BACKGROUND:
Verizon Wireless was embarking on a campaign that would hopefully rival the dreaded day before Thanksgiving: the busiest travel day of the year, and a day that involved a lot of headaches and travel downtime due to delays time for many.
CHALLENGE:
Make the travel day before Thanksgiving more tolerable with digital giveaways from Verizon and cosponsors, including Apple.
REQUIRED OUTCOMES:
Code Redemption Functionality, with pacing to last the 24 hours of the takeover
Apple Wallet Functionality
Successful takeovers of all three publishing platforms:
- App Network
- iTunes Radio (now Apple Music)
- Apple News
Project Plan Outline
- Kickoff Meeting with R/GA
- Kickoff with Verizon
- Initial Layout of All Creative Assets
- Design - Creative Agency
- Creative Review
- App Network
- iTunes Radio
- Apple News
- Development
- Code Redemption QA
- Final QA
- Preview Phase
- Takeovers
The Pre-event Phase
During this phase we would launch creative that included a teaser for the actual event. Since this teaser lived in ad units, there would be nowhere clear for the user to return to on the day of the event. We introduced our Apple Wallet integration here. This would allow the user to download a pass to their wallet that would remind them on the day of, and provide access to all of the rewards of the day. In addition to the Apple Wallet units, there was a Reminder ad, that would allow the user to add a pre-populated Reminder to their device, which would also trigger on promotion day.
Promo Phase
The day before Thanksgiving, starting at 12:01am, the the live takeover event began. These ad units (and similar) took over all Apple Advertising Platforms: App Network, Apple News, and Apple Music. These units allowed users to access iTunes gift codes directly within the ad units, and access all of the other promos available via a link.
Gift Code Redemption
This was a highly technical feat for Apple, the first unit of its kind. We planned for the code redemption functionality by building out that portion of the ad units without final assets, so we could begin to QA the functionality early. We also purchased a lump of test codes for the QA phase to ensure everything was working properly.
There was some possibility for technical error in the gift code redemption feature itself. The user had to either be logged in successfully, or remember their Apple ID and Password and log in correctly in the ad unit. Code availability on a specific server had the possibility of introducing false negatives in terms of code availability. Finally, network issues could always cause the feature to time out mid-redemption. With all of this in mind, we spent extra time QA-ing, to minimize the risk of these issues. We also worked closely with the copy team to come up with clear messaging to provide to the user depending on the issue, instructing them on what to do to get a code.
We were also asked by Verizon to pace the codes throughout the day. We worked closely with the Traffic team to monitor the code usage rate, and adjusted the impression rates of promo units with more generic ad units, to ensure the codes lasted all day.
Success
The campaign was a success! We had an on time launch with no critical bugs. The Apple Wallet and Reminder ad units worked well, reminding users of the promo event on the day of, and when we reached promo day, the iTunes Gift Code redemption functioned as planned. We were able to pace the codes to last the day, and there were successful takeovers on all three Apple Advertising Platforms.