Over three months, more than 3,000 Facebook 'likes' and an average conversion rate of 60% were generated for the shopping centre's new profile page, in the process boosting community spirit and drumming up online support for the centre's retailers.
ShopEK is Scotland's largest undercover shopping and leisure location. As well as acting as a focal point for the local community, the centre attracts visitors from across the region.
The centre regularly hosts live events, with appearances from Britain's Got Talent and X Factor contestants and has a popular Indoor Beach attraction. To increase awareness of these events and boost online interaction, Dog Digital created a series of targeted advertising campaigns, check-in services and incentivised surveys.
Over just 5.5 days of activity, the Facebook advertising campaign generated 1,151 likes; this equated to 89% of all 'likes' generated over the page's history.
On average, visitors from Facebook looked at 8.5 pages and spent over 11 minutes on the ShopEK site. Two times more traffic was sent to the ShopEK site during the lifecycle of the campaign.
A dynamic Facebook landing page presented users with content that alternated depending on whether they had previously 'liked' ShopEK. Over three months the page generated more than 3,000 likes and had an average conversion rate of 60%.
Run by ShopEK and currently in their third year, the Service EKcellence Awards recognise outstanding levels of customer service and are voted for by the customers themselves. In order to publicise the event, Dog Digital designed a dynamic Facebook page to incentivise the voting process. Links from the page went directly to an awards microsite where voting notifications were then fed out virally through users’ Facebook networks.
Service EKcellence Awards twibbons let centre staff champion both themselves and the awards. Instructions on how to set up the twibbons were sent to centre staff through ShopEK's newsletter and could then be viewed through users' Facebook profile pictures.
At the voting halfway stage, the number of votes cast for this year sat at 44,693; a massive increase from 37,000 – the total number cast at the same point last year.
Online voting has so far performed particularly well with 7,638 votes cast on the website, well over double last year's total of 2,833.
Gerard McCusker, Managing Director, Dog Digital:
"The fact that conversions and 'likes' were so high for Shop EK, for their in-centre events and the Service EKcellence Awards, shows the real ability of Facebook to drive online engagement, community spirit and, in this instance, act as a force for positive change in the community. Over the coming months, we'll be providing a range of social media solutions for our clients, pushing the technical and creative boundaries of what can be done on the platform."
Clare Livingston, Deputy Centre Director, East Kilbride Shopping Centre:
"The level of interaction with the ShopEK brand, over the past few months, has been at their highest levels yet - for both the shopping centre and our upcoming ShopEK Awards. We couldn't be happier with the results. Dog Digital's social media strategy and integrated PPC campaign has allowed us to directly communicate with our customers on a platform that they know and trust.
Since going live the ShopEK site has went on to become a focal point for the community."