American Eagle Outfitters - Cross-channel marketing holiday case study

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American Eagle Outfitters - Cross-channel marketing holiday case study
Experian Marketing Services
                                                                     American Eagle Outfitters / Client Case Study

American Eagle Outfitters®
Cross-channel marketing holiday case study

                 American Eagle Outfitters creates a dynamic, cross-channel marketing
                 program to acquire, engage and convert customers during the competitive
                 holiday season

                 CLIENT
                 American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (AEO) is a leading global specialty retailer offering high-quality,
                 on-trend clothing, accessories and personal care products at affordable prices under its
                 American Eagle Outfitters® and Aerie® brands.

                 In order to gain more market share during the busy holiday season, AEO desired to create a
                 unique and memorable campaign that would separate itself from the competition. Leveraging
                 the popularity of mobile and social media within its target audience, AEO, Experian Marketing
                 Services and Archer Mobile developed a fully integrated, omni-channel holiday program that
                 drove mind share, social sharing and online and in-store traffic.

                 CHALLENGE/OBJECTIVE
                 Unrivaled customer experience
                 •P
                   rovide U.S. and Canadian customers with an unrivaled digital experience that
                  encouraged continued brand engagement throughout the 12 days of the Legendary Gifts
                  holiday campaign
                 •F
                   ocus on customer experience first, enabling customers to engage with the brand in the
                  ways and channels they preferred

                 Drive sales through product promotion and traffic
                 • Promote top holiday products from AEO’s Legendary Gifts Collection
                 •D
                   rive online and in-store traffic, as well as revenue growth, during the competitive
                  holiday season

                 Cross-channel customer acquisition
                 • Acquire new SMS and email subscribers for future messaging opportunities post-holiday
American Eagle Outfitters - Cross-channel marketing holiday case study
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
To develop and execute the innovative holiday program, AEO chose Experian Marketing
Services for its cross-channel experience and expertise. Experian Marketing Services, along
with its mobile engagement solutions partner Archer Mobile, worked closely with AEO to
develop a program strategy and execute the program.

PROGRAM STRATEGY
• Create an integrated contact strategy across all paid, earned and owned media
• Integrate across all media — desktop Web, mobile Web, app, email, SMS, social media,
   direct mail and in-store display
• Engage based on customers’ desktop, tablet or mobile device preferences
• Drive customer data capture for increased effectiveness
• Drive online and in-store traffic by building ongoing email and SMS messaging groups
• Encourage active engagers and latent responders with incentives that increased in value
• Drive viral brand engagement and growth

“12 DAYS OF LEGENDARY GIFTS” PROGRAM
The “Legendary Gifts” program gave consumers the opportunity to participate in a 12-day
sweepstakes to win once-in-a-lifetime prizes while shopping AEO Legendary Gifts apparel.
Starting on December 3, the campaign provided different prizes for each of the 12 days,
with a $10,000 grand prize giveaway on the last day. This approach enabled customers to
enroll once and participate on a daily basis. Not only did the prizes increase in value, but all
customers who did not win the daily prize received special discounts with unique, one-time-
use redemption codes.

Watch American Eagle Outfitters’ “12 Days of Legendary Gifts” commercial
at http://bit.ly/AEO12days

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
The entire campaign was integrated and executed across all digital and traditional media,
including AEO’s desktop Website, email, mobile Web, mobile app, SMS, social media,
direct mail and in-store signage. Regardless of whether the consumer became aware of
the campaign through on-line or off-line media, AEO provided an optimized, feature-rich
customer experience.

                                                  Enrollment enabled customers to receive
                                                  daily emails and/or SMS messages,
                                                  based on their preference, with unique,
                                                  personalized URL’s that redirected to a
                                                  device-optimized webpage to ‘click to
                                                  unwrap the daily gift.’ As this process
                                                  occurred, AEO customers were awarded
                                                  the prizes dynamically based on preset
                                                  business rules and prize quantities.
                                                  Overall, this created a “surprise and
                                                  delight” experience with growing
                                                  anticipation throughout the program as
                                                  the prizes grew in value.
American Eagle Outfitters - Cross-channel marketing holiday case study
CROSS-CHANNEL PROMOTION
AEO fully integrated all of its channels with the program, delivering a call-to-action to drive
widespread awareness and engagement. These channels included desktop and mobile
Website, emails, mobile app, social media, direct mail and in-store signage.

Regardless of the media, the program’s value proposition and call-to-action were presented
consistently. For example, responsive design was used across the desktop, tablet and mobile
sites to provide an optimized experience. Just as important, email, mobile and social media
were used daily to increase awareness, engagement and excitement throughout the 12
days. Not only did this help drive initial enrollment, it provided the opportunity for advocacy
and sharing the campaign with friends and family. Once the customer opened the gift, the
customer could share the campaign through Facebook, Twitter and email.

                     In-store                                       Web
                     Signage with                                   The AEO desktop
                     prizes and                                     website promoted the
                     call-to-action.                                program and used a web
                                                                    opt-in form to capture
                                                                    customer data.

                     Direct mail                                    Email
                     AEO distributed                                Based on consumer
                     millions of direct                             preference, email and
                     mail pieces                                    SMS messages were
                     to promote                                     delivered daily.
                     the program.

                     App                                            Facebook
                     AEO’s app                                      Facebook was used to
                     promoted the                                   promote the program
                     program and                                    and each day’s legendary
                     drove additional                               gift to their 9.4 millions
                     program growth.                                fans. Users who claimed
                                                                    prizes could also post to
                                                                    their wall and share the
                                                                    program with their friends.

                     Twitter                                        Instagram
                     AEO tweeted to its                             Instagram videos
                     271,000 followers to                           were used to
                     encourage program                              promote each day’s
                     opt-in and promote                             legendary gift to AEO’s
                     daily prizes.                                  347,000 followers.

Check out the complete cross-channel program at
www.archermobile.com/aeo-legendary-video.
American Eagle Outfitters - Cross-channel marketing holiday case study
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION AND DATA CAPTURE
AEO worked with Experian Marketing Services and Archer Mobile to provide enrollment
forms for customer data capture and integrated the customer records and data attributes
into a central database. This enabled AEO to deliver targeted messages during and after
the program.

CROSS-CHANNEL CAMPAIGN EXECUTION AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
Customers that opted in to the sweepstakes had the ability to receive daily emails and SMS
alerts to verify if they had won a Legendary Gift prize or a discount on select merchandise
throughout the promotion. Each participant was dynamically served a personalized URL
(PURL) within the email or text alert.

                               Prelaunch
                                message
                               to existing
                                                Web opt-in captures
                                database
                                               customer profile data

                                                     First daily
                                                     message

                             “Thank you for
                              signing up“
                               message
American Eagle Outfitters - Cross-channel marketing holiday case study
Daily email alerts were an integral part of our holiday campaign that provided customers
a natural way to connect and keep updated on the sweepstakes and various promotions
that were offered. Experian Marketing Services’ cross-channel marketing technology
and expertise helped us seamlessly integrate email into our cross-channel program,
which allowed our customers to easily interact and consume relevant information on a
consistent and daily basis from their desktops and/or mobile phones.

Erica Dudash
Director of Marketing
American Eagle Outfitters

                             Customers that clicked through the PURLs landed on a unique Legendary Gift prizes
                             Web page where they would receive their special offer instantly.

                             Examples of interactive PURL content:

                             By clicking on the play button,      Coupon offers were          The redemption code would
                                participants unwrapped            displayed with a link         then display with social
                              the present, revealing prize            leading to a                integration and a full
                                     win or coupon.                redemption code.            scroll-down product page.

                             Experian Marketing Services and Archer Mobile provided strategic guidance through all
                             phases of the program, including best practices for mobile optimization of messaging across
                             channels and regulatory compliance.
American Eagle Outfitters - Cross-channel marketing holiday case study
The consumer excitement around this campaign was demonstrated clearly, with
nearly 60% of the mobile subscribers reached engaging with the prize pages just
minutes after receiving their text messages. That excitement didn’t seem to fade either.
The engagement continued to increase daily from every channel as the prizes increased
in value. Experian Marketing Services brought the cross-channel expertise, processes and
technology that we needed to achieve our goals. Our account team’s knowledge of the
retail consumer and best practices makes Experian Marketing Services a trusted
AEO solutions provider.

Erica Dudash
Director of Marketing
American Eagle Outfitters

                               RESULTS
                               The customer-centric campaign resulted in exceptionally high engagement, with millions of
                               participants on a daily basis and a 60% SMS click-through rate.

                               Overall campaign performance:
                               •C
                                 onnected with more than 8 million total email and SMS subscribers in the U.S. and
                                Canada in less than two weeks
                               •D
                                 rove unprecedented customer engagement in email and mobile throughout the
                                12-day campaign

                               Daily customer engagement metrics:
                               • Daily SMS alert: 50% to 60% click-through rates
                               •D
                                 aily email alert: 1.7% to 7.8% click-through rates (an average of 4.3% throughout
                                the campaign)
                               • In-store redemption —
                                                      ­ Total conversion rate as high as 1.5% of all participants

                               The program also was honored by eTail and won its prestigious Mobile Best-In-Class Award.

                               Keys to American Eagle Outfitters’ success:
                               • Designed the optimal customer journey to engage the target audience throughout the program
                               •C
                                 reated comprehensive cross-channel integration with a consistent customer experience
                                through every touch-point
                               • Delivered a “surprise and delight” experience that drove excitement and sharing
                               • Chose vendors that have the expertise, technology and processes to ensure success

                               For more information on how Experian Marketing Services can help your brand
                               develop and deliver exceptional cross-channel customer experiences, you can
                               contact us at crosschannelmarketing@experian.com, 1 866 626 6479 or visit us
                               online at www.experian.com/crosschannelmarketing.

                               Experian Marketing Services is a leading global provider of consumer insights, targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing. We help
                               organizations intelligently interact with today’s empowered and hyperconnected consumers. By helping marketers identify their best customers, find
                               more of them, and then coordinate seamless and intelligent interactions across the most appropriate channels, Experian Marketing Services’ clients can
                               deepen customer loyalty, strengthen brand advocacy and maximize profits.

                               © 2014 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. • All rights reserved. Experian and the Experian marks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks
                               of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
                               05/14 | www.experian.com/marketingservices
                               Images courtesy of American Eagle Outfitters
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