Cashback! Which brands are at the checkout with their online activity?

“Online is now a mass communication tool and can provide scale and accountability for retailers. Online will complement every other media in terms of pure reach, incremental reach and brand engagement, it is the place where people interact and act. As a press or TV campaign will drive store traffic so will online, it is an integral part of the media mix.” - Nicola Ibberson, retail category director, Yahoo!

How Guava increased traffic and online sales through a PPC campaign:

Guava were approached by bagga Menswear to increase their online traffic volumes and sales generated through their men’s designer clothing site.

• To improve bagga Menswear’s organic listings, Guava’s dedicated SEO team reviewed the site, providing recommendations with regards to key phrases, site layout and structure, as well as meta data policies and technology used.

• Through a strategically targeted PPC campaign, Guava were able to focus on core brands and clothing items to bring CPAs down to a monthly average of less than £5, while month-on-month, increasing the ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend).

• A comprehensive linking strategy was also implemented to ensure good quality links were directed into the bagga Menswear site, thus increasing its visibility online as a whole, as well as aiding it to achieve better listings within the search engines.

• To achieve high sale volumes at low CPAs, PPC was used to enable key marketing messages to be distributed very quickly. Taking advantage of seasonal pushes and any online promotions which can be reflected in ad copy and key phrases used in the campaign. For bagga Menswear this resulted in a massive increase in ROAS (over £25 return for every £1 spent) and halved the average CPA.

• bagga Menswear now achieve over 1000% ROI on a monthly basis from their website and have seen an 86% improvement in its visibility across the search engines.

Top tips for driving ROI focused sales through PPC by Tug:

As an online retailer competing in a tight margin business, Truffle Shuffle approached Tug to manage their PPC advertising campaign with the aim of developing a more profitable and accountable marketing plan.

• Tug developed an extensive PPC campaign on Google and Yahoo! using only very specific, product related keywords in hundreds of tight ad groups.

• Specific, relevant ad creative was developed for every available t-shirt whilst PR efforts were coordinated weekly to test integrated ad creative.

• Tug removed all broad keywords even if they could drive sales volume and concentrated only on keywords that convert under £5.25.

• Tug used DART bid management software to set strict Position and ROI rules, capturing revenue and reporting weekly on profitability at the keyword level.

• The campaign delivered a 3000% ROI, with the average PPC cost per sale totaling £1.25. In December 2007, Tug drove 2,605 sales – an average of 1.5 t-shirts per basket and the campaign continues to run, delivering 60% of Truffle Shuffle’s sales.

Affiliate marketing case study from TradeDoubler and Jessops 2008

• Jessops wanted 100% sales value growth year-on-year Jan – June 2007– no mean feat considering overall market growth was closer to 40%.

• They employed a three-tiered tactical plan: to engage with the affiliates, to introduce new revenue streams and to maximise the potential of affiliate campaigns.

• Jessops offered bespoke discount codes based on the names of affiliate sites, and key affiliates were also offered dedicated creative and landing pages

• They introduced post impression sales and met with affiliates on a oneto-one basis to ensure they became dedicated drivers of their online sales channel.

• Jessops also launched collect@store an online store where customerscan opt to collect products at a local store. Affiliates were at the top ofthe priority list for communicating this launch.

• The results? For Jan – June 2007 they saw a 239% sales value increase, and a 258% sales unit increase.

Consumer responses to the Dare campaign for Woolworths:

Consumer responses online (in forums, on blogs etc) to the Dare-created game which promoted the launch of the new Woolworths Big Red Book – you had to catapult the book towards targets to win an assortment of Prizes.

IAB/Microsoft Advertising Creative showcase winning retail campaigns

1. Nike

Nike PhotoiD by AKQA - June 08 winner

Dave Bedwood, Lean Mean Fighting Machine: “When every brand is trying to do something with mobile technology Nike once again lead the way by creating something which places relevance and simplicity before technical wizardry.”



2. Adidas

Impossible Story by glue London - June 07 winner








3. IKEA

Kitchens that are built for real life by agency.com - Feb 2007 Winner

Mat Freer, Whatif Innovation: “The collision of high tech with human reality makes the Ikea campaign truly distinctive, underpinning the quality credentials of the kitchen and provoking a wry smile from anyone who’s witnessed the impact that real life has on anything shiny and new. I hope that robot’s hangover was as bad as mine… “


4. Diesel

Diesel Heaven by Airlock - September 2006 winner

Stefan Shaw, Greenroom Digital:“I love the concept and campaign ambition, its not flawless but it is bold and daring, everything I’d expect from Diesel.”

5 notable Facebook retail presences:

1. My Starbucks Application - My Starbucks® lets you sport your favorite drink, send drinks to your friends, and caffeinate your Facebook experience… with 115,731 monthly active users. Interestingly the creators of this application are in no way affiliated to the Starbucks franchise.

2. The Primark Appreciation Society - There’s no doubt that this cheap and cheerful store is popular, and this group started by a regular old consumer boasts 95,027
members, many of whom appear to enjoy wasting their time discussing its merits if the 465 discussion topics are anything to go by.

3. Topshop Fashion Fix - An instant hit, providing you with key items from latest collections displayed on your profile page. Befriend IAB Marketing Director, Kieron Matthews, and you’ll see that even he is a fan. Around 10,867 monthly active users and an average 4.6 out of 5 user rating.

4. o2 Orgy of Fun - The much heralded case study that used Facebook for what it’s best at, sweeping the nation both on and offline with the promise of a free party for the most competitive universities in the country.

5. Adidas - The Celebrate Originality Application lets you see adidas videos, create your own piece of adidas art and see original creations from people around the globe. This is clearly a popular Facebook presence with one fan proclaiming ‘woooooooow adidas 4 ever’ on the application Wall.

“Community will soon become the entry point to the Internet and will frame the entire internet experience. Online communities as important as offline communities. Online communities and the buying process will be integrated and linked. People will want to buy from the places they feel they can trust the recommendations and merchants will want to be there.” - Jeffrey Cole Director, Centre for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg School

The marketing imperative - Especially if ads are targeted by AOL:

Q: Thinking about the advertisement(s) that you clicked on, which of these explain why you did so?

(Brand New World II Cranfield School of Management/HenleyCentre/AOL 2006)

Advice for retail affiliate marketers from TradeDoubler:

From years of experience working with many of the leading UK retailers, TradeDoubler has compiled the top tips to a winning affiliate marketing strategy:

• HMV – winners of the IMA Award for Best Use of Affiliate Marketing(2007) and Revolution Awards Best Use of Affiliate Marketing (2008) – has led the way in retail affiliate marketing. They, like many retail clients, focus on seasonal strategies with Christmas being a peak season planned many months ahead for a truly integrated approach. In this case study the HMV programme showed poor earnings per click (EPC) so new tiers and commission structures were introduced to improve competitiveness and boost market share. Private commissions were also offered to selected top publishers to cover the costs of targeted search activity. This culminated in an increase in average EPC from 13p to 34p when compared against the same period the previous year.

• Using affiliate marketing as part of your overall strategy is equallyimportant to Avon, the world’s leading direct seller of beauty and related products. eMarketing Planner, Lauren Moore, recommends that, “Integration between on and offline is vital to maintain consistency particularly for a brand as large as Avon. Ensuring affiliate creative mirrors the messages in TV advertising maximises the online reach of offline activity”.

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