Victorinox Swiss Army (VSA) was founded in 1884 when Karl Elsener opened a cutler’s workshop in Ibach-Schwyz. His idea was to manufacture a compact knife with an array of practical functions.
More than 130 years after the legendary Swiss Army Knife was born, VSA remains a family-owned business with an unwavering focus on tradition, quality and innovation. Of course, technology and customer needs have evolved. But so, too, has the focus of the now global brand. Customers can shop household and professional knives, watches, travel gear and even fragrances, all bearing the iconic Cross & Shield logo.
Despite success internationally, however, awareness of VSA and its wide breadth of products beyond the Swiss Army Knife was relatively low and sales were stagnant in the U.S. The company partnered with Mindgruve in 2018 to turn things around. More specifically, the campaign goals were to increase ROI for key categories across channels, including two identical .coms, Amazon, wholesale and retail partners, as well as brick and mortar locations.
Research suggested that echoing the rich heritage of the VSA brand and the high quality design of its products would play well with American audiences, which was the backbone of our retail marketing strategy. Creative executions took shape as deep, meaningful stories that were tailored to unique persona groups based on their interests and clearly connected to related product categories. The media reinforced this approach while maximizing spend, pushing campaigns out on the most relevant channels at highly specific times.
Beyond creative production and media planning and buying, Mindgruve also delivered product photography, analytics and reporting and Amazon integration. The sum of these efforts drove record sales volume. Most notably, VSA saw a 333% overall return on advertising spend (ROAS), 49.5% year-over-year (YoY) growth in direct-to-consumer revenue and an 80% increase in revenue post-Amazon attribution.
For more information about our partnership with VSA or Mindgruve services, contact us.
