There are those who welcome the imminence of winter—strapping on their skis and boots to “shred the gnar” in the back country. It’s the sort of sport that requires detailed preparation, from choosing the right terrain and equipment to taking avalanche training and purchasing skis that will let a skier float through waist-deep snow. Then there are the travel arrangements: airfare, transportation to remote locations, and lodging.
SASS Global Travel was founded in 2006 to alleviate the logistical headache of jet-setting to the snow or—for warm weather aficionados—the surf. It’s about enabling thrill seekers to think of nothing but blasting sweet lines down the slopes. Unfortunately, SASS’s email campaigns were also largely about blasting.
Despite the high adventure SASS offers, its email program was fairly standard. It sent emails roughly once a month to fans, with updates on new trips or lifestyle content. Certainly the emails worked—Lucas Moore, company program director and systems manager, was fine with the click-through rates.
But the company’s agency, BOLD Worldwide, recommended making the email a little more edgy with video personalization.
For example, customers on SASS’s email list recently received a message with a link to a video and a call-to-action to inquire about a ski trip to Argentina. It’s the video that’s meant to entice customers to learn more. The first shot of the video: a customer’s name emerging from behind a mountain, followed by frenetically-edited shots of skiers free-styling through spectacular terrain and a shot of an iPhone airplane boarding pass on which the customer’s name appears.
“We got a lot of responses,” says Brian Cristiano, CEO of BOLD Worldwide. “Did it plant the seed? Dangle the carrot? Oh yes it did.” He adds that all of the recipients who played the video watched it in its entirety, and that total video plays, in conjunction with the number of video recipients, was 195%. “That’s essentially, if you average it out, every person playing the video at least twice.”
It’s what SASS had hoped for. Immediately selling sessions, he says, would be unrealistic—the trips are considered purchases, roughly $6,000 per person. But it’s the beginning of a lead generation campaign meant to entice sales for the coming winter season. The click-through rate was 19.53%, 651% above the industry average as assessed by email marketing solutions provider Mailchimp. Moreover, SASS’s open-to-click ratio of 48.03% was 149% above the national average, as assessed by Silverpop.
These results indicate a 1,000% improvement over SASS’s email marketing campaigns from the previous year.
Of course, the question is: How did SASS pull this off?
First, BOLD Worldwide partnered with RUKUS, a video-rendering technology that automated the video personalization so the campaign could scale. Second, SASS had essential elements in its archive: great video creative that it could quickly cut together, and email data—including 2,000 “superfans” who are categorized as such because of their high click-through rates.
But, like a trip through the back country, personalized video isn’t the sort of thing that companies still riding the email bunny slope can easily pull off. As in skiing, the right tools lets the more experienced marketers make first tracks down harder, more rewarding terrain.
