“Leave it to Luxury Brand Partners (LBP) to stage a groundbreaking, first-of-its kind social media and digital conference.”
Can you change an industry through education? That was the goal that Luxury Brand Partners, owner of several artist-driven beauty brands like R+Co, Oribe, and Smith & Cult, focused on this past Fall.
After success with their Front Row workshop and demonstration event in January 2016, it was time to try creating a brand-agnostic learning series, and LBP Idealogue: The Social Media Sessions was born. Spun-off of Front Row's successful Idealogue Owner's Lounge, The Social Sessions consisted of a series of engaging panel discussions and TED-style talks anchored by a keynote starring Gary Vaynerchuk. Positioned as a possible first of many, the future of the Idealogue event-series was dependent on our success in making the weekend a can't-miss, valuable, legitimate reason for salon owners and stylists to spend upward of $800 and travel on a ticket.
Together, our team built out a comprehensive promotion plan, heavily leveraging LBP's social media channels, the influencer-power in our speakers, and our partnership with American Salon magazine to build excitement, create content, and drive traffic to our event site to create ticket sales.
The result? A sold-out event three weeks in advance and over 11.4M Instagram impressions in a single weekend, an increase of 2,300% in Facebook Likes, 272% Instagram Loves and 375% Comments. But most importantly, other than creating a platform for peers to teach an industry how to use social media to improve their business, we created new connections between counterparts and strengthened the networks essential to being successful in a creatively-driven industry.
But don't take it from me - here's what American Salon magazine said:
“And while Idealogue made it obvious that hairdressers like to wear black and say “f***” a lot, the conference also underscored the very revealing fact that hairdressers want to be part of social media. They want to engage to grow their business and promote their craft. And the proof is in the numbers. ”
