Penny Skateboards

The Challenge

Originally from Australia, Penny Skateboards is the global market leader in the plastic cruiser category, with close to 60% global market share. The brand was introduced to the Thai market in 2013, and distributed exclusively through selected offline retailers. Penny’s brand awareness and recognition grew slowly during that time, but in order to reduce exposure to the high sales commissions from traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, the brand required a strong digital presence and direct selling capabilities.

That’s when they approached Grey Alchemy. Our objectives were to further drive brand awareness and reposition Penny from a niche specialty category to a lifestyle brand. We were also tasked with fostering an engaged digital community, setting up an online store and driving both offline and online sales.

E-Commerce Setup

We designed and developed a Shopify e-commerce website for the Thai market. The online store was search for both Thai and English relevant keywords.

We also set up Google Analytics, Google Tags and Facebook Pixel to gather audience insights, track online sales conversion and prepare for remarketing campaigns

Since Penny is a household name for plastic cruisers, the brand encountered multiple violations of trademark usage. We worked closely with our intellectual property lawyer to file against the counterfeit products sold on Shopee, Lazada or Facebook to strengthen our brand image and online presence.

Driving Brand Awareness & Affinity

We teamed up with our creative partner to produce high-quality video content for brand awareness advertising. We also tapped into influencer marketing to reshape the brand’s lifestyle positioning, leverage on viral visibility and foster an engaged community through proactive online conversations.

Seeking the right influencers was crucial. Penny partnered up with both macro and micro influencers who had genuine interest in the brand, from Thailand’s leading actor and skateboard enthusiast Mario Maurer to fashion blogger Pupe of Stellar Balcony, to create content and build awareness. We also collaborated with RipCurl Thailand's 2018 & 2019 Girls Go Searching events in Phuket to gather on-brand lifestyle photo and video content and to foster collaboration with Thailand’s top female influencers.

Closing Online Sales

Following the launch of Penny’s online store, we relied on e-commerce ad campaigns to drive website traffic and sales conversions using vibrant motion graphics and creative tools such as Facebook Instant Experience (Canvas), Facebook Collection ads, Instagram Shopping ads and Google Shopping ads, as well as more traditional Google Search ads.

We also set remarketing campaigns on Google Display, Search, Facebook and Instagram to target high-intent customers and close sales at a lower conversion cost.

Summary

Penny’s digital marketing efforts have translated into a larger and more vibrant online community. Online sales reached an average of 260K per month within 5 months, outperforming offline sales combined and delivering higher gross margins per product sold.