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Best Buy: Focused on Service

As retail changed, Best Buy risked becoming a showroom for online competitors like Amazon that ultimately converted the sale.

Best Buy’s key point of differentiation was 120,000 knowledgable staff of “Blue Shirts”: real people instead of bots, anonymous reviews or overseas help centers.

Our idea was to bring this Twitter Help Force, or Twelpforce, online by encouraging tweeting during work hours.

This was long before social media culture came of age and community management best practices were established for corporations. Opening up a global, public communication channel to thousands of 20-something workers was unheard-of. And still is.

Customer complaints decreased 20% during the first year of the program.

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 Any Blueshirt who passed HR and legal muster could tweet advice and responses to customer posts.

Any Blueshirt who passed HR and legal muster could tweet advice and responses to customer posts.

 The campaign tied directly to website product pages to make the sales experience as seamless as possible.

The campaign tied directly to website product pages to make the sales experience as seamless as possible.