Intermix
Situation
With its e-mail list growing rapidly, high-end retailer Intermix wanted to improve the effectiveness of its campaigns, which had been massive blasts. “We were kind of sitting on a gold mine and needed to target most efficiently,” says Eileen Shulock, creative director, e-commerce for Intermix.
Approach
In mid-2008, Intermix turned to iPost’s Autotarget, a predictive analytics tool, to crank up its behavioral targeting ability. With Autotarget, Intermix could better segment its subscriber list of tens of thousands of names, allowing the retailer to send different creative to different types of consumers.
Those with high response rates, for example, received e-mails highlighting new collections and “VIP”-type promos, while low responders received more discount and low-cost offers. Also, those low responders were removed from the list altogether if response rates failed to improve.
Results
With its new e-mail strategy, Intermix was able to increase the profitability of its e-mail marketing by 28%. The company also lowered its e-mail opt-outs by 84% and directly increased its revenues by 9%.
-Lauren Bell
Wine Enthusiast
Approach
Wine Enthusiast wanted to implement better imagery and richer functionality, such as the ability to zoom and pan on products, on its e-commerce Web site. It teamed up with Adobe Scene7’s rich media solutions to add richer features across the site; Adobe’s service also helped optimize Wine Enthusiast for online video.
Results
Since implementing Scene7 in spring 2008, Wineenthusiast.com has seen conversions double and image management time reduced by a factor of five.
-Bryan Yurcan
AOL.com
Approach
September, AOL’s advertising network division, Platform-A, wanted to increase consumer reach and ad engagement for AOL.com. A homepage relaunch allowed users to access e-mail accounts from other locations and use social networking services. AOL also introduced a new 300- by 600-pixel ad space on the front page.
Results
Ad click-through rates increased 30%, and unique and average daily visitors both went up 13%. Total minutes spent on the site increased 29%.
-Kevin McKeefery
PRIVATEVIEW
Paul Mouer
VP and group creative director, Hawkeye
Never underestimate the power of a consistent brand. The e-mails from Intermix are falling short of this. There is no consistency from one e-mail to the next. One e-mail has tons of images – some in boxes, some creeping out of boxes – there is just too much stuff going on. The next e-mail is all type on a stark white background. A third e-mail is a completely different design. Without the company’s logo, you wouldn’t know where these e-mails were coming from — and that’s a problem.
What the Wine Enthusiast Web site lacks in looks, it more than makes up for in functionality with the recent implementation of Adobe Scene7. Good quality, high-resolution photography makes for an incredibly realistic online shopping experience. Couple that with the super realistic personalize and preview feature, which allows you to customize and preview monogrammed products and the experience is actually better than being in the store.
I like the look of the new AOL homepage, and can see why it’s working so well for the company and its advertisers. It is very user-friendly with navigation running down the left side, content in the center and advertisements on the right. I like the color palette and how it’s varied with multiple shades to help the eye navigate the page with ease. The photography looks good against the color palette and really pops off the page. It’s an attractive, clean design that works.
