HSMAI Marketing Review August 2009 - 22

addresses and more. In addition, a well developed item microsite can enhance and enforce the brand experience for the consumer thereby creating greater marketing value and more engagement. Elements like video, multiple images, Webcams, and advertising copy approved by the marketer are incorporated to give a better, more optimized user experience. Contrast this with a standard clipboard treatment found in most age hotel customer spends a week at the resort, then donate three nights with a small gift certificate that encourages purchase of additional nights to leave room for upsell. CROSS SELL. Again, these folks have paid cash to experience your brand. They are more than prospects. Include an incentive to try the spa to encourage additional spend. For restaurants this is usually where the bar bill figures item microsite—where these affluent consumers spend well above 30 seconds consuming the content and engaging with the brand. (Note: Google typically charges $3 and up for a single consumer click thru.) STAFF PRODUCTIVITY. Implementing an automated item request system cuts down on staff time spent processing item donations, thereby increasing productivity. For certain organizations who sell special event services to charities it can also enable lead generation for functions or special events. It also gives management a tool so item donations can be properly budgeted. Lastly, by working with a single online auction service the marketer streamlines fulfillment friction enabling them to participate in more events with significantly reduced staff time. Case Example A well known five star luxury hotel on the east coast engaged an online auction provider to place a test trial of 20 stays into a cross section of auctions both locally and in geo-targeted events. The following results were achieved; • An item microsite with multiple images and approved advertising copy was built that optimized and enforced brand treatment that the property controlled and was used in all 20 auctions. The opening bid was hard wired so the brand could never be offered at a harmful rate. • The property was placed and tracked into a number of high profile auctions that included Phillips Andover Academy (a nationally recognized private school), Dartmouth College, the Washington D.C. National Zoo, The Ethel Walker School (another nationally known private school), The National Gaucher Foundation, etc. • The average auction generated 146 consumer click thru’s. This is different than consumers simply thumbing the pages or banner ads flying by. Instead it is a proactive engagement where the consumer clicked thru to engage the brand. In total the propHSMAI MARKETING REVIEW • AUGUST 2009 By partnering with those that produce online charity auctions, you can take advantage of their reach into affluent cash-paying customers with high discretionary incomes. charity/school auctions. Moreover, this microsite can be standardized so that all charities use it, thereby enforcing brand treatment consistency. Lastly, for those organizations who receive a large volume of inbound item donation requests, a Web based item request tool can ensure that these charities supply appropriate information to help management better track their requests. A Web based tool enables simple email based accept/decline processing, thereby reducing overall item processing friction by 90 percent. In a time of leaner staffs, large productivity increases are a good thing. in. For sports teams or entertainment venues it is the concession stand. Moreover, once they are in your marketing database you now have permission to market to them forever. LOSING BIDDER MARKETING OUTREACH PROGRAMS. Losing bidders who put down their credit card and bid cold hard cash for your brand are outstanding prospects. Some percent of them will re-engage if properly solicited. In the current charity auction model this is evaporating economic loss—but it need not be so. ADVERTISING VALUE. The current environment is actually harmful to brands in two ways. First brand treatment is poor. Secondly, often times opening bids are set so low in the effort to give donors a deal that they are damaging to the brand image. Conversely, measureable economic value is gained from consumer click thru’s and time spent on the (approved) item microsite. By upgrading to consistent high quality brand treatment vs. name on a clipboard there is tangible benefit. Good brands typically get well over 100 click thru’s per online auction to their The ROI Case The opportunity for economic returns from online charity auctions for marketers is as follows: UPSELL. Since the winning bidders, highly qualified customers who have paid cash to experience your brand, are showing up at the front door, there is a strong upsell opportunity if the offer is properly constructed. The marketer should not give away the whole store— only a taste of the product. If the aver22

HSMAI Marketing Review August 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of HSMAI Marketing Review August 2009