With career origins in PR, Sara Tervo is now CMO of EXPRESS, where she is busy executing their EXPRESSway Forward Strategy that includes a digital transformation goal of growing the digital channel to $1 billion in 2024. Sara shares how her career took her from PR to marketing leadership. She describes the four pillars of EXPRESS’ digital strategy and how its digital team is organized. Finally, we also hear Sara’s take on the evolution of PR from depending on running ads and articles in a few key publications to creating authentic connections with thousands of influencers and brand ambassadors.
Welcome to the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with CommerceNext and presented by Bloomreach.
With career origins in PR, Sara Tervo is now CMO of EXPRESS, where she is busy executing their EXPRESSway Forward Strategy that includes a digital transformation goal of growing the digital channel to $1 billion in 2024.
Sara shares how her career took her from PR to marketing leadership. She describes the four pillars of EXPRESS’ digital strategy and how its digital team is organized. Finally, we also hear Sara’s take on the evolution of PR from depending on running ads and articles in a few key publications to creating authentic connections with thousands of influencers and brand ambassadors.
If you’re enjoying this interview, you may want to join us for the CommerceNext Summit on June 21st & 22nd at the New York Hilton Midtown. Hear execs from companies like GoPuff, American Eagle Outfitters, Kate Spade, Ralph Lauren, Alo Yoga, Neiman Marcus, Olaplex and more. We’ll be gathering our community of trailblazers and change-makers to talk about the future of digital commerce and share the latest strategies for ecommerce acceleration. The theme of the summit is Seizing the Next Wave of Growth and we’ll be covering everything from how to set up shop in the Metaverse to scaling performance marketing strategies with 1st party data. We hope you will join us in June. Learn more and register at commercenext.com.
Thanks for tuning into this episode of Conversations with CommerceNext. Please follow us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or your favorite podcast platform where we’ll be sharing career advice and marketing strategies from eCommerce and digital marketing leaders at retailers and direct-to-consumer brands each and every episode. CommerceNext is a community, event series and conference for marketers at retail and direct-to-consumer brands. Through our online forums, interviews, webinars, summits and other in-person events, we harness the collective wisdom of our community to help marketers grow their businesses and advance their careers. Join CommerceNext events to meet other industry leaders and learn the latest ecommerce and marketing strategies. You can find upcoming events at CommerceNext.com
Sara Tervo has served as executive vice president and chief marketing officer since September 2019. Tervo joined Express from Justice, where she was executive vice president and chief marketing officer from 2016 to 2019. From 1998 to 2016, she held multiple leadership positions at L Brands across marketing, creative services and public relations, including executive vice president, marketing for Victoria’s Secret and senior vice president, marketing for PINK.
ABOUT US:
Scott Silverman
An ecommerce veteran, Scott Silverman has been active in the industry since 1999 and is passionate about digital retail and the innovation driving the industry. Scott Silverman is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. Previously, he spent 10 years as Executive Director of Shop.org where he launched the Shop.org Annual Summit. Scott co-invented “Cyber Monday” in 2005 and was the founder of Cybermonday.com in 2006, a shopping site that has generated more than $2.5 million for Shop.org’s scholarship fund.
Veronika Sonsev
Veronika Sonsev is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. She also leads the retail practice for Chameleon Collective and is a contributor for Forbes on how to grow retail and ecommerce in the age of Amazon. Having spent the last 10+ years working with some of the largest retailers and direct-to-consumer brands, Veronika has intimate knowledge of the challenges facing retail and ecommerce today. She is also an advocate for women in business and founded the global non-profit mBolden, which is now part of SheRunsit.
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
Welcome to the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with CommerceNext and presented by Bloomreach.
Michael LeBlanc 00:13
With career origins and PR, Sara Tervo is now the CMO of Express where she is busy executing their Expressway Forward Strategy that includes a digital transformation goal of growing the digital channel to $1 billion in 2024.
Michael LeBlanc 00:27
Sara shares how her career took her from PR and marketing leadership. She describes the four pillars of Express' digital strategy and how its digital team is organized. Finally, we also hear how Sara's take on the evolution of PR from depending on running ads and articles, and a few key publications to creating authentic connections with thousands of influencers and brand ambassadors.
Sara Tervo 00:48
I don't know about you guys, but we all follow probably a number of different influencers, creators, people that we can relate to that entertain us or they can inspire us. Some are across the board. And it's that's the best way to learn about different products or styling tips or things they're loving, how they're putting things together, as it relates to special occasions.
Michael LeBlanc 01:12
Let's listen in now.
Scott Silverman 01:15
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Conversations with CommerceNext. Today, we're excited to have Sara Tervo with us. Sarah is CMO at Express. Many of our listeners may think of Express as a mall-based specialty retailer, in fact, they've been very busy in the last couple of years with their Expressway Forward Strategy, modernizing the brand and focusing on mul-, multichannel in additionally, and is, spe-, specifically relevant to CommerceNext. Express announced their digital transformation last year with a goal of growing the digital channel to a billion dollars in 2024.
Welcome, today, thank you for joining us, Sara, how are you today?
Sara Tervo 01:54
I'm great. Thank you for having me.
Scott Silverman 01:56
And with me, as always is my co-host and podcasting partner, Michael LeBlanc. How are you today, Michael?
Michael LeBlanc 02:05
I'm very well. Sara, where are we finding you today?
Sara Tervo 02:08
We're located in Columbus, Ohio. So, I'm here in Columbus.
Michael LeBlanc 02:11
All right, fantastic. Well, wel-, welcome. Thanks for joining us.
Sara Tervo 02:14
Thank you for having me.
Scott Silverman 02:16
So, why don't we get started, Sara, if you could introduce yourself in your current role at Express. Help our audience kind of get grounded in what you're doing?
Sara Tervo 02:27
Absolutely. So, I am Chief Marketing Officer here at Express. I've been here about two and a half years. So, the first few months were sort of fast and furious, and getting ourselves organized on this brand transformation you mentioned, and then the pandemic hit, and we took a left turn. But we're getting back on track, and we're really excited about the momentum of our business. I oversee here, our eCommerce channel. I also oversee performance marketing, creative brand strategy, operations, visual merchandising, etc. So, I have quite a broad role here. But I've been loving my time here with this brand and we have a lot more to come.
Scott Silverman 03:09
Awesome. So, you know, looking at your background, you started in retail in the PR area with Victoria's Secret. And I, I'd think our audience would be really interested to hear how you evolved from PR into marketing leadership. And given your background also, do you identify more on the creative side of marketing on the data side, somewhere in between? Kind of like how would you describe yourself?
Sara Tervo 03:37
Yeah, sure. So, I actually started my major in broadcast journalism, thinking I wanted to be a TV anchor. And that was why I was in the journalism school. And I learned pretty quickly after an internship that it was not for me.
Sara Tervo 03:50
So, I transitioned to public relations, which is on the other side of the news, pitching media and I enjoyed that quite a bit. I did that for about eight years with Victoria's Secret. And through that time, I became more and more curious about marketing strategy and data, and I wanted to really build my career.
Sara Tervo 04:11
So, I was lucky enough that PINK underneath Victoria's Secret was just starting as a brand. It had been in an incubation phase for a couple years and was worth about a couple 100 million dollars annually. And they were looking to put together an executive leadership team for PINK. And at the time, the business was looking for a non-traditional marketing leader to help set up PINK they wanted people to be talking about the brand wearing the brand. They wanted grassroots efforts, viral type activity. This is back when, you know, Facebook was an edu, SMS was a small thing, and we were just trying to figure it out. But they thought somebody who can create buzz and get people talking is who we want to lead marketing here. So, I was given the great opportunity to leap over to PINK and build a somewhat of a non-traditional marketing function and approach to building to the business. And that was an awesome eight-year run.
Sara Tervo 05:10
And over that time, I learned a lot about the data and analytics and the collaboration required and how to drive traffic and look at business results. And we built the team over the course of many years there and the business grew to a billion, 2 billion, etc., during that time, and then I transitioned back to Victoria's Secret, where we worked on combining the channels, the eCommerce channel, the stores, channel and all the different marketing functions. So, that was a great experience for me too, and thinking about how we can build an optimized an omni-channel team.
Sara Tervo 05:43
So, I would say I got lucky a little bit, I was in the right place at the right time, when they were looking for an untraditional marketer, and the rest is a bit of history, I would say as far as how my brain works, I would say I would sit in the middle, you know, under stress or under when business is challenging, I go to like, you know, perfect square relative to how my brain works and how I navigate the best ways to fix the business or to help the team through challenges. I do definitely enjoy the creative side. But I love connecting the data and the insights and the analytics, to engagement and action. So, I sit somewhere in between. And then I love having a team that's balanced. So, we have a great team that has all different skills. And we really do truly complement one another in what we bring to the table,
Scott Silverman 06:36
I always enjoy hearing about backgrounds of marketing leaders, because it's so varied. I mean, we talked to people that came from a legal background, an engineering, background, finance, and th-, the-, they all give you some core skills that you end up combining with other things and applying here. So, that's great. You know, one of the things we'd like to talk about at Conversations with CommerceNext is career advice. And you told us a little bit about your career journey. I'd be interested to hear, you know, what is some of the best advice you got along the way? And also, what is a piece of advice you wish you would have been told, but that never were?
Sara Tervo 07:21
I would say that for me. I had to learn not to personalize things. When I got feedback. You know, I'm highly accountable. But I also would somewhat personalize things. And I remember specifically after this big PINK event that we had, I came in quite eager to connect with my boss and get her feedback on it. And she gave me a number of observations and things she wanted us to improve upon. And I, I looked at her and I felt a little heartbroken and sad. And she said, Sara, you have to understand, I'm never going to let it be perfect. Because my job is to continue to grow the business and make things better.
Sara Tervo 08:00
And you know, we were a publicly held company. If people get too comfortable, we're not going to continue to drive growth. And it really helped me understand better where she was coming from and how to ingest feedback and continue to find opportunities to get better. So, I would say that was important for those who tend to personalize feedback at times. I would say as it relates to feedback, I wish I had earlier in my career, I would say be patient. I actually had this conversation with my boss not that long ago because he had been given feedback earlier in his career where he was so excited to be an SVP, a GMM, a President, a CEO, and one of his mentors said, you know, if you spent more time focusing on the job and delivering and optimizing and learning and less time worrying about the title, it will come, because it'll come through the results. And as it turns out, you know, it definitely worked out for him, as well. So, sometimes it's important to be patient and just know that working hard and learning, and networking, and all of that will, will work out.
Scott Silverman 09:10
Yeah, we've heard that I think from some of our other guests is to, i-, that maybe they put it a little bit different as they said, you know, really focus on a role where you can grow and learn something, don't always be chasing the title and more money necessarily, and those experiences that you'll gather will really pay off in the future, so it sounds like you know, pretty consistent with what we've heard from some other folks.
Scott Silverman 09:35
So, so, kind of shifting from your career to the way you're thinking about bringing new people into your team, thinking about young people in marketing and digital retail and eCommerce. You know, what are some of the things you're looking for in the next generation of, of digital leaders? What are some of the skill sets that you're looking for, you mentioned a little bit earlier you like to be, you know, kind of surrounded by a balanced team. So, maybe you could talk, you know, what, what are some of those different areas that you see that need to be balanced?
Sara Tervo 10:13
Absolutely. So, I would say, and we all being in this industry, keep, I shouldn't say all of us, but I definitely am continually amazed at how fast everything is evolving. And how agility is such an important thing to embrace. And to stop feeling like, well, once we get through this, it's going to be, you know, normal again, because every day, every week, every month, is providing its own challenges. So, I would say, having a very flexible mindset and collaborating with your partners, having good conversation, and figuring out how best to move forward together as a team is really, really critical. So, for me, it's important to have a highly collaborative team where we talk about challenges, obstacles openly, and we figure out and align on the best path forward.
Sara Tervo 11:07
The other thing I would say is curiosity. I think it's so important to ask questions and learn. And if you're not aligned, or not sure you're clear, absolutely ask and, and get yourself comfortable or not, you know, let's talk through why you're not comfortable. But I would say, you know, anymore, you know, once we've set even a process and the strategy to sale, we're changing and pivoting and evolving constantly. So, I that's those are, I would say are the key things that I'm looking for, when we bring people into the fold.
Scott Silverman 11:42
Is there anything like when you are looking through potential candidates, anything in your background, in a word, it's not your sorry, not your background, but the, the candidates background that seems to stand out and kind of makes you want to learn more about that particular candidate?
Sara Tervo 11:58
I would say, you know, I certainly love somebody who has a, you know, a broad background, looks like they're somewhat loyal to a company, you know, not too much flipping around. But I also appreciate when somebody's made a decision to leave, for certain reasons, and it's if the job isn't fitting, you know, their, their career aspirations.
Sara Tervo 12:19
So, I would say it really does depend on the area of marketing. And what I'm looking for, you know, obviously, on the performance marketing side, I definitely appreci-, appreciate somebody who is analytical, and has experience working with different partners and platforms. Somebody on the brand strategy side, I would love somebody who is more of a creative engagement, strategic thinker. And like you had mentioned, sort of at the beginning, marketing is such a broad reaching department. And it really doesn't include truly creative right brained individuals, and truly analytical left brained individuals and everything in between. So, it really would depend on the individual area that I might say, I would be looking for certain things.
Michael LeBlanc 13:05
So, let's take a, let's take a bit of a pivot ourselves, circle back, so to speak to the beginning of the conversation, you talked about some big initiatives happening at Express, I did actually want to take one quick step back from that. And for those who may not be as familiar with Express as, as a retailer, you know, it looks like your US based south. Talk a little bit about the scope and scale of the business just for a few minutes just to kind of anchor anybody in. And then I want to talk about this Expressway Forward Strategy that, that we've talked about. Yeah, absolutely.
Sara Tervo 13:34
Yeah, absolutely. So, Express is actually a 40 year plus retailer, when I was talking about whether or not I was going to take this opportunity. A lot of people that I asked about Express, have you heard of Express, they would say yes, I used to shop at Express or, yes, that store in the mall. And that's really what we were known as, for quite some time. We're quite a large company. You know, we're just under $2 billion. We have stores across the US, as you mentioned, a big and growing eCommerce channel. We also have outlet stores. And I would say, a couple years ago, when, when my boss joined, the business had been suffering a little bit, we had had a multi-year decline in our business performance, and it was time to re-invigorate the brand. And so, the idea that we needed to drive a more relevant brand, evolve our product strategy and how we show up and engage customers was at the forefront of, of my objectives here when I started here a couple years ago.
Michael LeBlanc 14:37
So, that that's what, what attracted you to the role, a chance to build, build back, right, build back and, and pivot the role. So, let's talk about this, the Expressway Forward Strategy and then I want to get into how digital growth is, is going for you. Obviously, an important part of the business and interesting as we talked to colleagues about how important being in malls and being present and the role, the role of acquisition customer it's a , it's almost old school from our perspective, right just get, to get some visibility when people are walking by the stores but why don't we star-, just start with the, the Expressway Forward Strategy and then take us through how things are going on them?
Sara Tervo 15:14
Absolutely, absolutely. So, the idea of the Expressway Forward Strategy was to transform from a store in the mall, to a brand with a purpose powered by a styling community. And to your point having stores is it's come full circle. (Crossover talk) It's a huge bonus for us. As we look to build this business and grow the brand, it is absolutely the number one acquisition driver for us and an awareness driver. So, the idea was though we don't want to just be a store in a mall, we want to create deeper connections with our customers and long-term loyalty. And so, we really galvanized around this idea that our brand's purpose is to create confidence and inspire self-expression through fashion. We're known as a fashion brand. We're trusted as a fashion brand. And so how can we help people feel more confident when they put on a great looking you know, coat or a pair of pants and they feel when you feel good, you look good, and you know the other way around. So, you just want to make sure that everybody's feeling like their most confident self as, as they step out for their day.
Michael LeBlanc 16:21
If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure and hit that subscribe button on your favorite podcast platform so you don't miss another great episode. We'll be right back with our interview with Sara Tervo from Express, right after this message.
Michael LeBlanc 16:34
Bloomreach is the world's number one eCommerce Experience Cloud, empowering brands to deliver customer journeys so personalized, they feel like magic. It offers a suite of products that drive true personalization and digital commerce growth, including discovery, offering AI driven search and merchandising. Content; offering a headless CMS and engagement; offering a leading CDP and marketing automation solution. Together these solutions combine the power of unified customer and product data with the speed and scale of AI optimization, enabling digital commerce experiences that convert on any channel and every journey, learn more@bloomreach.com That's bloomreach.com.
Sara Tervo 17:17
Basically, we galvanized our organization around what we call the EXPR Strategy, which is also our symbol on the stock exchange so, so to keep it simple. But the E stands for engage customers and acquire new ones. The X stands for execute with precision to accelerate sales and profitability. P is by putting product firsts, first and then R is by re-, and reinvigorating our brand. So, those were the key pillars and how we set forth the Expressway Forward Strategy, we knew our product needed to get better, we needed to improve the quality, the fashion edit point. And so, we've done a lot of hard work across the board to evolve. Because if you don't have good product, then none of the rest of it matters, right?
Michael LeBlanc 18:05
That's right. That's right. I mean, it's, it's funny, we talked to a lot of leaders and, and we still do come back to at the end of the day customers have to want your product, you can have lots of great strategies and great execution. But at the end of the day, the edit has to be right, the silhouettes have to be right, they have to be all the things that suit your market. So, you know, it's funny, I was thinking about the, the role of stores and malls in the role and how it connects to digital. Because you know, at the margin, basically, if you can get more people typing in Express in the search engines and the platform's you don't have to actually fund that. So, at the margins, it's, it's become pretty good ROI for stitching those together. How's that? How's the digital growth initiative going for you? And where does that fit in, in the overall EXPR, by the way I thought EXPR was you just kind of put in your PR background in the last couple of (inaudible) points (crossover talk). Come on full back, full side back your thing. Let's talk about your digital growth and, and your perspectives on that, at this point in the in the project.
Sara Tervo 19:05
Absolutely, it's funny, we just on the PR piece, I always arm wrestle with my merchant partner, because she thinks it's all about her and her product. And I'm like, what it's all about the brand and the customer. But at the end of the day, it's about all of the above. And so, as it relates our eCommerce channel, obviously, it's an incredibly important channel for our brand. And we do have the goal you stated to achieve a billion dollars in eCommerce by 2024. And it's going very well. So, as you guys might have heard in our earnings script, we're seeing tremendous growth in that channel. And we're driving it through a highly loyal customer, which is amazing. We've seen great traction with our app and app downloads, great traction with our SMS group, and it's driving great brand loyalty.
Sara Tervo 19:51
We essentially put our framework for eCommerce into four main pillars. One, around personalization and how do we improve personalization? I know there's a lot embedded in that term. And we've been talking about it for a very long time across the industry, omni-channel execution. And that's where, obviously the stores and eComm come together. And certainly, with the pandemic, you know, we've seen explosive growth in, you know, buying online, pickup in store, find your store, and just ensuring that we're creating the most seamless om-, omni-channel experience for our customers, styling and fit experience. We want to make sure our customer understands what we sell and can get the most information they can to drive conversion, and then what we call Express Community. And so that links all the different customers and ambassadors and VIPs and our, you know, all of the associates into what we're calling the Express Styling Community. We're all part of one big happy family and we all cross channels, and how do we just unlock engagement and excitement around our product and our brand purpose together as a unified community? So, that's actually a very big focus for us this coming year.
Michael LeBlanc 21:05
Yeah, I want to come back to that a bit later. I did want to follow one quick thread, though, as I as I looked at your site, you've got this, you've got buy now, pay later on it, is that table stakes now in your line of work? Or is that starting to be a differentiator? It, it feels like it is very youth oriented, as a service just for a brie-, if you could briefly comment on your thoughts about that as, as kind of transitioning that you got to have it versus it's something that can be a winning proposition for the business (inaudible), -
Sara Tervo 21:33
Yeah, I would say it's, for me, I would describe it more as an emerging table stake for brands, I think, you know, people are transacting in different ways, and you just want to make it easy.
Michael LeBlanc 21:45
If you're enjoying this interview, you may want to join us for the CommerceNext Summit on June 21st, and 22nd, at the New York Hilton, Midtown. Hear execs from companies like Gopuff, American Eagle Outfitters, Kate Spade, Ralph Lauren, Neiman Marcus Olaplex, and more. We'll be gathering our community of trailblazers and change-makers to talk about the future of digital commerce and share the latest strategies for eCommerce acceleration. The theme of the summit is Seizing the Next Wave of Growth. And we'll be covering everything from how to set up shop in the metaverse to scaling performance marketing strategies with first party data, we hope you will join us in June, learn more and register @commercenext.com
Michael LeBlanc 22:23
Yeah, that reduction of friction, right? So, whether it's in the store, or whether it's online, and let's talk about and you touched on it briefly, you know, you were talking about your merchant partner, but let's talk about how marketing and digital work together at Express, i-, i-, it you know, Scott and I talked to a lot of people and Veronica and it's a it's a little bit the flavors a little bit different at every organization, everybody's got a slightly different approach to it. You know, we talked to people who have performance marketing, you know, very (inaudible) very hardcore versus brand marketing versus, you know, sometimes run by the same people sometimes different how's it structured at Express?
Sara Tervo 22:55
All right, so that's a great question. And I don't know if there's a an exactly right answer, to your point it has a lot to do with the organization and the talent you have, we have an SVP of eCommerce here, who is responsible for hitting that billion-dollar target and how we manage the team in order to drive conversion, and the best site experience possible to hit these bold goals.
Sara Tervo 23:20
We also have a VP of Performance Marketing, who's essentially responsible for driving the traffic. So, they are a dynamic duo, and how and they're actually both named Brian (inaudible), the Brians’ and they both are reporting to me, but the idea that we set our financial targets and our budget targets, to our eCommerce sales goals, and we're constantly optimizing and unlocking different ways to grow the channel and the business. So, I would say it's a very, very tight collaborative partnership across the teams and then Brian well, Brian, eCommerce Brian works, (crossover talk), -
Michael LeBlanc 24:05
makes your life difficult the Brian, which Brian? (Crossover talk)
Scott Silverman 24:09
Michael and I get into it all the time, that's cool.
Sara Tervo 24:11
It's so funny, so he's equally a close partner with IT, and making sure we're delivering on our eCommerce roadmap. And then also with our merchant partners, making sure he's understanding the business and what's trending and how we can optimize for business performance. So, they each have their feet in different areas, but then they actually come together as great partners as well.
Michael LeBlanc 24:35
I want to get back to this whole creator economy influencer economy, you've got such a, a rich background with your, your roots in PR and journalism, you must have seen so much change. As I mean as an organization when you look at building brand and, and influencing thought leadership, you know, it probably was the case when we all started our career that was mostly done through journalists and through trade pubs and through you know, mass media journalists it feels like that, you know, more mostly maybe it's probably done on TikTok or YouTube or wherever you do that today. And, and you know, that brings its own issues of scale and focus. Talk about how you use influencer marketing, the creator economy, and what's its role? And how do you approach it?
Sara Tervo 25:17
Yeah, absolutely. So, gone are the days, I'm probably dating myself where you could say, this is what you're launching. And you could line up all your marketing, like your magazine ad and your TV ad and get your PR exclusive. And everything was done, and it was like if you build it, they will come and you could drive business results. Now it is absolutely, I would say that just, just does not work.
Sara Tervo 25:41
And it's way more about true authentic connections with customers or people that they can relate to and trust, which connects to your question around the creator population. I don't know about you guys. But we all follow probably a number of different influencers, creators, people that we can relate to that entertain us, or they can inspire us. Some are across the board and it's that's the best way to learn about different products or styling tips or things they're loving how they're putting things together, as it relates to special occasions, or here's what I'm wearing to this, or here's something about this, here are my favorites.
Sara Tervo 26:21
So, we have a very, very large and healthy and thriving, creator content strategy. across all different platforms. We have what we describe our sort of top of pyramid, high reach creators, and then we have thousands of customer ambassadors as well, that create content for us for gift cards. So, all the way through, we're connecting and having them pick what they love and what inspires them, and what gives them the most confident confidence in their day. And so, it's all across the board always on, -
Michael LeBlanc 26:56
Right. At, at the top of that pyramid. I'm curious, just to peek into your tradecraft. Is that is that at the celebrity level, or is it just a, the influencer? I mean, influencer measured by how many Instagram followers you have? Is that how you kind of think about is there still a role for celebrity in in this Social Media Creator world?
Sara Tervo 27:14
Yeah, it's a great question and I would say for us, most recently, we announced a partnership with Rachel Zoe, who is a world-famous stylist. She's been doing it for a long time and is a very trusted stylist. And she also is fully committed to our brand purpose of creating confidence and ex-, inspiring self-expression through fashion. So, it's very authentic. When we met with her, it was just like very natural, oh my gosh, I love making people feel good and here's how I would think about it. So, in that situation, she's a celebrity and she obviously, influences our customers in many ways. But so, I would say there isn't one size, it's just as long as they're committed to our bran-, brand, promise and purpose. And we have connectivity with what we do. We have an open mind, and we just want to keep growing and nurturing that community at all levels.
Michael LeBlanc 28:04
But there's real tradecraft there, right. I mean, really, to do this professionally. And as part of the marketing mix, it's not an ancillary, kind of let's pull it together. I imagine there's a considerable amount of tradecraft and metrics behind it as well. So, just that, thanks for that, thanks for that fascinating glimpse into it. We could do a whole podcast, I think, (crossover talk), -
Sara Tervo 28:21
You could, I mean, yeah, to your point, like we do a lot of testing too, with creative content across all the different social media platforms. It's called, it's basically micro-testing and learning all the time. And we're learning what's working by gender and by target, age and by channel and optimizing all the time, because there's absolutely nuances, -
Michael LeBlanc 28:46
Right, new platforms, I mean new pla-, I mean three years ago, we wouldn't have been talking about this thing called TikTok, right, (crossover talk), I mean two years, two years ago, -
Sara Tervo 28:52
Exactly, that blown the doors off of everything.
Michael LeBlanc 28:55
No kidding, now, last question on this, and then we'll move on is, is there a role for your associates in the influencer strategy, I talked to retailers who are turning their minds to, you know, how the folks on the floor can play a role in that sometimes it was during the pandemic live streaming or whatever? Is there a role for that in the strategy?
Sara Tervo 29:10
I would say. Absolutely. As we discussed earlier, the importance of stores, we have thousands of store associates who are engaging with customers every day. And if they can make an impact on that customer and make them feel great when they're leaving the store, they're creating a loyal long-term experience. So, for us absolutely. We've been experimenting with in-store events, where the style was (inaudible) we call them style squads, our associates are hosting parties and styling and having a lot of fun. And not only is it creating buzz and excitement in our in-store environment, but it's creating content for social media, because everybody's posting and celebrating, I have a great job. And look at me and today my team did this and here's what we're loving and, and so absolutely it's all part of, of the ecosystem.
Michael LeBlanc 29:57
Fantastic works on a couple of levels. Let's turn our mind to the future. We've talked about the futures here every day. But let's talk about the future in five years. And specifically, how do you imagine not just your role, but the role of a CMO, in five years? If we could imagine what that looks like, is it a continued mix of art and science? Is it balancing one way or the other? But how are, how are you thinking about what would be different than 2027? As a as a CMO for a retailer like yourselves?
Michael LeBlanc 30:00
That's a great question. And if I could, if I knew the answer, I would absolutely, (crossover talk), -
Michael LeBlanc 30:30
write a book, you write a book about it.
Sara Tervo 30:33
Exactly, I would say we, we do our planning for marketing about three years out. And we optimize and evolve as we're learning just like you said, TikTok, you know, I mean, who would have known right? And the importance of video, we went from having great engagement rates with flat imagery to needing video for every platform, because people are now bored with static imagery. So, a lot of that stuff is just in the moment and continuing to be testing and learning and optimizing.
Sara Tervo 30:59
But I will say, one thing that I think will be even bigger and more significant, is the power of community and authentically connecting with customers. And I think more and more people are understanding when it's a superficial thing versus a true integrated promise and purpose across everything in every aspect of your community. So, I do see a tremendous amount of power around how we can continue to unlock what we're calling social commerce, which is essentially social sellers on behalf of the brand, hosting parties, in stores, with our associates and just unleashing the power of that community, I think that will help us be differentiated and successful in the long run. And I do think it will be a balance of, of art and science as well.
Sara Tervo 31:49
Fantastic. All right, last question for and then I'm going throw the mic back to Scott to wrap us up. And it, it actually we've been asking this question for the entire series is starting to feel a bit redundant. Are you hiring? So, the mic is yours? We've got a great audience. If you're looking for positions, if you're hiring, the mic is yours. Talk us, talk to us about what you're looking for, and about a bit about the role.
Sara Tervo 31:49
So, how do we get smarter and better with data, and not drown ourselves in data, but leverage new tools and capabilities to customize and, and organize ourselves? So, I would say, you know, the power will become your customers and your associates and all of those different extensions of the community, and how do we just support, harness and unleash, unleash all of that?
Sara Tervo 32:39
Awesome, awesome. Yes, we do have open positions. And we are always looking for great talent. And so, if somebody out there is interested in joining our styling community, and really believe in the power of fashion, and what that can do to create confidence and inspire self-expression, come join us, we have a lot of fun here. It is specialty retail and fashion. So, hopefully you have a passion for that as well. But across the board, you know, you can go to our hiring website and see all the different positions we have available, but we'd love people to reach out.
Michael LeBlanc 33:14
A quick follow up question on that. Are you hiring different now? Are you hiring remotely? Or you know, you're in you're in Ohio, maybe there's a, you know, is there a bigger accessible talent pool? Have you changed to perspective, perhaps you are already, already there? But to just speak to that for a second? or, -
Sara Tervo 33:30
Yeah, absolutely. So, it, it somewhat depends on the role, but we say we definitely will hire a remote from different areas across the country for a lot of our positions, some of our positions we call hybrid. So, there might be times where they need to be in the office for certain meetings, or we have walkthroughs, where we look at future product and some of those things. And then some of them are full time in the office, but now very, very few are. So, people in the photo studio that have to shoot product for eCommerce, those sorts of roles are our full time in office. But I would say for the most part, we're hybrid, and are willing to recruit remote as well. It's amazing how COVID pushed us there, we were already in that mindset. But it pushed us to learn that it's very possible and people are very successful working from wherever, -
Michael LeBlanc 34:17
It, it may be, it may be the lasting implication of the COVID era that actually last is this change of culture, right? That, that really changed how people hire for good or ill will we're going see, right?
Sara Tervo 34:30
Yes, yeah, there is something about human you know, contact and meetings where you you get that energy that you can't necessarily get from home but there's I, I love the hybrid life, I, I do enjoy coming into the office and seeing my partners and the creativity that unlocks and there are days where I do want to just work from home and be more efficient and do what I got to do. So, -
Scott Silverman 34:53
Sara, thank you so much for taking some time, chatting with us, telling us about your background. What's going on all the new things that Express, you know, some of the ways that you have been approaching marketing and this transition into the creator economy. And it really was enlightening for me to kind of connect your background with this, these you know, all the communications strength that you bring to it from being a, you know, being in PR for so long, to all the things you're doing now and your emphasis on community and, you know, social media, it, it really seems to make a lot of sense. It makes me think a lot about you know, how important you know, that background, you know, that you have, and maybe some others in the industry can bring to, you know, the way marketing is going right now. So, that was I really enjoyed hearing about that. Thank you again, thank you, Michael, for, for co-hosting with me, and we hope to see you maybe in the in person in one of these days.
Sara Tervo 35:55
That would be awesome. Thank you so much for having me.
Michael LeBlanc 35:58
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Have a fantastic week everyone