Swatch
Search marketing delivers incremental sales growth for global brand
Date: April 2009
Performance media | pay per click | affiliate marketing
Background
Swatch Group Ltd is the largest manufacturer of finished watches in the world. A modern classic, the Swatch brand exemplifies Swiss watch-making at its stylish best. Using a range of performance media to great effect, we’ve been working with this well-known brand since 2006.
“I believe we have proved the value of the digital channel to the Swatch Group. We’ve achieved consistent growth; the PPC & affiliate campaigns we run are absolutely trackable & produce incremental sales at very high rates of return on media spend.” Robin Moore, Head of Consultancy, Coast Digital.
Challenge
- Swatch were about to launch their ecommerce store. Significant investment had been made in their online presence & they were keen to see sales through the channel.
- The majority of marketing activity up to that point had been focused on the Swatch brand.
- The challenge was to set up a series of pilot pay per click campaigns & prove their effectiveness, with the overall objective of proving the value of the online channel.
- Another focus was on the delivery of low cost creative solutions.
- The pilot campaigns were only targeted at the UK market; something of a challenge given the global nature of the brand.
- Demonstrate the value of online marketing to a client who had previously focused primarily on brand, with limited knowledge of online.
- Swatch is a highly brand-orientated business, relying on brand (imagery, in-store experience etc) to deliver to sales. By contrast we sought to apply an online direct response model to make sales.
Solution
- We began with an SEO review, yielding recommendations to assist with development of the new ecommerce site.
- Suggestions included improvements such as email capture, blogging, & social media applications.
- Initial roll-out of paid search campaigns on Google; later extending to Yahoo! & MSN.
- Application of Google Analytics to gather intelligence about campaigns to optimise activity.
- To complement paid search, we proposed the addition of affiliate marketing. The client was initially sceptical, owing to the complexity of Swatch’s existing reseller programme (high street resellers, including franchises, concessions, department stores etc). To launch an effective affiliate campaign, it had to fit well within the rest of their programme & marketing.
Results
- Delivery of a consistent & regular cost per acquisition; allowing planning to be made around a return of 10:1.
- Continuous growth with a consistent 10% compound month-on-month growth; punctuated by huge spikes in seasonal sales.
- Consistent 50% year-on-year growth; even with no increase in client budget spend.
- Successful launch of a pilot affiliate programme.
- We helped communicate the idea of achievable, guaranteed returns & proved the de-risking ability of affiliate marketing. This also further demonstrated the power of direct response, which works really well alongside Swatch’s brand activity. Results rolled on continuously, & the client has continued to fund the activity.
- We offered Swatch a good framework to start & grow their business using online marketing.
