Beverley Merriman

30/07/2008 In Branding, Reviews by Beverley Merriman

Shake Interactive SA recently ran a successful online campaign in North America for The Macallan, the world’s most precious whisky.

Isn’t it fantastic seeing South African brains being utilized abroad? The Cape Town-based office worked with the client-facing Shake team in New York to design, implement and deliver the campaign.

The campaign:

The electronic CRM campaign (e-CRM), which was based around Father’s Day, was intended to raise brand awareness and help The Macallan clean up and tighten its database. The campaign enjoyed click-through rates of 39% and an open rate of 38.6%. Typically these rates are closer to 9.3% and 26% respectively across the industry. In terms of the bottom line, this translated to a cost of $0.73 (R5.74) per brand exposure, and $1.87 (R14.68) per brand action.

The response is even more remarkable given that the campaign focussed on branding and did not offer a targeted call to purchase, as it is not legal to sell alcohol online in the US. The email encouraged recipients to “make their way up the family pecking order” this Father’s Day and highlighted the time The Macallan spirit spends maturing in carefully selected oak casks, the hallmark of the brand.

“We believe these great results are thanks to well-constructed creative and copy which ensured such high delivery rates, as well as enough text and brand loyalty to encourage click-throughs, even without a special offer,” said Daniel Aufrichtig, Managing Director of Shake Interactive SA and Executive Development Director of the Shake Group.

“We are delighted with these extraordinary results from the team at Shake. They have mastered the delicate intersection of technology and persuasive content, delivering a winning campaign that has far exceeded our expectations based on industry benchmarks,” said Eric Maldonado, The Macallan U.S. brand manager at Rémy Cointreau USA, Inc.

Well done Shake!