Season Finale: Easter 2008
A look back on seasonal trends, email activity and standout B2C marketing:
Start to finish: The first reference to Easter was on Jan. 24 by Lillian Vernon. The final reference was on March 23 by Ralph Lauren.
The distribution curve: The biggest day for Easter emails was Sunday, March 16, followed by Thursday, March 6. Retailers sent the majority of Easter-themed emails after March 8.
Seasonally adjusted for 2009: Next year Easter is on April 12, three week later than this year. To help you better plan your next Easter campaign, I’ve seasonally adjusted this year’s distribution curve to account for next year’s Easter timing.
Year-over-year comparison: This was the earliest Easter since 1913 and it seemed to take retailers a little by surprise, as they didn’t invoke Easter nearly as much this year as they did last year. With the economy almost definitely in a recession already, it’s also possible that retailers found that their customers were more receptive to non-Easter promotions instead and that was the reason for the cutback.
Most interesting email: My favorite Easter email was a March 21 DisneyShopping email with the subject line, “Join Our Easter Egg Hunt & Save Up to 40%.” In it, DisneyShopping uses a fun Easter egg gimmick to promote site browsing. Their egg hunt goes like this: “The more pages you visit, the more your chances increase to find an egg packed with savings of up to 40%. When you land on a page that has a hidden egg, it will drop and crack open to reveal the Promotion Code.” So the promotion encourages you to browse pages until you receive a promotional code—and preferably the 40% discount code. It’s a smart promotion that encourages interaction and exploration.
In-store promotions: In a March 13 email, Harry & David promote their Easter Brunch Tasting Event, which promises free samples. This is a great example of offering subscribers an experience that they can’t get online, which is presumably how most of their subscribers generally interact with and buy from Harry & David.
Standout subject lines:
Finish Line, 3/21 — The Easter Bunny Wears Chucks----Do You?
DisneyShopping, 3/21 — Join Our Easter Egg Hunt & Save Up to 40%
Harry & David, 3/19 — THIS SUNDAY is Easter! We Can Still Guarantee They'll Get Your
Williams-Sonoma, 2/28 — New: Perfect Endings Cupcakes + Bunnies
Oriental Trading, 3/4 — $0 shipping on 100s of Easter values + don't pay until June
Read previous Easter Season Finales: 2007
Read previous posts about Easter emails.
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SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
Start to finish: The first reference to Easter was on Jan. 24 by Lillian Vernon. The final reference was on March 23 by Ralph Lauren.
The distribution curve: The biggest day for Easter emails was Sunday, March 16, followed by Thursday, March 6. Retailers sent the majority of Easter-themed emails after March 8.
Seasonally adjusted for 2009: Next year Easter is on April 12, three week later than this year. To help you better plan your next Easter campaign, I’ve seasonally adjusted this year’s distribution curve to account for next year’s Easter timing.
Year-over-year comparison: This was the earliest Easter since 1913 and it seemed to take retailers a little by surprise, as they didn’t invoke Easter nearly as much this year as they did last year. With the economy almost definitely in a recession already, it’s also possible that retailers found that their customers were more receptive to non-Easter promotions instead and that was the reason for the cutback.
Most interesting email: My favorite Easter email was a March 21 DisneyShopping email with the subject line, “Join Our Easter Egg Hunt & Save Up to 40%.” In it, DisneyShopping uses a fun Easter egg gimmick to promote site browsing. Their egg hunt goes like this: “The more pages you visit, the more your chances increase to find an egg packed with savings of up to 40%. When you land on a page that has a hidden egg, it will drop and crack open to reveal the Promotion Code.” So the promotion encourages you to browse pages until you receive a promotional code—and preferably the 40% discount code. It’s a smart promotion that encourages interaction and exploration.
In-store promotions: In a March 13 email, Harry & David promote their Easter Brunch Tasting Event, which promises free samples. This is a great example of offering subscribers an experience that they can’t get online, which is presumably how most of their subscribers generally interact with and buy from Harry & David.
Standout subject lines:
Finish Line, 3/21 — The Easter Bunny Wears Chucks----Do You?
DisneyShopping, 3/21 — Join Our Easter Egg Hunt & Save Up to 40%
Harry & David, 3/19 — THIS SUNDAY is Easter! We Can Still Guarantee They'll Get Your
Williams-Sonoma, 2/28 — New: Perfect Endings Cupcakes + Bunnies
Oriental Trading, 3/4 — $0 shipping on 100s of Easter values + don't pay until June
Read previous Easter Season Finales: 2007
Read previous posts about Easter emails.
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
Labels: DisneyShopping, Easter, Harry and David, Season Finale, Store Events
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posted at 11:51 AM by Chad White
I love Smith-Harmon's enthusiasm. It's so great to have a connection with people who really "get" and get excited by email marketing. (Truly, there are not that many of us out there!) I count myself very lucky to have found such accomplished enthusiasts to collaborate with on the REI program. They are helping to bring amazing opportunities to fruition with panache.
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