Building an Interactive Strategy - Part 4 of 4: Retention: posted by Jeff at 6:01 PM ESTDecember 18, 2008
To engage in a superb user experience, we have to find innovative methods for customer care. But this won’t happen all by itself. They won’t always come back just because you are still there. How does one stay top-of-mind a day later — a month and a year later? The retention strategy recaptures their attention and re-makes a promise. The message is strong, clear and precise.
The most common question we get is - When? When is the right time to reach out to the customer base, send a coupon or launch a promotion? The product lifecycle is elastic and retention is directly necessitated to when the customer will need you again. However, the kicker… it’s not just enough to reach out at the right time. Everyone out there knows how to send out an e-blast, offer a discount or ask for customer feedback.
To break through, we take a step back. To the original acquisition. Residual offerings gain traction to the core purchase at the onset of the buyer cycle. Set yourself up for success from the beginning so the consumer knows that they will need to come back later on. And when they do, be aggressive in your marketing. While there are inherit brand values that must be communicated, find innovative ways to tell your story again. The platforms may remain, but they can be used differently. An edgy microsite, experiential POS events or a viral campaign can translate your branding efforts into profit.
A month ago, this Strategy Development series started with traffic; took us through engagement, tracked the experience; optimized, and today we brought them back. We spun the wheels to continue the cycle. It doesn’t end here; the wheels keep on spinning.
I look forward to hearing your feedback — your successes and triumphs over the competition. Stay tuned for some cool news from Hooplah. The team is hard at work on some groundbreaking creative that we are very excited to share in the new year.
Trigonometry & Coffee: posted by Kai at 8:51pm
November 27, 2008
Jeff and Les went to NYC a month ago to pitch new business. Fast forward to yesterday's launch of DiscoverLattissima.com — which equates to three grueling weeks of beer-soaked nights.
After an audit on pre-existing holiday campaign from France, we conceptualized (FTW) the Grands Crus and Possibilities synergy for consumer education; and then followed it up with carefully positioned incentives. Paula imagineered the interlocking teeth in spinning gears to create an artful translation of the in-store displays at Nespresso Boutiques in Paris and New York. This thematic motion echoes through the entire interactive campaign.
My Yen Trung shot the chrome Lattissima in 360°. When I walked into her studio with Miss P, we were giddy about the setup. The platform was accurate, the shift actions were marked and the fills were near perfect. An espresso machine never had sexier lighting. After we wrapped for the day, Paula came up with a variation on the spinning theme that became the ellipse you see on Grands Crus collection's page. Dave K. went bananas on 4000+ lines of AS to stitch the visuals and trackable forms into a seamless execution. It all mods into French with XML. There's a bloody CMS, too!
Lonergan's doing a massive digital media blitz over the holiday season to promote the microsite on the likes of FoodNetwork, About.com, Facebook, Epicurious and Nespresso's global site with targeted leaderboards, big boxes and badges. We'll continue to do their branded e-mails and search marketing as well. This year-end promotion pulls a lot of its traction from the retailers who are pushing customers to the microsite.
The team turned it out! I was just a copywriter. And away we go to Bombardier, OxFam & Rogers. Phew!
Building an Interactive Strategy - Part 3 of 4: Analytics: posted by Jeff at 5:09 PM EST
November 25, 2008
Simply put, analytics gives us the ability to develop stronger campaigns, write better ads and create incentive. It allows advertisers to gather statistics on traffic and visitors, but more importantly — provides the data to calculate an ROI.
We need to learn from the customers in the short and long-term. What they think of us, our brands and the benefits thereof. This may be drastically different than what the client wants to evolve into. Over time, leveraging these statistics shapes messaging, tailors user experience and manages the online buying cycle.
At Hooplah we have a maxim for launch day; we deploy phase one of the campaign. Once an online program is live, there’s always an opportunity to gather insights.
In a recent consulting engagement, we analyzed the interdependence of exit rates versus geographic proximity for a Global retailer. The company shipped orders exclusively from Toronto; thusly increasing shipping rates for US customers. The percentage of US-based shoppers exiting from checkout was astronomical. With these newly-discovered stats and the associated implications, our client developed a relationship with a fulfillment centre in the states. And that saved dollars. Harry Crane can’t do that!
Regardless of the platform, retaining customers can be more cost effective than acquiring new ones.
Next week: Consumer Retention.
Play Room: posted by Kai at 8:11am
November 19, 2008
Last weekend, a couple of us were here to refinish what was a vacant office in our 3500 square feet of industrial space. I stained the floors dark, enamel-coated the rad in ridiculous orange and grabbed a vintage Saarinen Tulip dining set off Craigslist. So instead of our boardroom or the lounge area, any one of us can go in there for ideation or storyboarding. There's a whole mess of stainless shelving with art supplies for the studio which makes play time a lot easier than having all that shite behind my desk and on my bookshelves and on my windowsill. And in my drawers. And boxes.
One thing we're hellbent on lately is finding new ways to innovate with type. So much so that we're creating custom art for the Hooplah studio just because. Our latest project for Nestlé has a lot of that; that launches this Friday. And Monday the French goes live. You can see a teeny preview on the table in the pic above. Nespresso boutiques across the US and Canada are doing the Year-End Promotion to our microsite, which feeds our Through-the-Line mandate for this Q4.
Jeff and I are exploring sponsorship opportunities for upcoming Design & Marketing Events. Let us know of anything you've got going on. Just today the brilliant Cris Labno joined Team Hooplah from Poland as an Identity Designer and we have the wickedly thoughtful AD, Nadine Lessio, back for a few weeks for a new e-commerce site redesign.
Edit: Snow Day!
