This year’s Email Insider Summit in April was exceptional with the MediaPost team organizing yet another meaningful forum of major brands, email marketing and digital media practitioners, and thought leaders from a wide variety of industries. Rain or shine, Email Insider Summit always delivers.

I had the pleasure of co-hosting our client Hayle Chun, director of digital media for NBC Sports & Olympics. Hayle presented a case study titled, “NBC Olympics: Lifecycle Programming with Email, Social and Mobile”, sharing how and why NBC Olympics applied tri-messaging to reach, educate and inspire people leading up to, during and following the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

10 Takeaways: NBC Olympics’ Case Study

1. NBCOlympics.com is the leading online source for Olympic content, and serves as the digital hub and an exclusive destination for rich content and media experiences.

2. NBC Olympics extends digital coverage via email, social and mobile messaging (channels) and lifecycle programs that are organized by between-games, pre-games, in-games and post-games content and engagement.

3. NBC Olympics is primarily focused on producing content that is packaged for and sponsored by advertisers; email and online marketers can learn from NBC’s digital hub and tri-messaging approach to help create regular, repeatable behavior.

4. Goals for integrating email, social and mobile messaging during the 2010 Winter Games were to:
- inform and engage audiences
- increase overall consumption of content
- monetize content and messages for advertisers

5. Creating an ongoing dialogue with your target audiences can be challenging if you’re dealing with a short lifecycle like the Winter Games. The key is to use preferences, segmentation and integrated channels to create content that is anticipated, relevant and sharable.

6. Quality content, orchestration and timing are necessary for any lifecycle marketing or programming effort – this requires discipline and real-time collaboration across teams.

7. While content formatting may have varied for each messaging channel, NBC tried to maintain consistency in content, timing and purpose across all channels.

8. Email and mobile experienced significant growth compared to prior Olympic Games; email messages sent grew 114 percent during the Vancouver vs Beijing Games, and mobile caught up with email in Vancouver.

9. Mobile does not just equal “on-the-go” – surprisingly, mobile usage behavior was similar to TV usage behavior; this illustrates a symbiotic relationship between mobile and TV media consumption and is an opportunity for advertisers and marketers.

10. Four percent of visitors to NBCOlympics.com also followed the Games on Twitter, and they were the most connected and engaged fans.

Hayle Chun’s Email Insider Summit 2010 Presentation

Review and share this insightful presentation on how and why email, social and mobile were a winning combination for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

45 Twips for Email Marketers

I also had the honor of moderating the “45 Tips in 45 Minutes” panel which included experts from Barnes and Noble, National Hockey League, eHarmony and Responsys. Here are the twips (tips you can tweet and retweet) we came up with based on personal experiences, and we encouraged the audience to share their ideas too. These twips range from strategic to tactical and are applicable for B2B and B2C email and online marketing.

Stay tuned for more community best practices, client success stories, and practical tips from upcoming industry events. Let me know if you have particular interests based on planned conferences and webinars that Lyris is contributing to in the coming months. I’m happy to tap the community to help you be more successful.

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