The Give Registry is a twist on the traditional Department Store ‘gift’ registry. It’s a list of 40 essential items that can be bought and donated to victims of family violence by Myer customers. Myer then matches every donation one-for-one.

The idea came from consultation with victims of family violence. We found that women’s flight from their home when escaping violence is often extremely unstructured and fast. There’s no time to pack or take possessions, and victims have to act quickly on an opportunity to seek refuge before more violence occurs. Rather than receiving money, what victims really seek are bare essentials to start rebuilding their lives. Things like clothes, underwear, cups, bowls, cutlery, bedding, kettles and towels. Simple objects that most people take for granted. These essential items are so varied, only a Department Store can fulfill them.

The Give Registry is a three-year program.

We announced the creation of the Give Registry at a press launch on 1st Aug 2016. Myer ambassadors stood alongside Myer’s CEO and survivors of Family Violence to introduce the new initiative and initiate the PR push.

From a paid-advertising perspective our focus was an emotive video series developed using voices of real victims of family violence. Each video featured a product available on the Give Registry and the voice of a victim talking about what that product meant when they set up a new home. These videos ran on TV and across paid digital/social. Re-targeting ensured our intended audience saw multiple installments and digital advertising drove traffic to myer.com.au and in-store.

The scale of Myer’s national footprint and customer footfall meant we also made a significant investment in owned assets. Throughout Myer stores, ‘pop-ups’ were constructed to display the Give Registry range, explain how it worked and drive donations.

Myer’s stated commitment is to deliver $1m (retail value) of items to women affected by Family Violence every year. To date we are on track to achieve that.

There have been $608,704 of Give Registry sales from the 1st Aug – 1st Mar 2016 which represents 20,697 individual items.

The Give Registry has driven incremental revenue via increased basket size. The average basket size for a Myer customer is $116. Give Registry customers average basket-size is $152 (excluding items bought from the Give Registry). A Give Registry customer spends 31% more than a non-Give Registry customer.

And it has driven footfall too. Between August and September 2016 (the months the campaign launched) Myer experienced a 1.5% YOY increase in footfall across its store network. The Give Registry was the only plausible contributor to this increase.

Australian earned media value at launch was estimated at over $1.5m by Myer’s Corporate Affairs team.