Journeys – Backyard BBQ

Challenge

You are THE destination for teen footwear in the mall. How do you speak to your target teen and young adult audience at their level and create an event that encompasses all aspects of their lives? Music, Action Sports, Technology, Art and Fashion. Oh…and create a direct drive back to retail to bump that sales needle. No worries, we’ve got this.

Solution

You create a mall based retail-tainment event called the Journeys Backyard BBQ in which you invite all of your premium brands to participate and throw one heck of a good party in mall parking lots across the USA. Sandbox Marketing did just that for 7 years for the Journeys footwear retail chain. This Sandbox Marketing proprietary property would draw over 512,000 live audience in 7 years.

Creating a free, all ages event that takes place in accessible mall parking lots was just what the doctor ordered for teens and young adults all across the country. The Journeys Backyard BBQ leveraged existing Journeys brands like Converse, Vans, DC Shoes, Toms and Osiris. Sandbox also procured outside sponsorship partners like göt2b, Coast Body Wash, Invisalign, Hi-Chew, Verizon Wireless and others to participate in the events. Major action sports athletes participated like Rob Dydrek, Shaun White, Dave Mirra, Ryan Nyquist, Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, Tony Alva, Christian Hosoi and Ryan Sheckler to name a few. In addition, the Metal Mulisha Freestyle Motocross demo team performed at all 43 Journeys Backyard BBQ events and drove the crowds crazy. BMX, Skateboarding and FMX demos were a great draw for the free events. Have you ever seen a Metal Mulisha Freestyle Motocross show when they are backflipping right in front of you? Most people have not and this made the Journeys Backyard BBQ events very appealing to consumers. It also made Journeys register on the Teen radar when it comes to cool brands.

Music, Fashion and Art all culminated on the main stage with acts like All American Rejects, POD, Taking Back Sunday, Hot Chelle Rae and Circa Survive all played on the BBQ main stage. Also, Sandbox sourced local acts to compete in the Converse Battle of the Bands where they had a chance to play with major acts and have a chance to have their videos played in all of the 850 Journeys retail locations.

Topping all of these activities off was a huge social media push with all of Journeys social media channels. Twitter contests, Facebook sweepstakes and the (Sandbox managed) “Journeys Feet on the Street Team” that drove awareness and impressions at all of the local high schools and colleges all helped to drive Journeys current Facebook likes of over 2 million likes.

The results for these events speak for themselves. For 7 years, the Journeys Backyard BBQ was the premier mall based retail-tainment events that many other brands and retailers have mirrored. Sandbox Marketing produced the Journeys Backyard BBQ events as a completely turnkey solution for the client.

Results

• Over 428 million impressions in 7 years for Journeys and their partners
• Almost 153 million media impressions with media value of $5.5 million
• 43 flawless events executed over 7 years with no cancellation days
• 172 different band performances
• 340 different athletes performed at the Journeys Backyard BBQ events
• ROI of over 70 to 1 based on sales, media, pr and live event impressions
• Live event attendance over 512,000

Success Elements