• 2004 – 2005

Overview / challenge:

Katies was purchased by the Millers Retail Group in November 2000. The business generated over $70 million per annum from 127 stores located nationally, however they were struggling to achieve a strong dollar margin, largely due to their ‘discount-focused’ approach to marketing. Rocket Science was engaged to assist with creating the new Katies Club that would be more focused on individual customer needs, therefore enabling them to move away from a blanket discounting approach.

Solutions provided:

• Created a marketing audit & communication strategy that identified current strengths and opportunities for the program
• The benefits of the Club were redefined so members would receive sneak previews, pre-sale opportunities, invitations to other exclusive events, quarterly catalogues and offers from relevant third parties
• Defined the annual direct marketing program detailing acquisition, retention and reactivation activities
• Helped relaunch the club with the new creative & tagline, ‘Love the way you look’
• To spice up the relaunch and to move away from discounting Katies product, Rocket Science identified ‘perfume.com.au’ as a launch partner.  They came on board and offered new Katies Club Members who joined the program during the campaign period an entry into a $20,000 perfume giveaway. In addition to this, new Katies Club Members received a $20 voucher that they could redeem directly at perfume.com.au

Results:

• Katies successfully relaunched their club.
• The design templates were handed back to Katies so that they could continue to update artwork and cost-effectively produce material in-house.

• 2005

Overview / challenge:

Pre-Paid Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sing Tel Optus. They specialise in providing competitively  priced pre-paid telecommunication products. In 2005, they wanted to launch four new international calling cards and engaged Rocket Science to assist with all aspects of marketing development, creative and production.

Solutions provided:

• Our team developed the brands and designs for four new phone cards that were called ‘Anytime’, ‘Lucky Dragon’, ‘Genie’ and ‘Wicket’. Each targeted a slightly different market segment.
• We also created and produced support collateral which included DL rate cards, A3 and A4 retail posters, promotional posters and lanterns/wobblers for Lucky Dragon and a terms and conditions booklet.

Results:

• Brands / phone cards were successfully launched into the market and all are still active today.
• The design templates were handed back to Pre-Paid Services so that they could continue to update artwork and reproduce material as needed. This helped to contribute to a very cost-effective launch.

Lucky Dragon and Wicket A4 posters and DL rate cards

• 2010

Overview / challenge:

Marketsoft is a data specialist company who provide superior tools and services for direct marketers (across all industry segments) in the areas of preparing data for campaigns, managing third party data relationships, enhancing and cleansing data and providing complete outsourced CRM & reporting systems. Marketsoft had an out-of-date website that didn’t adequately reflect their business services, strengths and values. Rocket Science was engaged to help evolve the site so that it better communicated their business and encouraged prospective clients to ‘get in touch’.

Solutions provided:

• Assisted with creating the site map
• Identifed key messages and wrote the copy framework
• Worked closely with the team to refine and finalise the copy & creative

Results:

• Marketsoft launched their new site in October 2010

Marketsoft New Website

• 2003 – 2005

Overview / challenge:

Opdicom Pty Ltd invented an I.T. hardware product called Disc Stakka, which is an intelligent scalable, PC connected solution that enables businesses and to a less extent consumers to better store, retrieve and protect CD sized discs.  60,000 discs could be managed from a single user interface. This product was to be launched in the market place (would later would be branded Imation), but first Opdicom needed to identify and better understand the potential key market segments.

Solutions provided:

• Helped define the audience as owners of SMEs  within industries that used alot of discs (designers, printers, digital producers etc) and I.T. professionals/decision- makers within larger companies
• Identified relevant email lists and subscriber e-newsletters that could be used to reach prospective customers
• Launched an incentivised online research campaign to better understand the needs of various segments
• Managed all aspects of the research campaign which included working with the creative team on the branding and communications, setting up a product micro-site, designing the questions and working on the data capture form, referral element and reporting requirements.
• Following this successful pre-launch activity, Rocket Science continued to provide Opdicom with strategic marketing and creative support across all their launch and post-launch activities.

Results:

• The response rate to the online survey bet forecasts by 24% and the costs came in 7% under expectations.
• 81% of respondents opted-in to recieve further communications

Opdicom Online Research and Advertising

• 2009 – current

Overview / challenge:

Tahbilk is one of the oldest family-owned wineries in Australia. They have a successful wine club program with member numbers growing year-on-year. In 2010 they are celebrating their 150th anniversary, so the challenge was to assess each part of their direct sales program to ensure that they maximised internal opportunities to increase both member numbers and sales during this period.

Solutions provided:

• Conducted a direct marketing audit to help identify strengths, weaknesses and opportunities across all aspects of the wine club program
• Created direct marketing strategies to assist with the acquisition, retention and reactivation of wine club members
• Created financial forecasts to help set realistic measurable targets and budgets
• Responsible for providing ongoing strategic and tactical recommendations as required

Results:

• Alister Purbrick, CEO of Tahbilk Wines said, ‘Congratulations on the preparation and presentation of such a comprehensive, quality marketing audit and strategy document.’
• Implementation of initial strategies have already proven to have a positive impact on sales

Tahbilk audit, strategy and newsletter

• 1997

Overview / challenge:

McWilliams Mount Pleasant Winery in the Hunter Valley attracts significant visitor numbers every year. Many purchase and join the member program but then never purchase directly from the quarterly newsletter. Rocket Science was engaged to help reactivate inactive members already on their program.

Solutions provided:

• Conducted a direct marketing audit so that McWilliams/Mount Pleasant could assess their acquisition, retention and reactivation opportunities
• Designed a strategy to reactivate inactive Mount Pleasant customers
• Created a financial forecast model to show how much budget was required to achieve realistic targets
• Identified a number of test cells where the insights acquired could be used to improve the cost-efficiency and effectiveness of future campaigns
• Helped to set up a daily tracking sheet, so the results from each segment could be tracked and reported on
• Educated the marketing team on all aspects of direct marketing so they could do things more effectively going forward

Results:

• Greg West, the ‘Sales and Promotions Manager’ for Mount Pleasant said. “This campaign received the most frenzied response rate in the history of Mount Pleasant.”

McWilliams Mount Pleasant Reactivation Campaign

• 2006 – current

Overview / challenge :

Brown Hill Estate is a small boutique premium wine producer in Margaret River (Western Australia). They have a direct communication program whereby customers are sent their newsletter, every quarter. As a small family owned business they were stretched for resources and felt that a direct marketing specialist would be a great resource to have on the team to assist with all aspects of their direct marketing program.

Solutions provided:

• Conducted a marketing audit to identify strengths and weaknesses of their current program along with opportunities
• Help create and implement their direct marketing strategies and tactics for the newsletter, e-mails, cellar door, website and events
• As required, manage suppliers, write copy and conduct campaign post-analysis
• Create and manage the annual direct marketing program schedule

Results:

• Brown Hill are going from strength-to-strength. Their newsletters and the website continue to cost-effectively drive sales from both new and existing customers.

Brown Hill Estate media insert and quarterly newsletter

Visit the Brown Hill Estate Winery website.

• 2007 – current

Overview / challenge:

Huntington Estate is a small Mudgee boutique winery with a loyal following. They have been selling wine directly to their customers since 1969. Tim Stevens purchased the winery in 2005 and was keen to re-invigorate both the wine brand and member communication program to further engage customers and to help increase sales.

Solutions provided:

• Conducted a direct marketing audit across all areas of the business
• Identified key short and longer-term opportunities to acquire, retain and reactivate members
• Directed and oversaw the development of a new brand bible
• Introduced customer segmentation along with personalised and customised offers
• Continue to create, produce and distribute the member newsletter including directing data segmentation and sourcing and managing all aspects of creative, production and distribution suppliers
• Set up campaign tracking templates
• Conduct post-campaign analysis as required

Results:

• The April 2008 newsletter achieved an increase in sales of 48% above the year prior
• Continue to achieve response rates of up to 40% from some segments mailed
• Continue to refine and improve customer segmentation strategies and tactics

Huntington Estate Newsletters

• 2004 – 2009

Overview / challenge:

Each year a large portion of Australian Geographic’s budget was spent on acquiring new customers, but at the end of each year approximately 80% of these new customers were not renewing their subscription. This meant that they were not recouping their acquisition costs or growing the overall subscription base.

Solutions provided:

• Started by conducting an audit of their existing program and communication elements to determine what was working and where improvements could be made
• Identified some key areas of improvement which included such things as increasing the focus on the subscription product offered and less on the free gift to try and get a better quality customer up front
• Reduced costs by focusing on the most cost-effective opportunities within their internal environment and across their partner network
• Set up a number of tests to get better insights into the best offers, communication channels and methods by various audience segment
• Continuously used insights gained to evolve the communication program so that they could acquire better quality subscribers and retain them for longer
• Increased the focus on gift giving from subscribers who were already happy with the product
• Introduced an anniversary mailing into the program (before the first annual renewal mailing), which enabled them to impress customers with a timely and relevant communication before asking them to renew their subscription.

Results:

• After 2 years of this new approach, we no longer had to discount the upfront subscription price to get a good response rate.
• Achieved record response rates and positive contribution from all activity.
• The acquisition costs were reduced by 30%.
• The anniversary mailing consistently generated response rates of around 34% from existing subscribers, helping to increase the overall renewal rate. This initiative now forms part of their annual program.

Australian Geographic Acquisition Campaign and Anniversary pack

• 2007 – 2008

Overview / challenge:

Aspermont is Australia’s largest resource industry media group. They specialise in business-to-business communications in the resource and construction industries. In 2007, they launched an online business-to-consumer publication called SuperLiving and needed to acquire approximately 12,000 new opt-in subscribers to help attract advertisers.

Solutions provided:

• Started by conducting a marketing audit on the existing publication to identify weaknesses and obstacles that could prevent the subscription base from growing
• Oversaw changes made to the brand, content and online capture form
• Introduced a subscriber benefits area and approached partner companies to provide relevant exclusive offers
• Helped to determine and set up reporting capabilities
• Created and executed a strategy that identified relevant on-and-offline channels, key messages and benefits. Identified and approached a relevant third party company who agreed to reward all subscribers with a $20 voucher to be redeemed at their company (providing them with an acquisition stream at a low cost)
• Created financial forecasting models that helped set response rates and  acceptable acquisition costs by segment and channel
• Oversaw the creative development, production and implementation of all communications
• Each communication piece had a unique offer code and a daily tracking sheet was set up to record all daily subscriber activity by segment

Results:

• Increased the number of fully registered subscribers by 360%, within the budget allowed
• SuperLiving now have 40,000 online subscribers

SuperLiving website and media insert