Birthday Celebrations
The success of Michaels’ Birthday Party Program under the leadership of Joy Macdonell
Birthday Party Project Goals
The project successfully launched a nationwide birthday party program across all Michaels stores, achieving the following objectives:
Transform Classroom Spaces
Converted classroom areas into profitable venues by designing engaging and memorable birthday party experiences that appealed to families.
Standardized Offerings
Developed a cohesive program that all stores could easily implement, ensuring consistency in quality and customer satisfaction.
Drive Revenue and Engagement
Increased foot traffic and community involvement, resulting in sustainable revenue growth through the successful execution of the birthday party program across the entire store chain.
5 Keys To Birthday Success
The successful launch of the birthday party program at Michaels involved a collaborative effort across multiple teams, resulting in a seamless and engaging experience for customers. This coordinated effort not only enhanced the customer experience but also positioned Michaels as a go-to destination for memorable birthday celebrations.
Technology & E-Commerce Integration
Partnered with the tech team to develop an end-to-end customer e-commerce booking strategy exclusively on Michaels.com. This included creating wireframes with Figma, designing the customer journey, reconfiguring the birthday party scheduling process, and overseeing internal tests to ensure a successful program release, all while managing progress through Jira.
Marketing Strategy Development
Collaborated with the marketing team to craft a comprehensive marketing plan that featured art direction for birthday party photography, a catchy tagline (“More Party. Less Planning.”), in-store voiceovers, and visually appealing merchandising. All marketing efforts directed customers to the dedicated birthday party landing page on Michaels.com, effectively measuring conversion rates.
Craft-Centric Party Activities
Directed the creation of engaging party crafts, ensuring attendees made three crafts, including one wearable and one sensory item, within a two-hour party structure. Sourced suppliers for necessary materials and established an inventory system to facilitate timely “party-in-a-box” deliveries to stores upon booking.
Operational Excellence and Training
Worked closely with store operations and HR to develop standard operating procedures (SOPs), create playbooks, and design training programs for store associates. Introduced a new Event Coordinator role to manage in-store birthday parties, fostering cross-functional teamwork for seamless execution.
Strategic External Partnerships
Formed partnerships with Evite for exclusive themed invitations, Domino’s Pizza for catering, and Gabby’s Dollhouse for promotional collaboration during the initial launch period in U.S. stores.
Birthday ROI Summary
The introduction of the birthday party program at Michaels proved to be a highly successful initiative, establishing a new multi-million dollar revenue stream for classroom spaces across all stores in the U.S. and Canada.
Revenue Generation
The birthday parties effectively transformed classroom spaces into profitable venues, with pricing strategically established to cover all operational costs. As a result, every party held consistently demonstrated positive income, contributing significantly to overall revenue.
Market Penetration and Growth
Word-of-mouth referrals, combined with in-store visual merchandising and targeted messaging on self-checkout registers, significantly boosted birthday party sign-ups. The engagement of store employees in promoting the program further enhanced visibility, driving participation at a rate that aligned with business plan projections.
Sustainable Business Model
By ensuring that all operational costs were accounted for within the pricing structure, the program not only generated income but also supported a sustainable business model that could be replicated across all locations. This strategic approach positioned Michaels for continued growth and success in the birthday party segment.
Elevating the Online Learning Experience
Joy Macdonell’s Impact on Online Class Content and Instructor Curation at Michaels
Impactful Numbers
Driving Creative Excellence
Joy Macdonell’s Leadership In Content Creation
Implemented strategic change management to streamline project execution, achieving a 20% reduction in redundancy
and a 15% increase in output—aligning brand marketing with merchandise selection
What Our Customers said
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