John Lewis is rolling out an app across its store estate to encourage its employees to share marketing campaigns through social media.
Working with employee advocacy app Qubist, the retailer will provide its 26,000 employees across 52 stores with an app to share content amongst themselves.
The application provides employees with a newsfeed showing content that has been promoted by John Lewis. They can then personalise the post and share the link to their personal profiles on social networks such as Instagram. Employees can gain minor rewards for engaging and administrators can track activity and engagement.
The roll-out follows a limited pilot of the app, titled WeArePartners, across the retailer’s head office and eight stores. Over three months the pilot generated nine million impressions.
John Lewis used the technology to promote its 2018 Christmas advertisement, sharing the campaign with employees who then posted it onto social media with the hashtag #WeArePartners. This led to the advert trending on Twitter.
According to Qubist, content shared by employees is twice as likely to be clicked on than that shared by the brand directly.
Eva Bojtos, senior manager, social marketing team at John Lewis & Partners, said: “The passion and knowledge of our Partners is very powerful and inspiring. Giving them a way in which to connect personally with customers online provides a deeper more meaningful relationship.”
Bojtos said there had been a direct correlation between the activity on the Qubist app and customers booking appointments in-store.
Qubist’s technology has also been used by supermarket chain Iceland.
Image credit: Qubist
