The Silent Auction Pop-up was a revolutionary concept for which Chrome Communications was the preferred agency to take care of marketing.

2. BACKGROUND
Mumbai. The fashion capital of India, also known as, the social cultural shock
factor of India. Where style and attitude is embed in everyone. Fashion designers
are plenty and individual fashion sense is resolute and authoritative. Two distinct
perspectives and plenty opportunities subsist together. Both are dreamers and
opportunists. We call them designers and buyers.
DESIGNERS BUYERS
How to approach the market Where to get new and creative products to
match their individual sensibilities
How to understand what their market
wants
Where to get what they want within their
budget

3. MATCH MAKING
It began with an idea: Creating a common ground for designers and buyers to establish
a conducive market. Thus began preparations for a conceptualized flea market – The
Silent Auction Pop Up.
The way it worked: Normally at a pop up event, if you like a product being sold you can
either buy it at the price it’s sold or move ahead without the product if it doesn’t fit in your
budget.
At the Silent Auction Pop Up, you have another option. BID for it.
At the end of the day the designers would review the bids they received. The decision to
accept the bid price on every item was completely dependent on the designer. If the
price quoted was agreeable, the bidder would be contacted and asked to collect their
bid item for the quoted price.

4. FAIR GAME
In general at an auction the product is already besought and the bidding starts from a
minimum price. In contrast, at the Silent Auction Pop up, the designers selling their
products are new entries in the market. They are looking for exposure and a sales outlet -
which can be bought at a price. But what’s more is that in The Silent Auction Pop Up they
would be able to get a better understanding of their product design in relation to the
potential markets ability to purchase.
On first thought the concept seems to be highly prejudiced towards the customers. If you
don’t want to pay the asking price, BID and you could possibly get what you want at the
price you want. But the seller may not agree to the price quoted. Hence the customer is
taking a chance at getting the desired product at the desired price. Or missing out on
the product completely.

5. Digital Marketing:Facebook
PROMOTIONS : CHARACTER POSTS
Character posts were used to convey the unusual concept of the pop up event to the public.

6. Digital Marketing:Facebook
PROMOTIONS : CHARACTER POSTS
These character posts were quirky
and eye catching. They introduced
the idea that something unique and
fun was going to happen soon! And
it involved shopping which was an
important determinant of the TG.

7. Digital Marketing:Facebook
PROMOTIONS : CHARACTER POSTS
The event host partner – Please
Don’t Tell was well known in the
Food and Beverage arena and
was the perfect location for the
event to happen. The venue
was promoted through these
catchy character posts

8. Digital Marketing:Facebook
Tie up : cabzo
Free cab rides:
The Silent Auction Pop Up tied up
with Cabzo to provide people with
free cab rides to the event. Cabzo,
a new ‘call a taxi’ app offered The
Silent Auction Pop Up 100 free taxi
rides from anywhere in Mumbai to
the event.
Reach Likes Comments Shares
1086 28 28 8
The tie up with Cabzo had a 65% success rate

9. Digital Marketing:Facebook
Tie up : kingfisher
All 100 free Kingfisher beers were ‘sold out’
The first 100 shoppers who purchased any items totalling for
minimum 1000/- was given a free beer.
The strategy was to promote ‘at the event’ shopping.
The strategy is also aligned with the observation that the more time
you keep a prospective buyer at the place of sales, the more likely it
is they will make a purchase.
Therefore there are more chances that the person would make
another purchase or that a friend of the person would pick up an
item that they were contemplating.
In general, the Shopping and Beer combination is a perfect pull strategy to get
people to the event. From the point of view of the customer – there are no losses
on this one!

10. Digital Marketing:Facebook
Promotions : boyfriend day care
‘Nothing should come in between of you and shopping. The Boyfriend Day Care Centre at
The Silent Auction Pop-Up. We will keep him entertained, while you shop!’
Weekends are meant for family and boyfriends. But shopping is equally important. Today
women are multi taskers. The Silent Auction Pop Up was all out to help women multi task by
providing entertainment for those boyfriends who cared enough to take their girlfriends
shopping. (Plus the free beer also helped the decision to join in on this event!)
All Fun and Games

11. Digital Marketing:Facebook
Promotions : boyfriend day care
Boyfriend Day Care saw high engagement
on social media owing to the unique
concept. More than the extra offerings
under this strategy, it seemed to be the
terminology ‘Boyfriend day care’ that
intrigued people.
It proved to be beneficial in terms of gaining
exposure for the event.
Reach Likes Comments Shares
2629 91 8 20
The Boyfriend Day Care was a big hit. The organizers were approached
To curate the same at many other events aswell.

12. Digital Marketing:Instagram
Style partner : the style edge - santushi shetty
The Style Edge – Santushi Shetty
The Silent Auction Pop Up tied up with the
Style Edge – Santushi who has a following of
60k+ on Instagram.
Awareness of the event to a market that trusts social media
over print media were targeted through Instagram tie ups
Santushi – The Style Edge |
Instagram
5 Posts at the event 1600 likes per post on
average
1 Post after the event 1297 likes

13. Digital Marketing:Instagram
Style partner : the fashion trumpet
The Fashion Trumpet
Another Instagram tie up was with the Fashion Trumpet who has a
following of 15.5k followers
Awareness of the event to a market that trusts social media over print media
were targeted through Instagram tie ups

14. Print media coverage
HTC Café – 16th May
Mumbai Mirror – 16th May
Afternoon – 15th May
actfaqs.com – 15th May
thedailypao.com – 15th May
Asian Age – 14th May
Midday – 10th May | 12th May

15. The After Party
From the total number of people who placed bids at the event, 30% were approached post
the event to purchase the item for the bid price.
The participants were happy with the response they got from the event. The theme of the
event promoted a high engaging - interactive atmosphere resulting in good sales at the event
itself as well.
Please Don’t Tell – The venue partner gained exposure in the process, and the ‘free beer’
promotion only added to its sales as people ordered more beer and bites once seated.
The event got a lot of exposure due to its unique concept. The organizing team is today
thinking of more innovative strategies to add to the concept of a flea market, where designers
and buyers can both benefit mutually. Where events are made more holistic in terms of
offering and thus gain a wider reach and introduce relating activities to newer markets – (Cross
selling)

16. Event turnout