Company: Advantexe Learning Solutions, West Conshohocken, PA
Company Description: Advantexe is an award-winning training and performance improvement organization that designs and delivers customized, live and web-based learning solutions in Business Acumen, Business Leadership, and Strategic Business Selling learning solutions. We utilize sophisticated business simulations as the catalyst for learning and we enable participants to "learn-by-doing", retain knowledge longer.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Outbound Marketing Program of the Year
 Nomination Title: The Super Bowl Simulation
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the nominated achievement since July 1, 2021, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- Briefly describe the nominated organization or individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 163 words used.
Advantexe is a leading developer of business and leadership simulations used in corporate talent development programs.
Advantexe, like many organizations, relied on email marketing as a cost-effective, core part of our outreach and awareness programs. However, eMail campaigns were getting harder. Automated workflows, the selling of databases, and new email-blocking technologies are causing email marketing to become ineffective and virtually useless. Advantexe’s open rates were steadily declining from what used to be well over 15% to barely 2%.
The marketing team needed to react.
Advantexe is based in Philadelphia and the owners of Advantexe are diehard football and Eagles fans. When the Philadelphia Eagles made the 2023 Super Bowl, the Advantexe marketing team came up with the idea to leverage the opportunity to showcase Advantexe business simulation technology with a fun and interactive email and social media marketing campaign.
The goal of the campaign was to creatively help drive awareness of our simulation and potentially engage users in actually playing a business simulation.
- Outline the nominated achievement since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 227 words used.
From the time the Eagles made the Super Bowl, to the desired time to launch the campaign was about 7 days. The marketing and software teams had to get to work. First, we designed and developed the Big Game Party Challenge, an interactive business simulation that gave users the opportunity to plan and host a Super Bowl party. The idea behind the simulation was that a Super Bowl party can be an exciting experience, but it can also present several challenges such as managing costs and making sure everyone has a great time. The simulation was designed to showcase Advantexe’s simulation designs yet provide users with an alternative to boring text-based emails.
After the simulation was developed, the Marketing team created a few email designs and subject lines. The team conducted A/B testing on 1000 people on the effectiveness of the creative pieces and subject lines. The team decided on the subject line of “Try our Big Game Party Simulation - "Don't just wing it!". That subject performed at an 8% open rate versus a 2% open rate of others. While we were hoping for a higher test open rate, of 12-15%, we did not have the time to do any more testing because the big game was a week away.
To capture leads, users needed to create a username and password to enter the simulation.
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 23 words used.
Login Information
URL: https://forio.com/app/advantexe/superbowl/
UN:
- stevie-award-2024-1
- stevie-award-2024-2
PW for both: Simulate2024
Access to the email - https://advantexe.hs-sites.com/try-our-big-game-party-simulation-dont-just-wing-it?hs_preview=IDCLWBGs-158015327302&;
- Explain why the achievement you have highlighted is unique or significant. If possible compare the achievement to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 234 words used.
None of Advantexe’s competitors tried a campaign like this so all we can do is compare it to the effectiveness of our previous programs.
We broke the evaluation of the email campaign into two categories, Prospects and Existing Clients.
For prospects, the email was sent out to about 10,000 people using our marketing automation system. We segmented the databases into geographic territories to see if there were any differences in open rates. We found that the East Coast and Mid-West performed much better than the West Coast in terms of opens. This made sense as these were the locations of the Eagles and Chiefs. All three open rates were higher than our typical open rates of 2.3% including.
- East Coast Open Rate 9.3%
- Mid-west Open Rate 7.6%
- West Coast Open Rate 5.2%
The average click-through rate was 6.5%, which was high for us, and the ultimate call to action, the registration to play the simulation from this group was 4.5%. All of these numbers exceeded our expectations.
The second focus was on our existing clients. Our Account Managers personally sent out emails to each of their clients. We were able to results and saw,
- 35% open rates
- 25% click-through rates
- 20% registration rates
Direct feedback from clients included:
- Go birds! This was fun
- Thanks for sharing
- Very cute. Great experience
- I didn’t know Mini-hotdogs were that expensive!
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