The Email Wars

WIth the 2008 Olympics in full swing I wanted to highlight two examples that I got right around the start of the opening ceremonies. Now why I am sharing both of these is for the fact that they are from the same company, but they manage the shopping experience for NBC online. They do a good job of tying in the sale of merchandise to a real life event and use the creative, products, and subject lines to capture your attention. 

The first one from NBC does a good job EXCEPT they failed at the above the creative personalization techniques. Why if they know my name do they call me “Dear Olympics Fan”? That to me is dropping the ball on the 3 yard line when you are heading in to score a touchdown. 

The creative is nice but the header is a little to fat so that it causes you to lose the rest of the email in the preview pane. They could mix in a salad in the design to think about how long the email is and how it renders when quickly reviewing it before fully opening it. They take the bronze here. 

This other one if from their own company and always goes out on Fridays, which was perfectly in line for the opening of the games. They did not have to shift the delivery date and used it to their favor. I have always wondered by Friday, but then I makes sense as that is the lead into the weekend and a good time to think about shopping. They never seem to mix up the day of the week and I often wonder if they test much. Maybe since I always look and read I am not in the testing control group. 

The creative is spot on for the GOLD and stay with the subject line, theme of the header and continues throughout. So for this I give them the gold. 

I will keep my eyes on what else trickles in these next few weeks as I expect more around this theme from other brands. And why not? It is a perfect event to market around. And even though you might not have the budget to spend a few million on advertising of sponsoring the games, you can use the mental lift to piggyback on the others that do.