The Baileys Lounge launch
Issue 11 | June 2009
Agency
Chemistry Communications
Creative Team
Executive creative director: Mike Cavers Interactive creative director: Rob Trono Copywriter: Jennifer Simmons Art Director: Jose Valente
Production Team
Head of Flash: Andre Assalino Digital producer: Jo Lush Senior technical project manager: Phill Bexon DIAGEO IS project manager: William Jackson
Other Credits
Group account director: Hattie Whiting Account director: Claire Kemp Account manager: Lindsey Thomas Baileys brand manager: Violeta Andreeva
Background
The task was to launch The Baileys Lounge as a new online are for members only where the brand could start communicating with high value consumers and enter into a deeper dialogue with them than ever before.
Full access to the members’ area, including the valuable ‘Offers’ section, was only available via a unique username and password, giving Diageo rich tracking information on individual consumers.
Idea
The Baileys Lounge was created to provide women feel-good moments through rich editorial content.
As well as exclusive Baileys recipes in the ‘Food and Drink’ section there were exclusive offers in the ‘Offer’ section such as ‘Hotel Chocolat –free chocolates worth £12.50 when you spend £30’.
The site was designed to work like a pop-up book because research indicated that reading magazines scored highly in the target’s list of ‘me-time’ treats.
The campaign was launched with two different e-mails, created with different content to appeal to different audience types.
Two mailings were sent out one encouraging high-worth consumers to engage with the brand online, the other encouraging lower-value consumers to enter a prize draw.
Results
20% consumers opened the email, with an average of 30% clicking through to the site. Of those who clicked through to the site, the average Lounge member spent 4mins 25 on the site, visiting 6 pages. The most popular sections being ‘Offers’ and ‘Food and Drink’
Our Thoughts
Personally, I find the Baileys site and its contents unappealing. Which is just as it should be, given I’m male and middle-aged. But I do like what it represents: to wit, Diageo’s skill in relationship marketing. They were among the first marketers to discover that consumers like to replicate their offline habits online and, working with Chemistry, over the last few years they have produced a series of communications that have had a remarkable effect both on the brand and on sales.