• by Staff Writers , September 1, 2006

Kel & Partners

Centive

Kel & Partners: Kel Kelly, CEO; Karen Pappalardo, Chief Marketing Officer; Deirdre Carey, Director of Client Services MMotive: Bob Hoffman, Director Centive: Bob Conlin, VP, Marketing Sales

Compensation doesn't exactly conjure sparkling images of fun ad campaigns. Boring speeches and drab bar charts are more likely to come to mind. To promote Centive's On-Demand Sales Compensation Management product "Compel," Kel & Partners whipped up a couple of cheeky animated characters that parody two clashing office stereotypes: the bean-counter and the sales guy. The feisty competitors battle it out instead of collaborating, illustrating real-life business challenges while giving the audience a chuckle. The viral campaign, "BicBac," launched Centive into the collective consciousness of the business world, generating traffic, leads, and sales, as well as a mention on MSNBC's "The Most."

Only Natural Pet Store

Only Natural Pet Store

Julie Dye, Director of Online Marketing; Melissa Grosjean, Vice President; Dr. Larry Siegler, Veterinarian; Abby Radbill, Product Marketing Manager

Pet owners love their pets. They love to talk about them, read about them, and shop for them. Only Natural Pet Store had been sending out a product-focused newsletter, but knew it could design something more engaging, and it needed a smarter delivery method to make it work. The resulting campaign, "Year of the Dog," is targeted, opt-in-only, customer-centric, and extremely effective at driving sales. The revamped newsletter showcases topics targeted to individual pet owners, from healthy doggy treats to the therapeutic value of owning a cat. Skylist's automated e-mail system, StormPost, makes the newsletter useful and responsive to each customer. As a result, Only Natural saw an extraordinary 660 percent increase in sales. Revenue from e-mail shot up 147 percent. Open rates grew 18 percent, and click-through rates rose 9.3 percent. Newsletter subscriptions immediately rose 16 percent after the launch of the campaign and continue to average 900 new subscribers per outreach.

Spafax Canada Inc.

Air Canada

Spafax: Jill Langan, Strategic Planning Director; Dave Buklarewicz, Group Planning Director; Nicole Schoenick, Associate Planning Director; Dominique Ritter, Editor-in-Chief; Arjun Basu, Editorial Director; Poppy Wilkinson, Executive Editor; Mitchell Amihod, e-Media Project Manager

Air Canada: Nancy Orsini, Interactive Marketing and Direct Response Coordinator

Air Canada's monthly e-zine, onAir, far surpassed its goal of communicating with customers and educating them about the brand. The e-mail publication, with 1.5 million opt-in subscribers, became a revenue-generating phenom. What's so great about onAir? It's less like a marketing tool and more like a really helpful online travel magazine. It presents useful stories and relevant tips in a clean, compelling, highly readable package. Customized, targeted stories help the airline communicate with many distinct markets. The magazine also educates readers about Air Canada's other media, such as aircanada.com, WebSaver, and enRoute magazine. All told, onAir generates several million dollars in Air Canada ticket sales each month. The click-through rates for the well-written zine exceed industry norms, and Air Canada attributes a percentage of ticket sales directly to e-zine readers.