The National Basketball Association netted a 29% open rate for an e-mail promotion containing video footage it broadcast to 120,000 people the night before the playoffs began on April 20. The clickthrough rate — 39% — was also strong for the campaign, designed to raise awareness and viewership for the playoffs.
But the best part was the viral response to the offer itself. Recipients were given a screen saver if they pressed the pass-along button embedded in the e-mail and sent it to three friends. (The screen saver contains live pages from NBA.com playoff Web pages that refresh automatically every few hours.)
Not only did 7% share it with friends, but they passed it along to 4,000 of their friends. Most extraordinary, that 4,000 handed it off to an additional 5,000. All told, the viral element added 9,000 new names to the NBA’s database.
“This may be the first time ever that the second generation outnumbered and outperformed the first generation,” said Chris Plunkett, vice president for business development at the New York office of e-mail direct marketing company MindArrow, which handled the promotion. “Intuitively it makes sense, because your most die-hard NBA fans hang around with people like them.”
There were two video creatives transmitted. Half the database viewed the top three plays of the year. The other half saw clips from performances by the Baha Men, Pink and Lenny Kravitz, whose song, “Dig In,” was the anthem of the playoffs.
Although the campaign was primarily an awareness effort, the copy encouraged recipients in some markets to buy tickets and attend a game at their city’s arena. Others were encouraged to tune in on TV.
The e-mail “caused a buzz and created a heightened impact for the playoffs,” said Bernie Mullen, NBA senior vice president for team marketing and business operations. Other channels in the integrated marketing campaign included broadcast ads, direct mail and Internet promotions.
The database, collected over the past year, contained the e-mail addresses of NBA.com visitors who had signed up for a daily newsletter about NBA happenings, and the NBA Special Delivery, which features special offers. The newsletter subscribers also opted in to get more information on promotions.
The database was primed to respond big. For one thing, the rich-media blast was the first promotion the group had ever received. For another, these mostly young (18- to 45-year-old) men are very avid basketball fans, according to Mullen.
Network
