Obtaining the information required to support direct engagement can be challenging, particularly if the key information that a brand needs can only be obtained directly from consumers.
This is the challenge that a global pet care company faced when HH Global, a global outsourced marketing execution provider, joined forces with 3radical to develop a solution for their client to both capture the initial attention of the brand’s consumers and then provide a compelling reason for consumers to share pet information. This data insight could then be subsequently utilized in the delivery of highly personalized and engaging consumer communications.
The resulting solution was a pet-themed interactive “Advent calendar” which presented consumers with a clear value exchange – in return for completing an initial survey consumers could access tailored rewards hidden behind each door on the calendar.
While the brand was already achieving high levels of email engagement compared to other brands in the sector, as well as successfully capturing pet ownership information, it sought to boost even further engagement with a more interactive type of experience.
As part of this experience, the brand was also keen to illustrate to pet owners the value of sharing information by using captured insight to immediately tailor the subsequent experience they would received.
The brand had a number of hypotheses they wanted to test relating to consumer perceptions of value. Would consumers only engage and provide data if they were rewarded with product discounts? Would consumers also respond to non-monetary rewards, such as video-based content? Would consumers still provide their data even if completion of a survey was not a compulsory step in the journey? Could interactive content be used to motivate consumers to engage repeatedly with the brand in a short space of time?
By answering these questions the pet care company hoped to build an even greater bank of insight which could be used to inform the planning of subsequent marketing activities.
HH Global decided to deploy a pet-themed “Advent calendar” and survey, powered by 3radical’s audience engagement platform.
After clicking through from an email invite, consumers were presented with an initial survey pertaining to their pet. Completion of the survey was configured as either an optional or mandatory step in the consumer journey to A/B test the impact on survey completion rates.
Upon completion of the survey, consumers were able to immediately access the “Advent calendar” game. In real-time, the recently captured pet data was used to present each pet owner with a different version of the calendar, with content personalized for cat owners, dog owners, or owners of both types of pets.
The brand’s consumers were then able to engage with the calendar repeatedly over the course of the next twelve days. On each occasion, consumers were able to open calendar doors to reveal rewards that they could choose to either claim or ignore.
The brand tested their audience’s responsiveness to different concepts of value by including a range of different reward types, such as prize draw entries, product discount coupons, and pet ‘hints and tips’ video content.
To add an additional element of surprise and delight, on a number of days, the campaign was also configured to randomly select a handful of consumers to win a number of special prizes, such as six months’ worth of free pet food.
The campaign generated email click-through rates 3x higher than for typical communications within the sector.
Over 25% of the audience returned to the Advent calendar on at least eight unique days during the campaign. Additionally, on average 44% proceeded to click through to engage with further website content.
The brand added ‘known pet’ information to an additional 5% of their consumer base.
63% of consumers whom survey completion was not mandatory still choose to respond, illustrating they viewed answering the survey to access rewards as a fair value exchange.
The campaign lead to the successful distribution of thousands of promotional coupons, providing another compelling reason to choose the pet care brand products over those of their competitors.