How Game empowers CRM with personalised communications

Keen readers of this blog may have seen our recent interview with Game's insight and reward director Fred Prego on the company's multichannel strategy.

And earlier today at our JUMP event Prego expanded on Game's CRM strategy, including case studies on how his team uses personalised messages to drive sales.

Prego began with some quick stats to dispel the myth that the company is bankrupt, stating that the business has 320 stores and 30% market share.

Furthermore it attracted 20m customers online and in-store in the past 12 months and has had 750,000 app downloads.

However following its brief stint in administration last year, Game has re-emerged with a new focus on its customers and now aims to build the UK's most valuable community of gamers.

And here's a run through of some of the tools Game uses to send personalised messages...

The app

The idea of the app is not to replicate the in-store or online experience, but to create a personalised experience for each customer.

It has been downloaded more than 750,000 times, of which 500,000 are registered customers. These registered customers are three times more valuable than the average consumer.

The app acts a loyalty card but also allows users to earn points for different behaviours. Game aims to reward people for new behaviours or purchases rather than old habits, so the rewards are tailored based on the customer's past actions.

                      

There are 20 different types of rewards, or 'accolades', such as the first time you buy something online, trade in old games, or buy a pre-owned game.

Accolades are then allocated based on which customers Game wishes to target with each specific offer. According to Prego that app has been very successful in terms of engagement.

SMS/Email

Prego said that SMS and email is an effective tool for urgent messaging, however it means that all the targeting, creative and sign off has to be completed on the same day.

The SMS messages are essentially push notifications sent through the app and as such can include QR codes for recipients to redeem in-store. This allows Game to track footfall and join up the online and in-store experience.

Prego also used a recent email campaign for GTA V to demonstrate how this channel can be used to drive footfall in-store.

It was one of the biggest game launches in recent years and Game was concerned as Tesco and Sainsbury's were doing very aggressive price promotion.

Game didn't want to drop its price, so to ensure that people attended its stores at midnight when the game was launched the marketing team sent targeted emails to all customers who had pre-ordered GTA and those who has bought GTA in the past. 

The email arrived the day before the launch and said simply, "See you at midnight," then included a link to a store finder.

It achieved a 70% open rate, of which 40% clicked the 'find your store' link. As a result 75,000 people turned up to Game's store's at midnight to buy GTA V.

Story building through email

For FIFA 14 Game sent a series of four emails that delivered different messages aimed at driving different customer actions.

• Email one was aimed at getting people to pre-order the game. It achieved an open rate of 32% and drove incremental sales of 25%.
• Email two offered exclusive limited edition versions of FIFA 14. The open rate was 27% and incremental sales reached 14%.
• Email three gave recipients a last chance to pre-order. The open rate was 28% and incremental sales were a whopping 98%.
• Email four tried to sell additional digital content to people who had bought FIFA 14. The open rate was 53% and incremental sales reached 25%.

Empowering local stores

As part of its strategy to empower internal teams, Game adopts a localised strategy to its social accounts.

Each store has its own Twitter account, including Game Newcastle, and are given control over events and sales promotions.

One of Game's frequent marketing tactics is to host 'lock-ins' where gamers can come in and try new titles before they are launched.

These are arranged on a local level, in part using social channels, but the data collected at the events is fed back into the company's centralised database which then informs future marketing messages.