Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola uses experiential marketing to create a closer bond between itself and the consumer by immersing them in fun and memorable experiences.

The Coca-Cola Beat Generator was a custom music app which enabled consumers to mix their own music. It formed the core of a 70-day brand experience celebrating Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.

The objective was to create an experience for the general public focusing on the fusion of music, sport and its brand. During an experiential roadshow users could create music using the sounds of sporting events, with additional beats and samples. The software ensured virtually any combination would fit harmoniously together.

Once a tune had been created users could pick up an MP3 recording or share via Facebook, Twitter or email. The music would also be played on a large screen during the roadshow. The Beat Generator was also used by Coca-Cola’s on-stage MC/DJ at each evening celebration and as part of a live performance in five major city celebrations.

9,000 pieces of music were created onsite with 2,500 retrieved online. There were 16,500 sessions on the Coca-Cola Beat Generator website and 1.78m Facebook impressions were delivered.

Cadbury

Cadbury launched its first Google+ community, ‘Cakes & Baking – The Cadbury Kitchen’, with a view to generating regular, authentic content for use on other platforms and drive engagement on its original Google+ page.

Communities not only provide a forum for discussion, but also create an opportunity to gather content for use outside of the community. It can be costly to develop, test and photograph new recipes, but a community can provide a source of regular and authentic content, which could be used to drive engagement elsewhere.

Cadbury is now one of the top 100 communities on Google+ with over 20,000 members. More than 2,500 recipes have been posted and there are an average of 20 interactions per post.

Homebase

Homebase wanted to engage customers with personalised targeted emails to boost email open and click-trough rates (CTR) to drive campaign ROI.

Its email marketing previously concentrated on driving conversions with voucher code offers. However Homebase needed to shift its focus from converting prospective customers to encouraging people to consider Homebase prior to making a purchase.

It did this by identifying newsletter subscribers who had specifically shown an interest in kitchen products and, once identified, target those customers with a series of triggered follow-up emails with clear calls-to-action (CTAs).

The ‘Kitchen Trigger’ programme saw open and click-through metrics up to 20% higher than typical email campaign results.

Overall 48% of recipients booked in-store appointments, with an average conversion from appointment to final purchase of approximately 40%.

ASDA

ASDA’s objective when building its app was to make shopping quicker and more convenient for busy customers.

In order succeed in this, the customer’s point of view had to be brought in right from the app’s development. ASDA’s customer research found the need for convenience, ease of use and also something that wasn’t filled with cutting edge technology they couldn’t get to grips with.

       

The customer experience was allowed to drive the technology, rather than visa versa.

Mobile now accounts for 18% of all grocery home shopping sales and 90% of this is from the app. ASDA App shoppers are twice as likely to become loyal, repeat customers. Shopping frequency for mobile is 1.8 times higher than desktop. The app had achieved more than 2m downloads by March 2013.

O2

O2 uses customer data to provide many of its services. Prompted by new government legislation regarding transparency it needed to communicate to customers just how it relies on data to provide these services.

Customers are only going to share data with a company if it trusts it, and a company will only achieve trust if it’s entirely honest with consumers how that data is used.

If the use of data provides more relevant and improved customer experiences, outside of marketing, than this will only benefit the consumer.

O2 began by pulling together a cross-discipline team before working on creating personas and carrying out roleplay to tease out important issues. Key to this approach was involving customers early in order to inform its thinking and design.

O2 created wireframes explaining data control and how it relates to different services, and held customer workshops to see how customers responded to the idea of providing additional data. Finally, the company trialled the app with a group of customers, whose feedback it incorporated throughout the build phase.

This process informed ideas for new services, with O2 creating prototypes to test with users. The preferred concept was developed into a final prototype that was then tested with more than 1,000 customers, with 80% confirming that they would use it. This is now being rolled out in the UK and across Europe.

Triumph

Because lingerie is not a product people always wish to try on, shoppers are in constant ‘browse mode’ where they find it difficult to make decisions.

Triumph created an interactive retail environment to solve that problem for them within the lingerie department of Selfridges store. The ‘Triumph Essence Fantasy Mirror’, housed in a specially designed ‘Fantasy Booth’.

A videocard invitation was sent out to consumers and on the day itself digital escalator panels in tube stations set the ‘Fantasy Forest’ scene, while window displays at Selfridges revealed the range on live models rotating slowly on music-box style plinths.

The windows also acted as a digital gateway to the Fantasy Mirror, with QR codes weaved into the lace design enabling shoppers to download the app to receive exclusive content, see the collection that would be featured in the window the next day and book an appointment in the Fantasy Booth.

The Fantasy Booth enabled shoppers to experience the collection without removing any clothing and merged the offline and online worlds.

Around 125 consumers attended the launch event and a 50% uplift sales was achieved in the first week after campaign launched as well as more than 1,600 app downloads during launch period.

Irish Books Direct

Irish Books Direct is designed to encourage a personalised community experience celebrating Irish literature and culture.

As a family business with limited resources Irish Books Direct had to grow organically with a minimum of investment. The key to any potential growth would be the adoption of various social elements that helped create a conversational online environment.

When customers sign up, they create a public member profile which allows them to interact with the site owners and other members. Books are promoted via personal blogs and customers are encouraged to join the debate via comments.

The growth for the first two years of its existence (2011 – 2012) averaged 400%. The third year of the business saw monthly growth of around 300%.

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