"Emplifi is a lot easier for finding the content rather than using a server or Google Drive – in Emplifi, everybody has visibility. It's a streamlined process of finding and approving images for the whole team." – Julia Patterson, Head of eCommerce
Founded in 2008, Wool and the Gang’s mission is clear: to inspire the next generation of makers through the reinvention of the craft experience. To do this, Wool and the Gang embraces their community through social media, influencers, and community-driven content. In order to take that content beyond social channels, Wool and the Gang looked to Emplifi.
Bringing a tactile product online
Getting a sense for the look and feel of a product without experiencing it in a store can be challenging, especially when the product is yarn – something that can vary significantly in terms of quality. With user-generated content, Wool and the Gang is able to give customers a decent idea of the products as they actually are – similar to what a customer would expect in a store.
"Our product is very tactile, and the quality of the fibre is one of our main selling points which presents a challenge as an eCommerce business," Patterson said. "However, our community of makers love to share images that really show the tactility of the product, which is really helpful for us."
With Emplifi, the Wool and the Gang team is able to find great content that authentically represents the product without the in-person shopping experience.
Solving the content problem
Every marketer needs more content to promote products across the customer journey. With Emplifi, Wool and the Gang is able to solve the content problem across all channels and across the team. Additionally, the team is able to use Emplifi to determine how well each piece of content is performing – so they can make informed decisions about the content they use on high-value channels.
"It's great for us to have a bank of user-generated content that we can turn to when there are gaps, or when we want to move away from the polished campaign imagery to something a bit more real," Patterson said. "The response to our user-generated content has been good in channels like emails."
Emplifi makes seeding this content across all channels easy for the Wool and the Gang team, with no developer resources required.
"On the surface, Emplifi is a platform for managing UGC and permissioning, but additionally, it comes in handy if you’ve got limited bandwidth in terms of in-house content creation, web development, or design resources. You can use Emplifi to impact those areas quite quickly. I manage the development roadmap for Wool and the Gang, and it's always a challenge to get new stuff into the pipeline. Emplifi doesn’t add any work to our development team and that makes it really simple and great."
Inspiration and multivariant tagging
New crafters seeking inspiration needn’t look further than Wool and the Gang’s social galleries, especially for those looking to see how each craft looks in different colors. The team at Wool and the Gang is able to automatically tag collected content based on the different colors each kit comes in – saving time and resources for the marketing team.
"Our knitting kits come in a really wide range of colors. But we don't necessarily photograph them in every single color. User-generated content is helpful in product galleries where people can see the range of colors, particularly if we've got a kit that's multicolored. Having that extra content to show the colors in different lighting and different settings is really useful for us."
With Emplifi, the team at Wool and the Gang is able to easily collect that authentic content and seed it across all channels to supplement their branded content. Inspiration and authenticity are especially critical when your product is a craft, as shoppers are curious about what the finished product might look like.
"The product that we sell is not a finished item – people are buying the kit to make the product. I think there's something probably quite reassuring in seeing people with the product at different stages towards completion, including our packaging because it’s quite iconic. That helps people get a bit of a sense of what to expect in what they're ordering."
No matter the craft or experience of the crafter, Wool and the Gang is able to inspire and convert their audience with help from Emplifi.
