Conversation Pieces
This is getting personal.
Interactive marketing has evolved towards the kind of one-to-one conversation that marketers covet — a real interaction between the consumer and the brand.
Credit the vast expanse of the Internet, and the cheap ubiquity of CDs. Marketers have embraced both as platforms for promotion strategy. The best work weaves interaction with other campaign elements to strengthen an offer, or build brand awareness (or better yet, both).
It’s ironic, then, that PROMO created the Dialog Awards in 1995 to showcase phone-card promotions. While phone cards remain a valuable premium and research tool, other media have surpassed them as avenues for a genuine dialog with consumers.
It’s notable that our two Gold winners are both automakers — a field renowned for savvy direct marketing that recognizes, then courts the best prospects. These winning campaigns show how to build brand image and a relationship at the same time.
Our Silver winners are retailers, packaged goods brands, and one TV show, all adding a two-way channel to their existing touchpoints with consumers. All used the latest technology for slick presentations that are simple for consumers to engage.
After all, the ultimate goal of promotion is to spur consumers to action. A little intimate interaction is a good start.
Gold: Internet
Campaign: SubaruBaja.com and Baja Quest
Client: Subaru of America
Agency: DVC Interactive
How do you promote the launch of something as tactile as a new vehicle when the automobile is still pretty much virtual reality? That was the dilemma facing Subaru of America, Cherry Hills, NJ, with its new car/truck hybrid Baja: It officially launched in January, but wouldn’t be on dealer floors until fall. As a result, the launch of the Baja took place almost exclusively online at subarubaja.com, a site that DVC Interactive, Morristown, NJ, was able to turn around in just five weeks.
With Baja targeted squarely at Subaru’s niche market of “active lifestylers,” the site demonstrated how the vehicle could be used by letting visitors take it for a test drive with the Site Theme Selector, which showed a Baja in action in different active lifestyle settings. The site also offered Baja Quest, an online treasure hunt and sweepstakes that asked visitors to answer active-lifestyle questions for the opportunity to win bi-monthly prizes in different outdoor categories, such as “Snow” and “Beach.” Prizes ran the gamut from bike gear to adventure trips.
The Virtual Auto Show showcased the vehicle’s debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, including interviews, video footage, and the Baja introduction speech. Those who were really sold could sign up for the Drive Baja First wait list, to be among the first to get the new vehicle when it was finally available.
The site generated 8.8 million hits, 16,000 unique registrants for the six-week Baja Quest sweeps, 14,000 brochure requests, and 4,500 advance orders for the car.
“The site needed to sustain the momentum of the launch until the Baja would be available later in the year,” says Sam Ingram, Subaru interactive marketing manager. “It facilitated the collection of valuable data about those interested in the Baja, and gave the consumer a healthy dose of the Subaru experience.”
Gold: CD-ROM
Campaign: PT Cruiser Dealer Test Drive Promotion
Client: DaimlerChrysler Canada
Supplier: Mosaic Group, Inc.
DaimlerChrysler Canada’s retro-looking PT Cruiser was well established as an image leader. So to make the PT Cruiser 2002 — the line’s second model — a sales leader, the Windsor, Ontario-based automaker’s agency of record Pentamark took a technical approach and worked with The Mosaic Group to create an interactive CD-ROM. The disc was used to drive users to a PT Cruiser micro site, where visitors were directed through the purchase cycle. More than 750,000 CDs were sent out through a direct-mail campaign.
Among the disc offerings was a paint shop where users could personalize their own Cruiser, a game that demonstrated the car’s seating and storage options, a dealer locator, and price quotes. Visitors could also fill out a ballot to win a customized Cruiser and obtain multiple entries by visiting a dealership for a test drive.
“For the initial launch, most of our efforts were centered on retro styling, so we wanted to showcase the car’s versatility through infotainment,” says Adair McNeill, account supervisor-customer relationship management at Windsor-based Pentamark.
The disc and Web site recorded usage data, including contact and demographic information, creating 30,000-plus leads for Chrysler. The effort generated more than 1,000 test-drives at more than 400 Canadian Chrysler dealers.
“It wasn’t launched as a volume leader but as a flagship vehicle for the brand,” says Greg Sullivan, director of client services for Mosaic Group, Windsor. “It was received successfully — this was about getting people into it.”
Silver: Internet
Campaign: That 70s Show Totally Groovy Sweepstakes
Client: The Carsey-Werner Co.
Agencies: Three Mountain Group, LLC and The Regan Group
To promote the premiere syndication broadcast of That 70s Show and create brand awareness for show sponsor Net Zero, agencies Three Mountain Group, LLC, and Los Angeles-based The Regan Group took the show’s bell-bottomed image to heart and launched a Totally Groovy Sweepstakes.
Original content, created in conjunction with the show’s writers and producers, appeared on that70sshow.threemountain.net, where viewers could play games and with every interaction, gain entries into a sweeps giving away a walk-on role on the show, a muscle car, and other prizes. Games included the 8-Track Track-Down, which played animated mini-episodes of the shows. Players could help the cast get out of dilemmas and find missing 8-tracks.
“We had a multi-platform experience, since we know our target doesn’t sit and watch TV and then go and read a newspaper — they multi-task,” says Rick Shaughnessy, president of Chicago-based Three Mountain Group.
The results were groovy. That 70s Show scored a 4.1 Nielsen rating by the second week of syndication. The site garnered more than 113 million hits, and Internet service provider Net Zero retrieved 245,000 e-mail addresses for its database.
“I think people question sometimes whether promotions really work and we proved that they do,” says Dan Weiss, senior vp-marketing and creative services for the show’s production studio, Los Angeles-based Carsey-Werner.
Silver: CD-ROM
Campaign: “This is It” Back-to-School Catalog
Client: Macy’s
Agency: DraftWorldwide
When Macy’s began to notice a drop-off in response to its annual back-to-school catalog two years ago, the department chain approached DraftWorldwide to create a CD-ROM that could be in-packed on the catalog. The 2001 program included an electronic gift card, which garnered the impressive redemption rate of four percent.
This year, New York City-based Macy’s and Chicago-based DraftWorldwide took the program to a different level. Targeted to teens, 500,000 CD-ROMs were produced in an eight-page booklet containing a $5 gift card toward any Macy’s purchase. Flash animation combined text, apparel items, and music from popular artists. Gift-card redemption is expected to surpass last year’s. The CD format saved Macy’s $2 million to $4 million over a traditional printed catalog, and gave the retailer a high-tech halo with teens.
“We had to figure out a way to appear really hip and cool in front of a tough teen market, which we did by making it more multi-dimensional and technological,” says Jennifer Gavin, manager of interactive marketing at DraftWorldwide.
Silver: Internet
Campaign: Hit the Code, Win the Cash
Client: Masterfoods USA
Agency: DraftWorldwide
Masterfoods USA, Hackettstown, NJ, went undercover with Hit The Code, an instant-win bonanza designed to boost purchase frequency of the company’s single bar products. Unique codes were featured under-the-wrapper. Consumers entered the codes at HitTheCode.com to see if they won. The promotion gave away 1,000 cash prizes each day.
Participants had to complete a “mission” that featured M&M characters conducting candy espionage in a foreign land. All visitors got the chance to sample four different arcade-style, spy-themed video games, such as Earn Your M: Mission of Peril and Whack-A-Spy. A spy activity area was set up where visitors could check local times around the world and send secret messages to friends. In-store, movie theater advertising, banner ads and e-mail supported (including a pre-registration e-mail that invited consumers to be “VIP” players).
Hit the Code produced a 14-percent sales increase and drew more than 2.2 million registered users, with an average 2.5-plus entries per user. Each participant averaged more than six minutes on the site.
Silver: Internet
Campaign: Snickers Brand Survivor Challenge
Client: Masterfoods USA
Agency: DraftWorldwide
To support its “Don’t Let Hunger Happen to You” campaign, Masterfoods partnered with CBS reality series Survivor: Marquesas. A Survivor Code was featured under the wrappers of specially marked Snickers bars; users logged onto snickers.com, created a personal account, and entered the code for a chance to vote for the survivor they wanted to see voted off each episode. Participants could watch Survivor to see if their votes matched those of the show’s contestants. Each consumer who voted correctly received an e-mail with a coupon for a free Snickers bar, and was entered a drawing for a chance to win Survivor gear or a $1,000 weekly cash prize. The grand prize winner was allowed to visit the set of the next Survivor while in production — the first such prize ever awarded by the show. The Snickers Brand Survivor Challenge boosted traffic to snickers.com 370 percent during the promotional window.
Silver: Internet
Campaign: Rock the House
Client: Perdue Farms
Agency: DVC Worldwide
Perdue wired its henhouse for sound with an on-pack/online sweeps designed to boost sales and Web traffic for Perdue Nuggets. Kids like nuggets for a snack; moms like the convenience. To target both, Perdue put Web decoder gamepieces on packages of refrigerated nuggets; visitors to perdue.com held the decoder to the screen to see if they won a music CD. Winners chose from 30 titles. Non-winners could mail in two proofs and buy any CD for $5. Ads in Nickelodeon (for kids) and Nick Jr. (for parents), FSIs, and banner ads at nick.com supported the February-through-May offer.
Nugget sales jumped 20 percent, and Perdue turned up the volume on site activity: Hits jumped 92 percent to 2.2 million, visitor count rose 131 percent to 32,000, and average session length stretched 13 percent to nine minutes, 46 seconds.
Perdue’s refrigerated nuggets sales rose five percent to $25 million for 52 weeks ended Oct. 6, per Information Resources, Inc. The $807 million category rose 7.2 percent in food, drug, mass channels (excluding Wal-Mart).
Salisbury, MD-based Perdue began targeting its Nugget line to kids a few years ago, with a create-a-shape contest, and create-a-plate offer.
“This promo gave us the MTV kind of slant,” says Jane Seagraves, senior marketing manager-convenience foods. “It was more in-your-face and directly targeted kids in areas we could touch them.”
Perdue and agency DVC chose Sony Music for its “nice range of titles,” says DVC vp-management supervisor Bob Patton. “Sony had the best variety of artists” to appeal equally to boys and girls — and parents.
Nickelodeon beat out two other kids’ media properties by offering the best package for Perdue’s ad buy.
The double interaction of on-pack/online really helps a commodity product like chicken. “It differentiates you at the shelf,” says Patton. Fluctuations in the meat case and grocers’ clean-store policies “make it a higher priority to use the package as a billboard,” he adds. On-pack promos require extensive orchestration with processing plants, but the sales ovation makes it worthwhile.
Silver: CD-ROM
Campaign: Flip for Toys
Client: Target Stores
Supplier: Disc Marketing
You know it’s a whole new world when kids e-mail their wish lists to Santa … and he e-mails back.
Target Store’s Flip for Toys enhanced CD, part of its 2001 holiday campaign, extended ads, drove store traffic, and showcased toys from key vendors including Fisher Price, Hasbro, and Mattel.
The Minneapolis-based retailer mailed 250,000-plus CDs to Target credit-card holders who’d bought toys in the recent past, aiming for families with kids seven to 12. Kids could browse the toys — showcased with stop-action animation and video — and click on their faves to build a wish list. Lots of voiceover helped novice readers navigate the disc. A memory game let kids match cards featuring the toys, and the jukebox housed five songs — two of them exclusive to the CD.
“Target wanted A-list artists for kids singing holiday songs,” says Disc Marketing director of marketing Susan Boyles. “There wasn’t a lot; we found three.”
Disc Marketing, whose in-house licensing group gives it “a deep bench in music,” produced two new songs just for Target: Youngstown sang “Little Drummer Boy,” and Lil’ J did “Jingle Bells.”
A link to target.com let viewers shop online and let Target track how (and how long) viewers used the CD, and measure its impact on sales. Viewers spent an average 33 minutes on the CD, 75-percent of that time with the toys. Target funded the disc with co-op dollars from manufacturers, who got data on the time kids spent with their products.
Disc Marketing started with Target’s ad storyboards and finished the CD in 10 weeks. Turnaround from Santa was even faster: Kids who e-mailed the big guy got an auto-reply immediately.
The letters and links to target.com let Disc Marketing know how sophisticated users’ computers are, so it can tailor multimedia content. “We found out that kids’ parents are buying them really nice computers, so we can do rich multi-media,” says Boyles. “We do simpler multi-media for older computers.”
Sort of like making a list and checking it twice.
