CrewFire Case Study

SM Global Generates $72k in Referral Sales, 1,800 Pieces of UGC, and a 904% ROI in 10 Months with CrewFire

Devon Mirsky - Director of PragerFORCE

Table of Contents

Overview

SM Global Shop is the official SM Entertainment fashion merchandise store. The brand carries fashion merchandise from sensational K-pop groups, such as EXO, Super Junior, Girls' Generation, and Red Velvet, just to name a few.

The brand has proudly partnered with Korean Wave's premier leader in SM Entertainment to provide its customers with K-Pop apparel and accessories to spread Korean culture and artists globally.

Their mission is to make it easier for SM Entertainment fans all around the world to purchase authentic beloved artists' goods!

K-pop is popular with fans that span all across the world! People love K-pop artists' extremely catchy rhythm and chorus, the fashion and style, and the overall amazing performance that SM entertainment groups give.

It comes as no surprise that the SM Global Shop brand ambassador program has been a huge hit. It gives the opportunity for fans all around the world to come together and share a love for K-pop, music, and culture.

SM Global Shop - The Challenge

The Challenge: Generating More Referrals & UGC from Their Customers

It wasn't SM Global Shop's first time hosting a brand ambassador program. In fact, the brand has been gaining so much popularity that they invited a small group of customers to be their first group of ambassadors back in early 2020.

But the challenges they faced, in the beginning, were quite universal. They wanted to unlock the potential of their customers (who were already generating UGC for SM Global Shop) and generate more UGC and referrals via their ambassadors.

On top of that, the brand was using several means of communication which lead to a high level of inactive members and overall lacked engagement and a sense of community. They knew that they needed a better system to manage their initial group of ambassadors.

"Our program always had difficulty with bonding and communicating with ambassadors because we had to maintain a  separate community on Facebook Group, and all the notices were scattered into different platforms  (Facebook/E-mail) which lowered the open rate and confusion between members."

Some of SM Global Shops biggest pain points included:

Scaling Up Their Ambassador Program

Scaling Up Their Ambassador Program
"The SMS notification and community feature from CrewFire have changed our program a lot. Our ambassadors now have a unified and huge hall of communication. This helped them to be effectively notified (with a better open rate than E-mail!)"

With a rapidly growing, passionate base of k-pop fans who wanted to work with SM Global Shop, they saw the eminent need to scale up and mobilize by turning their raving fans into their team of brand ambassadors.

"Having a separate community on CrewFire, allows us to communicate with our ambassadors better than before."
Image of Instagram content created by an SM Global brand ambassador

Highlights from the SM Global Shop Ambassador Program

In just two short months, the SM Global Shop has hit the ground running, full speed ahead. They have seen rapid growth, amazing UGC, and an impressive number of referrals.

"CrewFire support was always very fast-responsive and helpful so that we can resolve the issue really quickly. Also, they check-in with me regularly. This helped us a lot to see if our program is going well and improve if we had an issue with the program."
Image of content created by an SM Global brand ambassador

SM Global Shop's Unique and Engaging Activity Line-Up

SM Global Shop has hosted a wide variety of activities for their ambassadors to participate in and consistently receives tons of amazing content from their ambassadors.

SM Global Shop can take that content and repurpose it on their website or social media channels.

Sample UGC from SM Global Ambassadors

Image of an SM Global ambassador  creating UGH for their InstagramImage of an Instagram post from an SM Global brand ambassador creating content with SM merch   Image of content created by an SM Global brand ambassadorImage of content created by an SM Global brand ambassadorImage of a SM Global brand ambassador's post on InstagramImage of an SM Global brand ambassador's post on Instagram holding SM merch

How CrewFire Works

The Ambassador Experience

Image of the community forum in CrewFire from the ambassador point-of-view on mobile

Community
Ambassadors can check in for program updates and engage and interact with their fellow ambassadors.

Image of the submission/UGC feature on CrewFire in the ambassador portal in mobile view

Submission/UGC
Mobilize your ambassadors to create content and take action in exchange for points.

Image of the referrals feature in CrewFire where an ambassador can find their custom coupon code

Referrals
Arm your ambassadors with a unique referral code that they can share with friends, family, and followers and earn a commission for each sale they generate.

Image of the Recent Activity feature on CrewFire in the ambassador portal on mobile view

Activity Feed
Ambassadors can check out what their fellow ambassadors have been participating in the activity feed.

Image of the ambassador's profile in CrewFire on the mobile view

Ambassador Profile
Ambassadors can check their history in their profile and see their complete list of completed activities and points earned.

Image of the reward features on CrewFire in the ambassador portal on mobile

Rewards
Incentivize your ambassadors by adding custom rewards that they can earn in exchange for points.

The Admin Experience

Image of the community forum in CrewFire where admins
Build & Foster Your Community
Keep your ambassadors informed and engaged by providing them the opportunity to connect with you and other ambassadors in your own private community.
Manage Activities
Create custom activities that will mobilize your ambassadors to take action in exchange for points.
Image of the ambassador CRM that CrewFire offers
Manage Ambassador
Manage your team with the Ambassador CRM, where you can view their stats, history, points earned. Easily leave notes for other admins and send ambassadors a personal message all within the dashboard.
Manage Rewards
Upload a variety of rewards to incentivize your ambassadors to take action, and monitor and fulfill reward orders for your ambassadors.

How They Reward Their Ambassadors

The SM Global Shop team has created a variety of rewards for their ambassadors, most of them being merchandise from their shop but also items such as signed merch and concert tickets!
A few examples of potential reward types that an ambassador can redeem on CrewFire
Image of various reward examples that ambassadors can redeem on CrewFire
Image of different reward examples that an ambassador can redeem in CrewFire
Example of different types of rewards a brand can have in their CrewFire profile

Conclusion

In just ten months, SM Global Generates $72k in Referral Sales, 1,800 Pieces of UGC, and a 904% ROI with CrewFire.
But the best part? Their ambassadors are passionate about the SM Global Shop brand, k-pop, and they want to create content for the brand!
"I would really recommend you to go forward with CrewFire if you need a stronger bond with ambassadors!"
We love to hear it!
If you or someone you know is a k-pop lover and fan of SM Global Shop, don't hesitate to tell them to apply! The brand is actively looking for ambassadors. 🙂

Interested in learning more or getting started?

Ready to turn your customers into your army of brand ambassadors? If so, get in touch with us to learn how you can drive more referrals, word-of-mouth, and user-generated content for your Shopify store.

Get in touch w/ Rony (CEO - CrewFire):

Email: Rony@CrewFire.com
Book A Call: https://www.crewfire.com/call

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