We’re thrilled to say that 2019 was no exception. This past year has made us fire on all cylinders to putting our Agile Marketing Program to full use. So let’s recap some project highlights that made 2019 the most rewarding one yet for us and our wonderful client-partners.
Energy Muse
When Energy Muse came to us in early 2019, they were already established as industry leaders in the crystals and precious gems world – a growing and widely popular industry. Their brand SEO was crushing organic website traffic, but struggling to keep a healthy conversion rate. All the while their website was living on an outdated Magento CMS, nearing its end-of-life expiration date. Their site not only needed to be rebuilt on a new platform as quickly as possible, but the Energy Muse brand needed a new image to position it for exponential growth.
As a part of our Agile Program, our team of talented strategists, developers, content creators and marketing experts shaped an entirely new brand experience for Energy Muse which centered around the development of an innovative and responsive website built on a 100% custom headless Shopify storefront.
Original photography found in Energy Muse’s new book, “Crystals 365”
The new Energymuse.com launched early November, just in time for the 2019 holiday season, with all new high-end imagery, rich branded content, over 1,000 new pixel-perfect product images, and loads of unique crystal tests and experiences. The icing on the cake? Our developers kept Energy Muse’s SEO traffic completely in tact with the CMS platform migration – keeping the 500K+ unique monthly visitors flowing in.
Screenshots of email graphics implemented during Black Friday/Cyber Monday
While the tall order of the new website was a heavy undertaking, it was not the only project Giant Propeller managed for Energy Muse month-over-month as a part of our Agile Program.
We also:
· Shot and produced original photography for Energy Muses’s new book “Crystals 365”
· Optimized their media buy with accurate tracking and tagging
· Upgraded and rebuilt their email marketing automations with better tech
· Launched a crystal identifier tool with machine learning
How’s that for a year’s work?
We are extremely grateful for the love, trust and partnership we’ve gained this year from our incredible crystal friends, and are looking forward to continuing our progress and performance in 2020. There are a LOT of exciting plans on the forefront.
Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Campaign
Giant Propeller was engaged by Three Lakes Partners and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation to lead the strategy, planning, and execution of a campaign to raise awareness for Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF). In simple terms, PF means scarring in the lungs that, over time, can destroy the normal lung and make it hard for oxygen to get into your blood. There are currently over 200,000 patients diagnosed with PF and 50,000 additional new patients diagnosed each year.
In order to launch a successful PF awareness campaign we knew we had to look at the illness differently than previous PF campaigns. After meeting with a large group of diagnosed patients and speaking with numerous stakeholders in the PF community, we were able to draw two main conclusions:
· Many patients didn’t take their symptoms seriously and it was a caregiver (spouse/family member) that encouraged them to seek the proper medical support.
· Almost all marketing for PF awareness centered around only one of the three main symptoms, shortness of breath, and neglected to focus any attention on persistent cough.
With our problem defined we began building our strategy. The decision was made to target the Chicago market exclusively in order to test different creative, segmentation, targeting, and platform tactics and strategies. The budget for the campaign was $1.2M with a full media buy lasting 11 weeks in total.
We branded our campaign, “More Than A Cough” as a way to message PF in a context that expresses our narrative around taking symptoms seriously. This branded phrase afforded us the opportunity to communicate PF in a way that wasn’t complex or scary but rather simple and with a sense of urgency. The symbols we created to convey our message were two animated characters named Norm and Jennifer. These characters were created as a representation of numerous real patients and caregivers.
In order to effectively build awareness and create engagement we built the splash page morethanacough.org. The page offered information on PF, its symptoms, as well as resources to help potential patients and caregivers.
To activate our campaign, we deployed a media buy strategy across multiple platforms. We launched on paid social on Facebook and quickly followed up with other digital placements on Google and YouTube. We also included an OOH program that included public transportation ad space, billboards, broadcast, radio, and a full page ad in the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune.
In late October the MTAC campaign was selected by Google to participate in an exclusive ad optimization program. The relationship with Google provides our campaign with a variety of unreleased, beta technologies and customer support that are available to less than 100 advertisers in the United States.
The results of this one market, 11 week campaign have been staggering:
· 300,000 Website Visitors |17,000 PF Risk List Downloads | 1,500 Email Sign-Ups
· 53 Million Impressions | 2M Video Views | $0.95 CPC across search, display, video
· Facebook | 7,000 Likes and Reactions | 3,200 Shares and Saves | 660 comments
· In order to accurately measure awareness of PF, we looked at a number of different indicators to see how people in Chicago were organically expressing interest in the illness and its symptoms.
Google Keyword Search Popularity Index by City Over Time
Keyword: Pulmonary Fibrosis
Interest Lift for Pulmonary Fibrosis
Brand Keyword: Pulmonary Fibrosis
Using Chicago as a test market, we’ve established a number of significant optimizations and KPIs to help inform a larger, future national campaign. Because of these efforts we’re now in a much better position to successfully raise awareness for PF in a way no other campaign has yet to achieve.
Lyf
In June of 2019 a mobile application company Lyf connected with us. The Lyf application is unique in that it’s so much more than an app – it’s a community. A community filled with people sharing their journeys as they are overcoming and battling such deep topics as anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles.
While yes, it’s technically still “social media,” it’s also the antidote to the narcissistic digital culture that is so prevalent today. This culture often generates feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, and self doubt. Conversely, Lyf is a place for sharing, compassion, mindfulness and vulnerability.
The Lyf team was experiencing challenges that are not unlike most post beta/discovery mobile applications. They needed assistance in:
· Gauge and build tools that properly assess CAC and LTV against churn
· Provide CPI that will withstand the volatility in user behavior of a mobile application
· Retarget and direct back users that churned away from the application
· Tell the story of why Lyf is breaking through the clutter
· Understand what actions a user takes that makes them a high value user
· Set monetization plan in place
https://giantpropeller.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/lyf-email-copy.jpg
https://giantpropeller.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/lyf-email-copy.jpg
In short, while the Lyf application had established a minor user history and moderate DAU and MAU, the task of sustainability and reduction of discovery around the brand was needed at all levels.
To accomplish this and set out our best plan, GP built a series of heat maps of the Lyf ecosystem. We then took that key data and merged the user tracking behavior with interest groupings and retention. The command of this data has primed the Lyf application to make headway and monetize within the highly competitive mental health industry, despite dealing with some very difficult topics such as addiction, infidelity and depression.
To accomplish the above tasks we have implemented:
· Minor rebrand and communication tweaks
· Direct user communication funnel, including in-App messages
· Churn, Retarget, Tag communications
· LTV, CAC assessment with analytical tools
· Developed new website and blog to support educational content
· Built unique multi-variance media buys and replicated over lookalike audiences
· Opened the application to the audience of mindfulness, self help, empowerment
The results:
· Reduction in the CPI from over $5 to sub $2
· Direct reduction in churn out
· Direct increase in user content
· An increase of open rates for user communication by over 10%
· Implementation of re-tagging users and faster intervals
· Utilization of on-staff psychologist with white papers and educational branding
· Development of Alpha monetization
Comparison of emails: previous version on the left, updated emails on the right
We are extremely grateful for the love, trust and partnership we’ve gained this year and are looking forward to continuing our progress and performance in 2020. There are a LOT of exciting plans we’re developing with Lyf.
Goorin Brothers
Legendary American hat makers Goorin Brothers have been making some of the finest hats in the world since 1895. Goorin is a family legacy ran by 5th generation hatter Ben Goorin. This year Goorin’s journey took a bit of a turn with the introduction and rising popularity of one of their most incongruous hat designs yet, a trucker-hat whose design centers around placing illustrated animals alongside witty sayings within a patch. This new product picked up immediate attention and appreciation from customers and celebrities alike due to its unique and relatable aesthetic combined with people’s love for animals.
Encouraged by the product’s incredibly positive reception, Ben sought to further develop and introduce an entirely new brand label with the goal of global expansion to a new breed of hat-wearing connoisseurs. The animal hat phenomenon was coined “The Farm,” and to cause a full stampede, Goorin tapped Giant Propeller as the marketing agency and brand growth partner. Our mission was to spearhead The Farm brand development, launch, and advertisements to a worldwide audience.
In the first 6 months we unleashed the wild and:
· Conducted market research developing demographic/psychographic personas of prospective customers in both USA & Europe
· Created the brand’s marketing calendar
· Developed brand guidelines establishing design language
· Designed official brand logo
· Designed a custom Shopify UI/UX for official website
· Configured multiple digital marketing platforms for customer acquisition and proper attribution
· Established social media growth and communication strategy for Instagram and Facebook.
· Developed Influencer strategy
· Produced evergreen full-funnel digital marketing campaign focused on top selling hat designs. Included a series of 10+ commercials, photography, and animated motion graphic advertisements
· Configured email marketing program for various positions within the customer journey/funnel, including Welcome Series, Abandon Cart, and custom triggers providing content specific to unique customer position within their journey and LTV
· Achieved a 1x breakeven ROAS across website within the first month of launch
The Best Is Yet To Come…
Thanks for checking out our 2019 in review! If you’re an emerging brand and would like to leverage our Agile Marketing program to take advantage of this new decade of opportunities, contact us here; we’re looking forward to connecting with you.
