LOS ANGELES—The Outlets at Tejon Ranch, a retail outlet Power center north of Los Angeles, is employing an innovative Twitter campaign to boost holiday sales for brick-and-mortar retailers. The center has created a Twitter-operated Christmas Tree, known as the Twitter Tree, that lights up with colors corresponding to specific hashtags. For example, if a shopper tags the center in a post with #cheer, blue lights are activated, while #joy activates green lights and #shoptejon makes the gifts at the base of the tree shine. According to Becky Swiggum, the director of marketing at the Outlets at Tejon, the Twitter Tree has helped to drive consumer traffic and boost holiday sales. To find out more about the concept, how it has boosted sales and if the idea could work to drive sales at other times of the year, we sat down with Swiggum for an interview.

GlobeSt.com: Tell me about the Twitter Tree and the inspiration for the idea.
Swiggum: As the name suggests, The Outlets at Tejon Twitter Tree is a holiday tree adorned with hundreds of lights that blink and change colors when anyone, anywhere tweets one of our holiday hashtags. The Twitter Tree was part of an overarching, festive, sales-driven integrated marketing campaign designed to engage consumers and local media, support local charities, reward shoppers with a premier retail experience, and encourage repeated patronage throughout the holiday season.

The Twitter-controlled holiday tree is operated exclusively through Twitter hashtags. Lights are strung and displayed just like on any normal holiday tree. Basically, it's like someone flips a light switch every time you Tweet. When a Twitter user posts a provided hashtag, the tree lights up a specific color.

We realize that when it comes to holiday shopping, consumers have a plethora of options. They can elect to do their holiday shopping at any number of locations, and many prefer the convenience of online shopping from the comfort of their homes. The Tejon for the Holidays campaign helped shoppers choose to shop and revisit Outlets at Tejon during the holiday season because of the fun, unique, and engaging nature of the campaign.

GlobeSt.com: How has the tree helped to drive retail traffic at the center?
Swiggum: It's helped quite a lot. To kick off the Twitter Tree, the Outlets at Tejon held its annual holiday event in November. The festive evening included an appearance by Santa, a performance by a local high school choir, and the unveiling of the Twitter Tree. The night was a success and drew numerous shoppers to the Outlets. We are also continuing to see increased shopping throughout the holiday season and traffic counts are higher overall than we've seen since the center's grand opening in 2014.

GlobeSt.com: How could this technology be used to raise money for charity?
Swiggum: The Twitter Tree is the perfect platform for raising money for charities. It's more interactive, engaging, and fun for shoppers than traditional avenues and also helped drive interest in the Outlets. When you add a friendly competition factor and a popular platform like Twitter, with a chance to raise money for charities, it was a win-win for us.

The Twitter Tree campaign was designed to help local charities, including Marley's Mutts, CASA, and Honor Flight – Kern County, hold a fun competition to help them raise money. Each participating local charity was assigned a hashtag that corresponded to the Twitter Tree. When a shopper tweeted to the official Outlets at Tejon Twitter account with one of the charities' hashtags, the individual charity's specific light color illuminated. In order to win the competition, the charity needed to have the Twitter Tree lit in their designated color for the longest amount of time. The winning charity, Marley's Mutts, received a donation from the Outlets at Tejon, and the other two charities received a smaller donation.

GlobeSt.com: How have shoppers responded to the Twitter tree?
Swiggum: Shoppers have responded very positively. It's fun to watch them use the different hashtags to change the colors of the tree. It really brings out the holiday spirit.

GlobeSt.com: Can you use this technology at times other than Christmas to drive traffic?
Swiggum: The technology was developed by a small team of interactive designers and social media specialists at Oxford Communications specifically for charities and campaigns like the Twitter Tree. However, the technology, basically a box with outlets, can be used by any appliance. If it has a plug, in can be controlled by Twitter. Simply put, if you have, say, a toaster, you can control it with hashtags. It's very cool technology.

GlobeSt.com: In general, how else are you harnessing social media to drive retail traffic at the center, and how successful have you been?
Swiggum: For this campaign specifically, we used social media to promote the unveiling of the Twitter Tree. We used Facebook Live to stream the event for those online who couldn't make it, sharing shopping tips and how to use the tree, hosted by our Fashion Ambassador. At any given time, we had dozens of people watching live, more than 2,000 views of the Facebook Live video after the event, 80 likes and 28 comments. We had a total of 1,281 hashtags used and 784 mentions on Twitter. We think that's a success.

GlobeSt.com: What is the cost associated with this kind of technology?
Swiggum: Hard costs are difficult to translate for something like this. There are things to consider however, such as having a hard-wired internet connection, setting up the program and promotions, and costs for a live feed, all the way down to the cost of the tree and decorations. It really was an economical way to promote the Outlets and local charities.

Instant Insights /

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