It’s that time again – The Alchemy Worx Subscriber’s Choice Award Q1 2013. We choose three of our favorite emails from Q1 for creative, copy and subject line and ask you to select a winner. Simple! You helped us achieve a record-breaking response last quarter (thank you!) and the RNIB’s powerful “can’t view this email properly” email scooped the Award with 45% of the vote. And, new for this month, we’ve also highlighted one of the favorites that we produced ourselves. It’s not included in the vote but it’s a neat piece of pixelated defensive design that had 650,000 views after it was posted on imgur.
BEST CREATIVE Animation that enhances
Winner: Boden
Subject Line: A sweet 20% off + free delivery & returns
Why we chose it
It’s hardly original to put a Boden email forward for best design but here they have used animation to enhance not just the look and feel, but also the power of their message. Better still, it’s part of a sale series counting down the days to 20%, 15% and 10% OFF. Once the 20% OFF discount expires, the 15% OFF email shows the first jar completely gone and replaced by a lonely sweet wrapper in its place.
Why it’s great
WHO: Boden have developed a style and creative flair that sets them apart, with distinctive typography, bright, engaging, often intriguing visuals and clever plays on words.
WHAT: It’s a weighted sale that rewards early orders with bigger savings – so in this email, if you want to save 20% you’d better hurry. The message is simple so the idea and execution is simple. Importantly, the “sweet discount” concept is linked in subject line, headline and the visuals. Along with an elegant execution, this means the idea doesn’t eclipse the message and is quickly understood.
WHY: Urgency is the key in this email, so that’s what the animation highlights. The emptying of the sweet jar is a neat visual representation of loss – in this case threefold – loss of time, loss of the 20% OFF offer and loss of all the best products. The final frame dwelling on an empty jar acts as a psychological nudge that inaction could lead to nothing. The first frame of the animation makes sense on its own in email clients that don’t support animated gifs. Finally, for those not interested in the sale, a bold top navigation and three “brand benefit” pods in contrasting grey offer more opportunities to engage with the brand.
BEST COPY Engage with word play
Winner: Uncommon Goods
Subject Line: Curiosity Thrilled the Cat
Why we chose it
Great copy is not always about benefits and compelling reasons to act. It’s often about establishing a brand tone that is engaging, memorable and concise. Here Uncommon Goods have collected together some of their pet-related products and delivered a mini-masterclass in short, sharp copy that uses word play to good effect.
Why it’s great
WHO: Uncommon Goods copy is always short and fun, and ties in with the theme of the email.
WHAT: Buy products for cats and other pets. It’s that simple. The company’s USP is unusual products, so they play to that with the playful tone of voice and constant references to cats – “Email taking a catnap? Click here” is a particular favorite. See how many pet references you can find, we stopped at 15.
WHY: There are two forces at play in this newsletter – the DM focused “we want a sale” and the brand focused “valuable content”. Those who are in the market for unusual cat products will act accordingly but the engaging stuff is likely to make an impression on those that aren’t. It’s the sort of email you’d show to a friend and say “check this out, it made me smile”. Uncommon Goods are very effective at using their creative to add this type of value.
BEST SUBECT LINE Appeal to emotional triggers
Winner: LinkedInSubject Line: ##name##, congratulations! You have one of the top 1% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012!
Why we chose it
LinkedIn used this email to celebrate reaching 200 million members. The premise is contacting everyone in the top 10% of most viewed profiles congratulating them on their achievement. There were also emails for top 5% and top 1%. What made it so effective is that it appeals to emotional triggers such as popularity and ambition. Those that got the 10% wanted to be 5%, the 5% the 1% and the 1% were left wondering if they had the top slot. Even better, those that didn’t receive the email heard about it from those that did.
Why it’s great
WHO: The email itself was an open envelope with congratulations letter but the branding had been done in the ‘from field’ and reiterated in the subject line.
WHAT: It’s not often that you see the key message, personalization, benefit and implied CTA all captured in the subject line but we would argue that LinkedIn have achieved this here. In reality, even the top 1% were still 1 out of 2,000,000, so the actual numbers are not that special. But the name attached to a numerical ranking makes the subject line feel very personal and, along with the congratulations, makes for a compelling reason to open.
WHY: What makes this so effective is the use of emotional triggers. By using personalization alongside a numerical ranking, LinkedIn are tapping into some of the things that make many professionals tick – the need to improve, the need to be valued, the need to get ahead. As such, the ‘heart’ rules the ‘head’ on this one: pride at being ranked, curiosity about your ranking and, perhaps, the motivation to improve your position.
ALCHEMY WORX FAVORITE Transformers – email in disguise!
Winner: Sony PlayStation
Subject Line: Save Cybertron with an exclusive PS Store offer
Why we chose it
The public chose it really, with 650,00 views on the first day it was posted on imgur and 678 comments on Reddit. It’s what we call defensive design using a technique called Pixel Art.
The idea is to turn the dead space displayed before images load into a pixelated image that maintains the essence of the full message – in this case a modern, full-color image of the Transformers appears as the famous, eighties Autobot logo when the images are disabled. And because the message is clear with images off, the email engages instantly with 100% of the audience that opened.
It also acts as an ‘Easter Egg’ for a tech-savvy gaming audience to uncover, following the trend in cult films and videogames. It’s this sense of discovery that creates the excitement and “sharability”. That in turn increases the reach of the brand beyond the offer and original audience.
The pixelated mosaic effect is carefully constructed from HTML tables with colored cells. It needs to be hand-coded to faithfully render in our long list of testing environments. So it takes a lot of time and skill to execute but when it works, it can create a lot of additional “buzz” around a brand.
Last updated: Oct 17, 2016 admin
