The Email Lure
BCF - Super Retail Group
Issue 45 | December 2017
Agency
Clemenger BBDO Brisbane
Creative Team
Creative Directors Marianne Harvey, Cristian Staal Copywriter Shaun Conroy Art Director Ryan Kidd Head of Art Andy Goeppert
Production Team
Re-toucher Derek Leung Managing Director Rob Hudson Senior Account Director Allison Witherspoon Agency Producer Robyn Dodd
Other Credits
Clients Marketing Manager BCF Ben McConnell Brand Manager BCF Sarah Cogzell Marketing Coordinator BCF Melissa Guymer
Date
April 2017
Background
BCF (boating, camping, fishing) was one of Australia's largest outdoor leisure retailers. Their mission was to inspire people to master their outdoor passions and become 'BCFing experts'. They were also serious about fishing and each store was packed full of gear to help people catch the big one. By signing up to become 'Club BCF members' people received emails with exclusive offers and discounts. The problem was BCF had 42,000 inactive subscribers who hadn't opened at least their last 20 emails. The task was to get them back on board, opening emails and re-engaging with the brand and, hopefully, buying more product.
Idea
Recall emails usually happen when someone sends the wrong message to the wrong person, then tries to take it back. But all this does is generate a second 'Retrieval request' message, which has the opposite effect. Nothing gets people's attention faster than telling them not to look at something.
What's more, the idea of tossing something out and taking it back to entice a bite is just like lure fishing. It's all about nailing the retrieval. This thought led to the 'Email Lure', an email that was cast out and retrieved to catch the elusive target species.
Results
From a group that hadn't opened their last 20 emails, the clickthrough rate was 335% above average.
Final ROI was 715.71%.
Our Thoughts
In many agencies, the email is probably the most unloved of all the creative platforms.
No-one reads them, as BCF knew all too well.
The truth is, no-one will volunteer to engage with an ad unless it promises something that is both relevant and timely. That's why almost all branded emails get trashed without being opened. They are messages about a product. Boring.
So I doff my fishing hat to the team at Clemenger BBDO, who didn't give up on the hopeless task of writing an email for BCF, but actually thought about it. And managed to create a subject line that attracted attention in the recipient's inbox. Not easy. Then they managed to resist the temptation to overwrite and over-complicate the email itself. Also not easy when there is always a lot to say about the products and the offer.
This gets a big thumbs-up from us for being an ordinary job done with extraordinary care.