Petit Bateau is a world-renowned French children’s clothing brand that distributes its iconic products in its numerous physical stores and on its e-commerce site. It has a strong digital footprint thanks to its continuous improvement approach. As a committed brand always at the forefront of retail innovation, Petit Bateau is rising to the challenge of the circular economy by launching a new offer in 2022 called “Changer demain” (a play on words that means both “change tomorrow” and “change hands”).

The initiative aims to give a second life to Petit Bateau products – sturdy garments usually worn for only a few months, as children grow so quickly. The brand invites customers to return clothes that their children have outgrown to the store, where they will receive purchase vouchers in exchange.

In October 2022, Petit Bateau and Artefact won the Cas d’Or Digilocales with this geolocalized activation campaign.

An ad campaign powered by Meta ‘s drive-to-store capabilities

To expand the program and engage customers in this circular initiative, Petit Bateau called on Artefact. The data-driven digital services consulting agency met both objectives by proposing a system that leverages Meta’s drive-to-store strategies, as well as the density of the client’s network of stores in France.

“For Petit Bateau, this second-hand program is an opportunity to reinforce our sustainable approach and raise our customers’ awareness of environmental issues, but also to strengthen the link between the brand and its consumers. We have chosen to restrict the return of clothes to members of “La Grande Tribu”, our loyalty program, while the purchase of second-hand clothes is open to everyone. This strategy aims to maximize the engagement of our customers and reinforce the proximity between our brand and its community.”
Hélène Trussart, European Acquisition Manager, Petit Bateau

Combined targeting via geolocation and customer database

To test the program before deploying it nationwide, Petit Bateau started with a preliminary selection of stores. Working with the brand, Artefact developed the test project in 3 stages:

  • Define the key message: the advertising format (carousel) dynamically displays store information (address, opening hours, itinerary) via the combination of Meta Custom Audiences with raw data feeds from the stores as well as CRM data from Petit Bateau’s loyalty program (La Grande Tribu). For more clarity on the nature of the operation, the message partially reproduces that of the landing pages.

  • Map the stores to be targeted first: the brand and Artefact’s teams selected stores according to their location and ability to communicate the results of the operation afterwards. Different radii were defined according to population density in their catchment areas.

  • Model the budget needed for national deployment: the size of the audience pools was estimated based on the population and density of each target area. In the absence of drive-to-store KPIs natively available on Meta, Artefact developed a specific process to obtain results from the stores and measure the impact of the campaign.

“Artefact’s approach consists of assembling a multidisciplinary team to set up the technical prerequisites for the solution on Meta and working closely with Petit Bateau’s business teams to select test stores and measure results for this first campaign. We also have the technical capabilities and resources to scale up use cases. That’s the key to this long-term partnership.”
Vincent Laquerrière, Account Director, Digital Marketing – Artefact France

Great test results: 100% of the target group reached

The operation was visible to all the members of La Grande Tribu addressed by the campaign. The number of clicks from the carousel to the route map leading to the nearest store also demonstrated the relevance and appeal of this operation for the target audiences.

This positive test allowed the brand to begin deployment of the program throughout France in the last quarter of 2022. To gather even more information on the omnichannel sales path of Petit Bateau customers, a feasibility study is underway to implement a real-time measurement, in full compliance with GDPR.

“The results from the test areas are excellent KPIs for building a global strategy and preparing for industrialization throughout France. We are also seeking to implement a measurement solution that will allow us to track the entire customer journey, from advertising printing to garment collection, in order to guarantee a complete and continuous offer. In the mid-term, our ambition is to deploy second-hand sales in all countries where Petit Bateau is present.”
Hélène Trussart, Head of Acquisition Europe, Petit Bateau