Rolling Strikes: Who says the word “free” doesn’t work with e-mail?

(DIRECT) Brunswick Bowling and Billiards has turned an offer of an hour of free bowling in return for e-mail contact information into a database of almost half a million e-mail addresses. Some managers say the database has helped them meet their sales goals for the year.

An astronomical 40% of people who supply their e-mail address to sign up for Brunswick’s Bonus Zone program redeem the coupon, which allows the recipient and up to four friends to bowl free for an hour. The high redemption rate is no doubt due at least partly to the offer’s value.

“Depending on the day of week and the time, that coupon is [worth] anywhere from $25 to $69, so it’s a pretty valuable offer,” says Don Jones, Brunswick Bowling and Billiards’ director of marketing, retail.

Of course, the free hour is offset by shoe rental fees, food and drink sales, and the fact that most people stay to bowl after their hour is up.

Since Brunswick started the program, the amount of money the centers take in per game bowled has increased significantly, according to Jones.

After the initial coupon, Bonus Zone subscribers get an e-mail offer about every other week, such as 99-cent bowling or “Free Fridays” during the centers’ typically slow summer months.

Response rates to the offers averaged 2.69% for 2007 through July.

Brunswick has about 490,000 addresses, up from 130,000 last year. The company manages the e-mail program centrally for its 109 centers nationwide. It now sends the same offer to the whole database, but Jones says plans are in the works for center-specific marketing in 2008.

He adds that center managers love the program for the responsibilities it eliminates.

“They have to run a bar, they have to run a restaurant, they have to deal with 200 league bowlers, and here’s a scary thought: What if all 40 or 60 of your lanes are filled with kids’ birthday parties on a Saturday? If you mess up a kids’ 8th birthday party, imagine facing that mom,” says Jones. “To take the marketing part away and make it easy for them, that’s a godsend.”

Jordan Ayan, CEO of Brunswick’s e-mail service provider SubscriberMail, says the program’s success stems from its value to both center managers and the bowlers themselves.

“The center managers love these offers. If they had their druthers, they’d send more,” he says. “Don’s created a program that at the grassroots level people really like.”

Jones says that at first, Brunswick’s operations executives were hesitant to implement the Bonus Zone e-mail program. “It’s always a sign of a good marketing program when you’re told you’re going to ruin the company. When we first brought this in, we were told we were going to ruin the company.”

Operations’ fears over the program have since subsided. Brunswick’s vice president of operations sends an internal e-mail every Sunday detailing how many e-mail names the company acquired the previous week and which center managers got them.

“That put an intense focus on the program,” Jones says. “It got everybody thinking: ‘How can I get more names?'”

Another positive sign was when managers who met their goals — and as a result were given one of the company’s yearly trips to Cancun — credited the e-mail effort for their success.

“When 30 of them get up on stage and say they’re standing in Mexico with their spouses because of the e-mail campaigns last year, I feel pretty damn good,” he says.