American Express OPEN
Company: American Express OPEN, New York, NY
Entry Submitted By: Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Company Description: American Express OPEN is the leading payment card issuer for small businesses in the United States and supports business owners with products and services to help them run and grow their businesses. Learn more at www.OPEN.com. American Express is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success.
Nomination Category: Marketing Awards Campaign Categories - Specialty
Nomination Sub Category: Business-to-Business Marketing Campaign of the Year
Nomination Title: Start Booming
Tell the story of this nominated marketing campaign for the judges (up to 500 words). Describe the genesis, planning, execution, and results to date of your campaign. If applicable, remember to describe what's unique or innovative about your campaign:
When it comes to the holiday shopping season, there’s a day for the big boys:
Black Friday. And a day for internet merchants: Cyber Monday. But what about the
small independently owned businesses? You know, the ones that were supposed to
be saving the U.S. economy. Shouldn’t there be a day for them too? American
Express OPEN thought so and they created a day just for the little guy: Small
Business Saturday.
Small Business Saturday was set to launch on November 27, 2010, right in the
middle of the biggest shopping weekend of the year. And American Express OPEN
had just three weeks to create, promote and establish a day no one had ever
heard of.
The Small Business Saturday Facebook page was the hub of the movement, where
small business owners could find tools to promote the day and consumers could
declare their support. Posts about the benefits of supporting small local
businesses got thousands of likes and helped grow the community leading up to
the big day.
Next, a TV spot hit the air with a rallying cry of “Shop small. It’s going to be
huge.” Full-page ads promoting shopping small ran in newspapers across the
country, right next to ads from the big box retailers.
Mayors from New York City to Topeka to San Francisco officially proclaimed
November 27 “Small Business Saturday.” They were joined by the Governors of
Kentucky, New Jersey, Oregon and Utah, to name a few.
People helped launch the idea online, tweeting about SBS, including AmEx
endorser and avid shopper Ellen DeGeneres. As word spread, the press picked up
on the story. Over 2,500 articles appeared everywhere from the local nightly
news to the Wall Street Journal.
And consumers embraced it in a big way too. American Express offered shoppers
who used their AmEx card at independently owned small businesses a $25 credit
when they spent $25. Almost 250,000 people signed up to take advantage.
By it's third week, Small Business Saturday was the fastest growing page on
Facebook. And over 1.2 million people had joined the community.
Most importantly, all that awareness turned into action. In a year when holiday
sales increased less than 4%, that weekend saw overall sales up 9%. And small
retailers saw sales to customers using their American Express Cards jump 28%.
In the end, OPEN had created a brand new day in the holiday shopping season, and
the heart of the American shopper.
List hyperlinks to any online work samples, videos, images, presentations, news stories, press releases, or other documents that support your case. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://rockymountaintech.org/pages/amex_booming2.html
Provide a brief biography of the leader of the team that planned and executed this marketing campaign (up to 100 words):
Julie Fajgenbaum is the Vice President of Brand and Customer Marketing for OPEN,
a position she assumed in June 2009. In this role Julie is responsible for
OPEN's communications and for building lasting relationships with our Small
Business Owners. During her 9-year tenure with American Express, Julie has
focused on serving the small business owner. Her first role at American Express
was Director of Interactive Marketing for OPEN where she managed American
Express’s small business website. Julie holds a BA in Economics from University
of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School.