Mana Up's three-hour virtual QVC-style annual product showcase on Nov. 20 was a transformation of the in-person event and pop-up marketplace usually held at the Duty Free Store in Waikiki.
Normally, the showcase would bring in more than 1,000 shoppers, but this year more than 80,000 tuned in — a reach 80 times greater than in years past.
"We wanted to create this immersive event and expand the local audience and following to not just a national but a global one," Meli James, Mana Up's founder, said in an interview with Pacific Business News. "It was neat watching the chat comments and seeing people comment 'Aloha from Ohio' or other places."
More than $80,000 in sales were made as a result of the showcase. James said that the initial success of the livestream broadcast showcase has set the bar for future showcases — becoming a blueprint that will be largely based off what worked well, and what didn't.
"Rarely can you give everyone a front row seat to see the entrepreneurs' product, to hear their story," James said. "The key to this was thinking about how we can expand people's knowledge of Hawaii through the stories they haven't heard — the stories of entrepreneurs, their products and music. People always want to deepen their knowledge, understanding and connection to Hawaii, and this accomplished that."
James said that one of the elements that people seemed to respond to the most was the music of featured young musicians that broke up the segments of showcase. While intended to give viewers a chance to shop in-between segments, site traffic showed that people continued to pay attention and instead shopped during the intermission and after the show.
"Now we have to think: how do we integrate more opportunities so someone that just learned about a product doesn't feel like they have to choose between missing out on the part of the show and shopping," James said.
Part of the initial success, she said, came from the "show, don't tell" aspect of the visual showcase. The virtual platform allowed people to have unprecedented access to information on the products and personal brand stories.
The showcase is also a way for people to invest in Hawaii's entrepreneurs, community and economy, according to James.
"With the rapid adoption of technology this year, I don't think as many people would have been watching if we did this in previous years," she said. "People are much more willing to have digital experiences now."
The fifth cohort went entirely virtual earlier this year and was revamped with the changing retail environment amid the uncertainty of the Covid economy. Mana Up took those challenges and doubled down on curating a crash course for its cohort on digital strategies for e-commerce and direct-to-consumer marketing — skills that James said came in handy in the planning of this event.
James said that forming partnerships with well-known sponsors like King's Hawaiian Bread and the Hawaii Tourism Authority, was also vital. Months of planning went into the event, which happened the week before Black Friday.
Looking at the lessons learned from this initial virtual showcase, James said that there is a lot of possibilities to look at for next year — including increasing its integration of alumni cohort members so they have more of a role in the showcase.
"This is a launching point for us to build off of," James said. "It has never been a knee-jerk reaction ... We wanted to test things in a virtual environment. When you think of this from an accelerator perspective, there are so many ways to evolve demo day. We can test out digital narrative storytelling and marketing that still creates that wonderful feeling of something we can normally do in person."
