Bloomingdale’s shines spotlight on modern motherhood

April 26, 2018

Good American's Emma Grede features in Bloomingdale's campaign. Image credit: Bloomingdale's

Department store chain Bloomingdale’s is celebrating female empowerment in a Mother’s Day campaign that focuses on ambitious women.

Bloomingdale’s #MomBoss campaign features entrepreneurial moms at the helm of brands and nonprofits, showcasing their style and stories. The retailer's Mother's Day messaging is kicking off a larger conversation about women's experiences that will extend beyond the holiday.

“Empowerment of women is a culturally relevant priority that we believe in, and Mother’s Day is a natural fit to capture this momentum,” said Frank Berman, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Bloomingdale’s, New York. “To bring this to life for our shoppers, Bloomingdale’s is embracing the Mom Bosses of the world, modern motherhood and female empowerment through a dynamic Mother’s Day campaign that extends from in-store to online, windows, advertising and social media."

Mother models
At the center of Bloomingdale’s campaign are jewelry designer Temple St. Clair, Loeffler Randall founder and creative director Jessie Randall and Good American co-founder Emma Grede. Beyond heading labels, these women are working mothers.

This trio is included within Bloomingdale’s catalog for Mother’s Day. In the publication, each is featured on a dedicated page where they share their Mother’s Day gifting selections, which include a L’Objet vase, Fendi sunglasses and Rimowa luggage.

The shoppable guide also includes a spread on gift ideas for mothers that would make a statement at the office.

Bloomingdale's gift guide features working moms. Image credit: Bloomingdale's

Ms. St. Clair, Ms. Randall and Ms. Grede are also featured in Bloomingdale’s window displays for Mother’s Day. At the retailer’s 59th Street flagship, the panes will showcase these moms and others who run fashion companies or nonprofits.

These entrepreneurial moms include designers Michelle Smith of Milly, Rebecca Minkoff and Rebecca Taylor, as well as New York-based nonprofit founders Agnus Gund, Chelsea Clinton, Christy Turlington Burns, Kim Sweets and Elizabeth Bryan Jacobs.

“There are so many powerful and talented moms in the Bloomingdale’s family and we wanted to take Mother’s Day to create a moment to celebrate all moms,” Mr. Berman said.

Bloomingdale’s is also speaking to female empowerment with the launch of “In Her Shoes,” a series of monthly talks. The in-store panels will be hosted in Bloomingdale’s newly renovated shoe department in its flagship.

Kicking off the series will be a discussion on experiences of motherhood. The retailer is partnering with motherhood social connection mobile application Peanut to host a panel with Ms. Minkoff, beauty expert and activist Jodie Patterson, Peanut founder Michelle Kennedy and Bloomingdale’s creative director Sophia Tang.

Happening May 3, the session will tackle subjects such as the impact of women supporting each other.

Future In Her Shoes panels will range from thought provoking to lighthearted, with different topics and partners.

Conversation starter
Other recent Bloomingdale's campaigns have also been personality-driven.

For instance, Bloomingdale’s is celebrating its long history with the Big Apple in a campaign that features local personalities.

"The Heart of New York" campaign, stylized as [heart emoji] of New York, sees five famous New Yorkers recruited for a series in which they talk about their favorite memories of Bloomingdale’s 59th Street location. The campaign will be plastered all over New York, including billboards and subway coverage (see story).

Bloomingdale's has also sought to be a conversation starter with previous campaigns.

The retailer looked to continue back-to-school sales with an effort that tapped user-generated content to expand its reach.

In keeping with a back-to-school theme, Bloomingdale’s promoted its “varsity-level” fall collection by mining social media for user content to incorporate on its Instagram. Spanning various social channels, Bloomingdale’s wove its campaign content into a strategy that enticed users to participate (see story).

With In Her Shoes, Bloomingdale's is bringing this idea of a two-way dialogue to the store environment.

“Bloomingdale’s continually aims to create interesting in-store activities for our customers to enhance the shopping experience,” Mr. Berman said. “The ‘In Her Shoes’ panel series gives us the opportunity to offer culturally relevant dialogue directly with our customer and produce in-store experiences that resonate.”

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