Strategy behind holiday email campaign

Analysis of each email used in the campaign and results

Advice to utilize in your campaigns this holiday season

Q & A

Campaign Goals:

To encourage Icebreaker consumers to purchase

Icebreaker clothing as holiday gifts for their

friends and family.

Target Audience:

The primary market for this campaign was

Icebreaker’s US list of over 25,000 subscribers

who are active outdoor sports enthusiasts

familiar with the Icebreaker brand.

Source:

Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season 2010: Email Insights and Inspiration from Christmas Past to Plan

Your Christmas Future - Chad White, Responsys, 2010

―In 2009, more than 83% of online retailers increased

their email volume in November and December, with

retailers increasing their frequency more than 39% on

average compared to the proceeding July – October

period.‖

That means a lot of people log in to this…

9

How do you stand out from the

crowd and connect with

consumers?

We chose 3 areas of focus…

The strategy was to increase

email frequency from once

or twice a month to an

aggressive 2-3 emails per

week.

Most of the emails in the

holiday campaign carried a test

and/or segmentation element.

In the end, the campaign

included 11 unique and

creative emails, each

weaving in a distinctive

gift giving angle.

Key Points:

Because Icebreaker is a

sustainable product, it was

decided that ―Give Green‖

would be a good entry theme

for the campaign.

Introduced the concept that

Icebreaker would make a

great gift for the 2009 holiday

season.

Set expectations for the

frequency of emails that

would be sent over the

upcoming weeks.

Key Points:

Showcasing Icebreaker’s top

ten selling items. Not only was

the goal of this email to further

―sell‖ customers on the

Icebreaker brand, but it

provided easy options for

choosing the perfect gift for

that special someone.

The lower right-hand section

of this email was used to

entice the viewer and prepare

them for the upcoming Black

Friday sale.

Key Points:

To play off of the Black

Friday theme, the emails

centered on

a ―Black Friday Items‖

promotion.

An additional promotion of

―15% off‖ on non-promo

items

The email was sent early

Thursday and Friday

Key Points:

Direct users to the ―Gift

Guide‖ landing page,

highlighting items that would

be perfect for anyone with any

type of interest.

Only items that were left in

inventory could be showcased

in this fifth email due to

success of Black Friday

campaign. What resulted

however was an email

depicting a wide variety of

clothing items, appealing to a

wide range of users.

Key Points:

Rather than using the top portion of

the email to showcase Icebreaker in

general, we introduced a specific

collection of the brand.

The lower sections of the email

were used to highlight specific

products that had an overstock of at

the time.

One segment received a promotion

code for a free beanie and the other

received a promotion code for 20%

off.

The free beanie out performed the

discount by 20%

Key Points: Similar to the previous send, this

email highlighted a specific

collection — Bodyfit. Products

within this collection include

various weights of active base

layers, perfect for the outdoor

man or woman. Because of this,

a skier was used as the main

hero image.

A/B testing showed that a

consumer review drove higher

sales than a magazine review.

Key Points:

This email was the last of the

campaign to highlight a specific

collection. The collection used was

travel and light weight wear. In this

email, the bottom section was

again used to highlight specific

products for which Icebreaker had

a large quantity of stock.

A/B Testing showed that by

increasing the percentage offer

(25% off), it out performed the

product offer (Free Socks) in

driving sales.

Key Points:

Targeted towards recipients who

only had one week left to get a

gift for that special someone.

Icebreaker assembled gender

specific kits, each containing 3

items, to showcase the wide-

range of Icebreaker product

offerings, which were depicted in

the creative.

The success of this bundle

promotion helped formulate

plans for additional bundle offers

during 2010.

Key Points:

The goal of this email was to

remind recipients that there

were only 5 days left before

Christmas and that the

deadline to order and have

items shipped in time was

growing near.

Specifically, Icebreaker wanted

to communicate the different

shipping options available to

customers.

The two lower sections of the

email linked out to landing

pages with items costing under

$50.00 and under $100.00

respectively.

Key Points:

Icebreaker is a New Zealand

based brand, it was decided to

share ―Boxing Day― with the

American audience.

Boxing Day follows the

Christmas holiday

and, for this email, was

portrayed as a day for

recipients to purchase the

items for themselves that they

did not receive as gifts.

Campaign ends with a focus

on the subscriber

• Not only did this campaign have massive residual brand

impact, successfully creating positive US awareness for

Icebreaker, but the results exceeded all sales

expectations for the campaign.

• The sales for Black Friday were triple the goal and, as a

whole, the campaign influenced more than a 32%

increase in total holiday sales over 2008. Of that

increase, 58% were direct sales from the campaign.

Look at last year’s holiday emails and top performing 2010 emails. Repeat what worked, avoid what didn’t.

Avoid a complete creative overhaul. Stay true to overall look subscribers are familiar with.

Give subscribers the option to manage preferences and frequency or you may lose them.

Test important elements (subject, copy, call-to-action) with each email.

Stay fresh and creative with your offers, segmentation will add relevancy.