The objective of Dremel Maker Days was to create a unique promotional event for Makers geared towards generating a YoY increase in sales during a seasonally flat sales period (August). While keeping this objective in mind, our organization wanted the promotion to remain in line with Dremel's mission of empowering people to complete creative and fulfilling projects.
Dremel Maker Days is unique in that it not only offered Makers the chance to win Dremel products daily, but also incentivized participants to come back daily to earn more entries into the Grand Prize Drawing. Additionally, the promotion encouraged Making by providing unlimited daily entries for uploading photos of completed "Dremel Projects".
The goals for the promotion were as follows:
1. Generate sales
2. Increase user database
3. Capture UGC
4. Generate repeat traffic
5. Create retailer excitement
Dremel's strategy was to launch a promotion that would excite new and existing Dremel users throughout the month of August by keeping them engaged through different participation and prizing options.
Dremel partnered with Prizelogic to develop a desktop and mobile digital calendar promotion that would accomplish all of the above. The digital calendar, at dremelmakerdays.com, consisted of a daily sweepstakes drawing for Dremel products leading up to a Grand Prize drawing featuring a $5,000 tool package.
In addition to daily sweepstakes prizes, each day offered a promotion at Amazon.com or Lowes Home Improvement, and each week consisted of a "feature" offer at one of these two retailers.
The sweepstakes prize and promotional offer for each day wasn't revealed until that morning, which encouraged participants to return daily.
Each entry into the daily drawing earned the visitor an entry into the Grand Prize drawing. Additional entries could be earned through uploading a photograph of a completed "Dremel Project", watching a Dremel product video and sharing the promotion via Facebook or Twitter.
Visitors could also head to dremelmakerdays.com/lowes to participate in the sweepstakes and obtain offers from Lowes Home Improvement.
Amazon developed a Dremel Maker Days splash page on Amazon.com that featured Dremel products up to 20% off throughout the month and offered project tutorials and time-lapse videos encouraging visitors to Make More.
Promotion was driven via the following methods:
Dremel:
- In-Store: Dremel had off-shelf presence at 1,730 Lowe's stores promoting Dremel Maker Days
- Social Media: Dremel's posting cadence and messaging differed by platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to ensure (a) users' attention was captured at the best time of day (b) frequency was adequate for the platform and (c) the tone, language and imagery was appropriate for the respective platform. Dremel's top performing organic post had a 7.4% engagement rate, while the top paid post had a 4.64% engagement rate, both far outperforming industry benchmarks of 1%-2%.
- Paid Search & Display Media: Effective in driving impressions and conversions - display had a 52.45% engagement rate.
- Email Marketing: Email #1 was sent to the Dremel opt-in database. Email #2 was sent to the Dremel Maker Days opt-in database. Email #2 performed extremely well with a 56% open rate, 44% click rate, and 78% site-engagement rate.
- Native Advertising: This tactic was effective at driving mass reach at an efficient rate.
- Partner Marketing: Included Makezine and Wood Workers Guild of America
Lowe's: Off-shelf placement, paid search, display media.
Amazon: AMS / AMG media, "Deal of the Day" placement.
The Home Depot: Dremel Maker Days Hero banner on dremeldepot.com, a project-oriented site developed in partnership between Dremel and The Home Depot.
This promotion is considered the most successful for Dremel to-date. The promotion allowed Dremel to meet specific goals as follows:
1. Generate Sales: Through daily and weekly promotions, sales were up YoY during a generally flat cycle.
2. Increase User Database: Through participant registration, Dremel captured tens of thousands of opt-ins.
3. Capture UGC: B visitors could receive additional entries through photo submission, Dremel collected over 2,000 pieces of UGC.
4. Generate Repeat Traffic: Because prizes weren't revealed until the day-of, visitors returned multiple times to enter the sweepstakes, generating over 250K visits.
5. Create Retailer Customer Excitement: With a unique digital calendar promotion, an expectation of increased sales during a traditionally slow sales cycle, and both daily and weekly promotional opportunities, retailers were excited to participate.
There's always room for improvement and Dremel plans to make a few changes to the 2017 campaign to beat our benchmarks by an ever greater amount!
