KWV is the best Brandy and Cognac producer in the world and the home of South Africa’s most admired wine brand. Digital Fire assisted KWV with an interactive viral email campaign for their new KWV Empyrean Collective that launched this year. An Open Rate of 27.25%, an Interactive Response Rate of 6.05% and a Viral Response Rate of 9.66% were generated during this campaign.

The KWV Empyrean Collective presents KWV’s most luxurious brands including award-winning potstill Brandies, world-class Cognacs and the magnificent KWV The Mentors and Perold wines. The Empyrean Collective is a term that resonates with KWV’s own story, Proud Pioneers, which is named after the ancient Greek expression for the highest reaches of existence. The KWV Empyrean Collective site was launched earlier this year.

Objective

KWV’s objectives for the Empyrean Collective campaign were as follows:

· Grow and profile their existing CRM database
· Increase brand awareness
· Increase online sales

Solution

Digital Fire proposed an interactive viral promotional email campaign targeting The KWV Empyrean Collective’s specific target audience on Digital Fire’s opt-in and profiled database. The campaign was incentivised for individuals to sign up by offering the chance to win a KWV’s Empyrean Director’s Collection worth R36 000. This incredible prize included KWV 12, KWV 15 (The Best Brandy in the World, ISC 2016), KWV 20 (The Best Brandy in the World, ISC 2015), KWV XO, Imoya Cognac, Cruxland Gin and 120 bottles of wine from KWV’s award winning range. Digital Fire captured the entries for the competition that were handed over to KWV at the end of the campaign.

Design

KWV executed the design of the interactive viral promotional mailer which consisted of three parts.

Part 1: Promo mailer:

The promotional mailer had a strong call-to-action for the audience to join and stand a chance to win the KWV Empyrean Director’s Collection valued at R36 000. The design was clean and clear-cut with the competition element above the fold of the mailer and more information followed about the brand and prize to win. The ‘Sign Up Now’ button was indicated at the bottom of the mailer that directed individuals to the microsite.

Part 2: Microsite (questionnaire page):

Individuals entered their details and profiled themselves on this page. After submitting their information, they were directed to the Thank You page.

Part 3: Thank You page

The viral element was hosted on the Thank You page which encouraged individuals to recommend the campaign to more friends. By having the viral element on the Thank You page, the campaign received more exposure as more individuals saw the campaign than the original audience broadcasted to.

Target audience

A customised databased was built according to The KWV Empyrean Collective’s target using including the following profiling:

· An audience aged between 25 and 60 years old.
· LSM 9-10.
· Both males and females.
· An audience interested in food & wine, luxury goods, lifestyle, travel etc.
· Area of residence: Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town.

Broadcast

The mailer was uploaded and tested to ensure that it displayed and functioned correctly on all email accounts and devices. The subject line used for the campaign was e.g. “Anna, KWV is giving away a collection worth R36 000”.

The following results were generated during the campaign:

· 27.25% Open Rate
· 6.05% Interactive Response Rate
· 9.66% Viral Response Rate
· 6.81% Click-through Rate

From the above stats, which were calculated on the delivered (booked) amount, 27.25% of the target audience were reached, 6.05% of the audience entered their details. The Viral Response Rate was 9.66%, meaning that 9.66% of individuals received the campaign from a friend and also entered their details. 6.81% of the target audience clicked through to KWV’s other landing pages such as their website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.

With the interactive viral email campaign, KWV was able to grow their existing database and reach a wider audience according to their specific target audience profiling to acquire new potential customers and ultimately drive sales. Therefore, each new sign-up that The KWV Empyrean Collective received, is ready to be turned into a profitable customer.

Part 1: Promotional mailer

Part 2: Landing page (microsite)

Part 3: Thank you page