Rolling Out the Red Carpet for Customer Engagement​

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Category: B2C

Type: Retention Marketing Campaign

Channel: Digital Media, Direct Mail

Industry: Telecommunications

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Challenge:

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Verizon was a major sponsor for the 50th Anniversary of the Grammy Awards in 2008. They wanted to create a highly visible loyalty campaign to build goodwill and awareness with their high-speed internet and Fios customer base.

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Solution:

 

Since Verizon's customer database only had email opt-ins for less than 50% of the records, we chose an integrated approach using direct mail and email. Although social media would have been an optimal channel for this campaign, Facebook had less than 50 million users globally in February 2007 (compared to 2.6 billion in 2020).

 

A self-mailer was sent to customers who had not opted in to receive email and an email was sent to those who had. The self-mailer and email featured a sweepstakes entry to drive recipients to a sweepstakes landing page where they could enter to win a pair of tickets to see the Grammys in person at Staples Arena (in Los Angeles). As part of the sweepstakes package, a limousine was provided along with a photographer to capture the winners on the red carpet. A total of six pair of tickets were given away. After the event, a thank you email that featured exclusive photos of the winners with celebrities was sent out to all sweepstake participants.

 

Result:

 

Over 10% of targeted customers entered the sweepstakes. The open rate for the email was 25% and the click-thru rate was 16%; more than double the industry click-thru rate at the time of 6.64% for customers (source: DMA). Additionally, just under 20% of the customers targeted with the self-mailer entered the sweepstakes, making it one of the highest response rates our agency had seen. In addition, the majority of the self-mailer entrants elected to opt-in for email, so Verizon was able to capture emails as a secondary benefit for use in future campaigns.

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