Tommy Bahama
Beaches and e-commerce
Situation
Luxury resort brand Tommy Bahama wanted to increase its presence and product availability online while also being able to translate the brand’s offline philosophy of “life is one long weekend” to the Web. While the brand already had a Web site for some time, until recently it was “basically just a billboard for the company,” says Doug Wood, COO of the Tommy Bahama Group. Its target demographic is men and women age 35 and older.
Approach
Tommy Bahama partnered with Escalate Retail and used its Blue Martini e-commerce suite software platform to launch a new Web site at www.tommybahama.com in October. The site features men’s and women’s apparel, locators for the brand’s stores and restaurants as well as Tommy Bahama event listings. A section called Paradise Nation provides items to help visitors live an island lifestyle, including tropically inspired recipes, screensavers of various destinations, downloadable wallpapers, island-inspired articles and forums.
The imagery on the site is very important, according to Wood. Tommy Bahama “spent a lot of money on photo shoots” for the relaunch, which has had “tremendous impact” on the effectiveness of the site as a branding and messaging vehicle, he says. Many of the images are presented in a scrapbook-like format on the homepage.
The investment appears to be paying off, with the average user viewing 11 pages per visit and spending more than five minutes on the site.
The site was promoted with in-store collateral, window displays and Tommy Bahama shopping bags.
Results
The site has received 200,000 monthly unique visits and 150,000 unique visitors since the relaunch. –Mary Hurn
The Augustinians
Catholic organization makes connection with direct mail
Approach: The Augustinians of the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova, aCatholic order, wanted to increase revenue and gain some younger members. Agency 20nine Design created postcards, a brochure and a magazine, as well as a slogan, “Be part of something powerful.”
Results: The order’s annual fund has already surpassed this year’s goal of $700,000 with contributions totaling $826,000. –Nathan Golia
Coke Zero and Outback
Online sweepstakes drives trial
Approach: Hoping to increase trials of Coke Zero in Outback restaurants, the two brands partnered with Promotions.com on an NCAA-themed online sweepstakes this spring. Diners purchasing a Coke Zero drink and one of several dishes receive an instant-win game piece with a unique code used to enter the sweepstakes.
Results: As of March 16, the landing page had more than 11,700 entries. –Chantal Todé
Privateview
Steffan Postaer
Chairman and CCO, Euro RSCG Worldwide Chicago
Tommy Bahama and Escalate Retail have put together a pretty snazzy site at Tommybahama.com. Basically, it’s a catalog imagined as a vacation portfolio. They are trying to capture a “long weekend” theme and, while I’m not sure long weekends involve documenting much of anything, the site is easy to use and easy on the eyes.
The Augustinians of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova have a long name and an old problem. Like most Catholic organizations, it faces myriad financial problems and an ever-aging membership. The unexpected solution: A DM campaign employing the theme, “Be part of something powerful.” While I’m told this was an aggressive approach for church practices, I found it to be highly conservative. It felt like something I’d see in a folder rack in the church basement. But God is in the details, and the Web site certainly covers all of them.
Coke Zero and Outback put together a NCAA promotion on their respective Web sites, which, from what I could tell, lacked fizz. It had all the usual trappings: Go to restaurant to get codes, enter codes online, win junky booby prizes and maybe tickets to the Final Four. Of course a bunch of people did it, I just wish these things weren’t so busy and predictable. And what does a Blooming Onion have to do with a basketball tournament? I’m not a fan of contests with zero synergy…or should I say Coke Zero?
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