Black Friday (News - Alert) is one of the most competitive shopping events of the year, and it’s just around the corner. The famous shopping day is not just competitive due to sales among name brands, but also because customers do in-depth research to become bargain shoppers prior to the event. Because of this, retailers must proactively reach out to customers to let them know what deals to expect.In order to catch the attention of the Black Friday shopper in the midst of mass sales and crowds, DG3, a global provider of print and communications services, decided to run a mobile campaign with retail fashion store Mandee to drive consumer engagement and instant gratification. Joe Lindfeldt, EVP for Strategic Development at DG3 recently sat down with TMCnet to discuss last year's campaign in detail.
At the entrance of each store, DG3 placed large, branded QR Codes so that the consumer could instantly take advantage of the coupon. Utilizing a scratch-off lottery ticket concept, the consumers could scan the QR Code to unlock mobile offers. Next, participants scanned the QR code and enter their e-mail address are guaranteed a discount of 15, 20, 25 or 50 percent. Finally, the customers simply showed the digital coupon at checkout to have it applied to the purchase.
For Mandee, this created a new consumer database incorporating consumer data with purchased items, and it gave the consumer an incentive to gather more items and make a purchase, according to Lindfeldt. Also, by implementing social media share functionality, consumers spread Mandee's promotional message throughout social networks.
“This allowed external sources and traffic to learn of the promotion and come into the mobile engagement,” Lindfeldt told TMCnet. “Best of all, we can track this inbound and outbound traffic.”
The results speak for themselves as they are available in real-time and can be used to measure revenue, participation, consumer patterns, duration, geographic demographics and even sharing via social media..
All retailers have sales on Black Friday, but the ability to put an instant digital coupon in the hands of frantic customers delivers a unique experience, making Mandee stand out.
“The mobile offer acts as an additional advertisement that lives on the individual's smartphone, iPad or tablet giving the offer legacy and all the more reason to go in-store and redeem,” explained Lindfeldt.
These technologies can be used to engage consumers on brand awareness in order to leave an imprint on the customer’s mind. Sending out personalized teasers through email, including QR Codes in print ads, implementing NFC into in-store POS collateral can all deliver these engagements.
Most importantly, they allow DG3 to learn each customer’s interests in relation to the brand for future communication on a personal level. “Knowing what an individual is interested in prior to the holiday shopping season and what they bought during the holiday shopping season allows us to extend a promotional offer on a per customer basis for complimentary items,” said Lindfeldt.
The promotion was active at 115 stores in the Northeast and was a success with 8,000 scans being tracked with a 94 percent conversion rate.
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Edited by Jamie Epstein
