BACKGROUND
In the fall of 2008, Honda Canada launched a new web site (MyHonda.ca) to provide their customers with access to product information, recalls, manuals, booking of service appointments and to view and manage their accounts with Honda Finance. After a failed campaign with a competing agency to drive registration on the site, Honda Canada turned to jib.
OBJECTIVE
Develop a national direct mail campaign to introduce MyHonda and the additional benefits of signing up at the MyFinance section of the site using a Personalized URL (PURL) campaign. Using our HelloName PURL technology allowed us to auto-populate the customers’ vehicle VIN number (which could have been an issue for abandonment), their name and address and only required them to verify their postal code.
CREATIVE
Rather than design a flashy marketing mailer, we decided to be a little more strategic. Our approach involved exploiting the relationship a ‘finance’ company might have with a customer, so the creative was simplified intentionally as to appear serious and official, with very clear instructions on what to do next.
CHALLENGE
The challenges were 2 pronged. First, our technology solution had to be integrated into Myhonda.ca web site and all development and testing had to be completed onsite at Honda’s data centre. Our second biggest challenge was getting customers to the MyFinance portion of the MyHonda.ca web site with our PURL solution. Being the finance arm of Honda, we could not directly link to the finance portion of the site for security reasons and therefore unable to auto-populate any customer data in this section.
RESULT
Our simple no nonsense approach was a huge success! The PURL drove a 20% overall response rate and resulted in a 15% increase in MyFinance registrations. And customer call centre support was negligible. Thanks to the overwhelming success of this campaign, we are now discussing another project.
