viewed long after the initial pop and high viewership that accompanies a new video that the company publishes on Youtube after the requisite tweet and facebook post. She acknowledges that EXPRESS spends a lot of money on content production, so it is important that the content works hard for the brand long after it is first featured online.
Lisa also wants to explore branded Webisodic TV series in the near future. The goal is to produce great story lines that leave people anticipating the next episode – build an audience and a fan base that grows over time and keep the audience hooked though engaging stories.
