These days, the University of Alabama’s direct mail campaigns for our athletic department are earning an A+.
In the past, the grade was not nearly as high. For years, the Alabama athletic department used the old dinosaur method of direct mail for our season ticket renewals for Crimson Tide football and basketball; we mail you the form and you send it back … with very little pizzazz. The direct mail piece yielded acceptable results, yet it offered very little information about how the consumer was interacting with the brand.
With this in mind, we created in 2007 a personalized direct mail campaign with an Internet component. Season ticketholders were sent a postcard with a picture of Bryant-Denny Stadium (home of the Crimson Tide) and their names were spelled out on the field by our band. The mailers also included a PURL address with the season ticketholder’s name in it. Site visitors saw images of Bryant-Denny Stadium with their name spelled out by the band and our varsity cheerleaders holding a sign up with the ticketholder’s name “J-O-N G-I-L-B-E-R-T, it’s your day at Bryant-Denny Stadium!”
The campaign was a success. Season ticketholders renewing online more than doubled, saving the ticket office valuable time and resources in processing mailed in renewals. And we sold approximately $50,000 in personalized Bryant-Denny Stadium posters. Perhaps most important, the direct mail, with the PURL sites, enabled us to track results and learn more about our fan base. We’ve begun a new direct mail piece with the Crimson Tide Foundation, the athletic department’s non-profit arm. The campaign helped generate more than $300,000 in revenue in its first six months.
The Tide is rolling with personalized direct mail.
Case Studies, CRM/Customization, Large Business, Personalization
