American Eagle Outfitters - Cross-channel marketing holiday case study
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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 and Experian
Marketing Services 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
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 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.
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.
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.
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION AND DATA CAPTURE
AEO worked with Experian Marketing Services 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
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 provided strategic guidance through all phases of the
program, including best practices for mobile optimization of messaging across channels
and regulatory compliance.
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 a vendor that had 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.
© 2015 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.
02/15 | www.experian.com/marketingservices
Images courtesy of American Eagle Outfitters
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