Skip to main content

Harnessing social media influence, Bloomingdale’s launches its first-ever Snapchat contest

bloomingdales first snapchat contest
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Bloomingdale’s, the New York City department store with the iconic “brown bag” made famous on popular TV shows from Friends to Sex and the City, is now looking to a new medium to promote its brand.

The store, a NYC tourist attraction, recently kicked off its “100% Bloomingdale’s” spring campaign with a big social media push. The company’s multi-pronged digital strategy encompasses all the major networks, from Facebook to Pinterest (through which shoppers can also buy its items using buyable pins).

Recommended Videos

Now, Bloomingdale’s is seeking to ramp up its Snapchat following by launching its first contest tied to the app. Using Snapchat to boost a retail brand is a buzzing trend, but not everyone can get it right. After all, celebrities and publishers currently dominate the visual messaging app, approaching it with a creative flair that has arguably been missing from their day jobs.

For its part, Bloomingdale’s has shown a knack for the platform, encouraging its viewers to interact with it in inventive ways. Those who tune into the retailer’s Live Stories will be treated to a chic NYC adventure starring an unnamed socialite who can be seen sipping cosmopolitans at the bar in one clip, and picking out a pair of SJP high heels in another.

Bloomingdale’s occasionally urges viewers to shape the fashion adventure by giving you a choice as to what its shopaholic protagonist should do next — you can DM the store on Snapchat to choose. In a recent clip, you are given the option to make the character jump in a rooftop pool at a crowded party, and the ability to help her pick out fashion items. The selection with the most votes gets chosen. It all comes together to form a constantly updating fashion adventure that boasts all the glamorous cues you’d expect from a Manhattan-set Live Story from one of the world’s leading department stores.

That’s where the Snapchat competition comes in. This weekend, March 12-14, the retailer is asking its followers who live within the NYC metro area to snap a picture of their fashion adventure essentials on Snapchat and send it to Bloomingdale’s. Targeting female customers, the winner will receive a fashion-packed day in NYC on March 19, including a Drybar blowout, brunch at Le Train Bleu, and a Yacht Manhattan wine- and cheese-tasting session.

Additional social media-related events are also taking place during the month of March at Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship. An upcoming partnership with Museum Hack, for example, will involve a scavenger hunt that uses visual clues from Instagram and the retailer’s own Bloomticons emoji app. More details can be found on the Museum Hack website.

Saqib Shah
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…
NASA reveals launch date for its first space tourism mission to ISS
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on May 30, for the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon capsule. flight

NASA is aiming to launch its first space tourism mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on February 28, 2022.

The mission is being organized by Texas-based Axiom Space and will use SpaceX’s tried-and-tested Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Read more
Samsung aims to double its Exynos shipments ahead of Galaxy S22 launch
The Galaxy S21 Ultra from the back, held in a hand.

Samsung and AMD are joining hands to work on Samsung's new Exynos processor, which will support RDNA2 graphics -- AMD's latest graphics architecture coming to mobile devices for the first time. The new processor is rumored to be included on the future Galaxy S22, though many of those details are still up in the air. AMD gave an overview of the features and revealed that its RDNA2 will include ray tracing and variable-rate shading, allowing it to offer higher-fidelity graphics and improved power efficiency.

The latest development comes from Korea IT News and also reveals that Samsung is aiming to increase Exynos installs to 50% to 60% in Galaxy smartphones compared to the current 20%.

Read more
Snapchat is finally ditching one of its most controversial filters
snapchat ios App Store. Credit: XanderXT / Shutterstock

Snap is removing from its Snapchat app a controversial speed filter that has been blamed for encouraging reckless driving.

Released eight years ago, the filter lets you take a photo or video overlaid with a readout of the speed at which you're moving.

Read more