Turning samples sexy
How we won the web with a content enabled CRM platform for P&G India.
The Challenge:
P&G needed to revamp and re-brand its existing sampling platform PG Improving Life to a website that provided content and tips and engaged users even more. The new website was to be targeted to a more premium target audience, dubbed in P&G parlance as India 1+ and therefore required to look more up market. The platform would become a stable and defacto web presence of all P&G brandsThe Work
The Solution:
The new website to be launched was branded as “Reward Me'” after a considerable amount of debate. The name originated from the insight that women had an inate desire to pamper and reward themselves. The site offered several popular pillars of content like beauty tips, for which original content was crafted. Another first for P&G was creating direct access to P&G experts via the platform.I helped in crafting information architecture, wireframing and writing actual content for this site, closely working with Ritu Mittal the ABM on the project. The success of the website saw it come under the umbrella of a global P&G - BBDO program and transition to a new CMS and visual aesthetic.
Key features of Reward Me
End-to-end product sampling program
As part of the website operations and management we oversaw product sampling across the P&G bouquet of brands. Working with external agencies to co-ordinate the fulfilment of samples and internally heading up a helpdesk team for grievance redressal. We dispatched over 2000,000 samples via the platform. We constantly fine tuned the Customer Experience and User Journey based on inputs from our stakeholders.
Always on EDM Campaign
The website engaged customers on an ongoing basis with regular content with a rigorous emailer campaign. These varied from product launches, events and content promotion. Prompting users to engage with the platform.
Brand Collaborations
The website build allowed the flexibility for brands to customise their own product pages such as the case of Head and Shoulders in the video above. This helped bridge the gap between the brand’s aesthetic and the platform aesthetic.
The Experience
Project Diary:
The most rewarding project yet
The popularity of this platform and its growing user base of over 750000 members within a year of its launch, meant that Reward Me became the go to platform for P&G brand managers to promote their products and run their brand specific campaigns within the site. An example was Oral-B’s ‘Smile India Movement’, which saw two successful iterations being launched. Eventually this platform caugh the eye of P&G on a global scale and was integrated into a global CRM initiative called Everyday Me. This meant a further migration of content once again and a shift to an entirely new production environment. The website that you see only today is this later reincarnation, while it builds on the base sampling program and ideas of the original site that you see pictured in the video.
This project not only helped me understand the working of P&G when it comes to its sampling initiatives, but it also formed deep bonds and friendships with the teams that brought this project live both within agency and client side. This includes managing many stakeholders such the team at Accenture and other similar stakeholders. The P&G office almost became a second home to us and I have worked side by side with multiple ABMs through a variety of iterations and side projects.