The number of purchases at children's loungewear brand Cheese, which opened in February 2024, rose 476% in two years and return on ad spend (ROAS) stood at 333%. The company cited Cafe24's "PRO marketing" service, which outsources the full advertising operation process, as the driver.

PRO marketing is a model in which marketers at the Cafe24 Marketing Center handle the entire process, from ad planning and creative production to media operations and performance analysis. It is designed so small brands that find it difficult to staff dedicated ad operations can also get started. Cheese ran search ads on major portal sites through the service.

Cheese started from experience in door-to-door sales of baby and children's books. Lee Beom-yong (이범용), a director at Cheese, said, "As I visited households in person, I started to notice what children wear at home, and I began to see the loungewear market." Experience of meeting children and parents in the field led to its children's clothing business.

Cheese said it chose loungewear as a product category because of inventory burdens. With going-out clothes, inventory remains after the season ends and discount pressure grows when trends change. Loungewear is relatively less affected by seasons, and children change clothes several times a day, requiring multiple sets. Summer products can be sold again the following summer.

Its distribution model also differs from typical children's clothing brands. Cheese operates 15 unmanned stores centered on major provincial commercial districts. Customers pay at kiosks, and an operator manages the store for 1 to 2 hours a day. It also operates six stores of a warehouse-style children's clothing outlet called Little Benny, running two channels in parallel with different product assortments and sales methods.

The offline touchpoints are used as a channel to improve products. Feedback from parents who visit outlet stores is delivered to headquarters, and employee wear tests by staff raising children check mobility and fit, down to adjusting sleeve length units. Lee said, "We gather everything, from what we hear at offline stores to how it feels when we put it directly on employees' children, and online reviews, and reflect it in the next product."

A limitation was acquiring new online customers. Based on a view that parent customers first search and buy on mobile, the company used Cafe24 PRO to revamp its direct-to-consumer site into a mobile-optimized store. After changing it so a mobile-focused screen appears even on PCs, it got responses that banners and products are easier to see. It still did not have dedicated staff to run ads.

◆Purchases up 476%..."Now we can focus only on products"

Cheese adopted PRO marketing and ran search ads on major portal sites. Purchases rose 476% and ROAS stood at 333%. Before adoption, customers who already knew the brand often visited its own site, but after running ads, new customers flowing in from outside increased.

Running ads also led to a role split between its existing offline channels and its online store. If unmanned stores and outlets were touchpoints to secure actual wear experiences and customer feedback, the brand's own site came to function as the route where customers unfamiliar with the brand first flowed in. It created a circulation in which products improved by reflecting offline feedback are exposed again through online ads.

Choosing search ads as the medium also aligned with customer characteristics. Children's loungewear is a category in which parents first check materials, sizing and ease of washing before deciding to buy. Exposing its own site to customers who search by item or function without knowing the brand name led to expanded new inflows. Lee said, "Even without dedicated marketing specialists, Cafe24 does everything from ad planning to operations, so we can focus only on products."

Cheese plans to promote a pajama line alongside its main products with strong character and pattern designs. This follows confirmation of the response to pajamas introduced in the spring and autumn season, broadening items as a loungewear specialist brand.

Cafe24 presented the Cheese case as showing that outsourcing ad operations can lead to acquiring new customers even for new brands that find it difficult to build a marketing staff. It said it is a structure that jointly supports the necessary steps, from building a brand's own site to operating ads.