[Marketing & Selling, E-biz]
Who's Hot: BigBroom
Hed: I'd Like to Buy a Vowel
Deck: Is BigBroom's new e-mail marketing scheme a major breakthrough in online
advertising, or just a flash in the in-box?
Summary: With e-mail marketing gaining fast on banner ads in the online advertising
space, strategists are scrambling to come up with more effective e-mail promotions.
BigBroom may have hit pay dirt.
Pull Quote: "This is a clever twist on the sweeps idea, but the key in sweeps marketing,
both online and offline, has always been converting responders into actual paying
customers." – Anne Holland, CEO, MarketingSherpa
Want a free DVD player? Open a few e-mails and you just might win one. That's the
simple idea behind a complex new technology launched by BigBroom, a New York
Internet marketing and technology development firm.
"The online advertising world is switching from banner-centric to e-mail," says Evan
Schwartzfarb, who co-owns BigBroom with his brother, Todd. Indeed, Boston's Forrester
Research says that e-mail advertising is on the rise and predicts that commercial e-mail
messages will grow from three billion per year now to 250 billion by 2002. "It's less
costly for advertisers and more personalized for consumers," says Schwartzfarb. "In three
to four years, you're looking at a seven billion dollar business representing 15 percent of
online advertising."
This aggressive surge has Internet marketers scrambling to find the mother lode of the email advertising world, and BigBroom thinks it may have struck a vein of gold with its
proprietary new technology, SweepStickers.
Launched in early January, SweepStickers is an e-mail "Spell & Win" game, based on the
offline McDonalds's Monopoly model. Players register for free at the BigBroom site,
then receive a SweepSticker e-mail daily. Open the e-mail and you get another letter in a
prize phrase. Click on the sponsor's link, get another letter. Spell the phrase, win the
prize.
Schwartzfarb thinks it was worth the wait, though. "We've been getting 10,000 new
players a week," he says, "and that's with no advertising." He also reports an 86 percent
open-rate (people actually opening the e-mails rather than hitting the <Del> key); and a
66 percent click-through rate (people clicking on sponsor links inside the e-mails). This
stacks up very impressively against overall industry averages.
Gold Mine or Flash in the Inbox
It all begs the million-dollar question: Has BigBroom found a gold mine of pop
psychology, or is this the latest flash in the in-box?
"It will probably be effective for the next six months to a year, at which time it will be
supplanted by something else," says Michael Kiyosaki, senior VP of sales and marketing
at e2 Communication, an e-mail marketing firm in Planto, Texas. "After a consumer loses
enough times, he's going to opt out or just delete the messages." This is just the nature of
the e-mail beast, he says. "The life span of these gimmicks will be shorter than traditional
direct mailers, because it's much easier for the consumer to say 'Quit sending me these.'"
Currently, the odds of winning a prize with SweepStickers are reasonably good – about
one in 6,000 or so, because the number of players is still low. The prizes vary according
to sponsorship, but are typically products like digital cameras and DVD players, with the
big prize being $1,000 in cash. "The prizes are kept fairly small in order to keep
quantities high," says Schwartzfarb. "The bottom line is we want people to win."
More importantly, though, advertisers want people to buy their products. Anne Holland is
CEO and publisher of MarketingSherpa.com, a B2B portal for Internet marketers in
Washington, DC. "This is a clever twist on the sweeps idea," she says, "but the key in
sweeps marketing, both online and offline, has always been converting responders into
actual paying customers. I don't know how BigBroom is planning to do that."
Therein lies the marketers' grand prize. "If we had the golden key for turning each lead
into a sale," says Schwartzfarb, "we would not be doing what we are." Short of a golden
key, however, Schwartzfarb feels SweepStickers provides a golden opportunity. "It
allows companies to offer Spell & Win promotions online for the first time," he says,
"something that has proven successful offline for over 70 years."
Power Play
BigBroom is also using SweepStickers as a more direct marketing device; and this, say
some experts, may be its true ticket to longevity.
"It's an interesting little tool," says David Townsend, CEO of the Seattle e-mail
marketing firm Innovex. "As simply a game, I strongly suspect that response rates will
trail off as the novelty wears off. However, I see it as a very powerful 'content
component' – as part of e-mail newsletters, for instance."
BigBroom obviously sees the same thing, and currently uses SweepStickers as a content
component in two ways. First, it attaches a SweepLetter to clients' newsletters bound for
existing customers or those requesting information. Opening the newsletter means getting
a new prize letter. Second, it attaches a SweepLetter to e-mail from clients who have
rented a marketing list. An opened e-mail bears the promise of more letters if the
recipient visits the client's site, makes a certain purchase or takes some other action
beneficial to the advertiser.
"With this approach, BigBroom places itself at the forefront of Internet marketing
efforts," says Jason Kassel, owner of www.JasonKassel.com, an Internet marketing
consultancy in Minneapolis. "It has taken a physical world concept, tweaked it a bit, then
turned around and created a marketing medium consumers enjoy hearing from."
Serious Fun
In fact, says Kassel, enjoyment and fun will prove serious business in the near future.
"Junk mail needs to be put to bed, and companies that wish to be successful in the 21st
century will recognize this," he says. "Those that continue the direct mail process of mass
distribution with little regard for the annoyance it causes won’t prosper in this
environment."
Others agree. Mike Kiyosaki questions the staying power of any one "gimmick," but
recognizes their usefulness. "We'll occasionally partner with companies like (BigBroom)
if we need to jump-start an acquisition campaign," he says. "A good gimmick can help
get things off to a flying start."
Townsend says there's more on the way. "We're going to see an increasing number of
innovations like SweepStickers," he says. "Creativity in e-mail marketing is not about to
disappear."
Does BigBroom think SweepStickers is here to stay? "Well, I'd say emphatically 'yes,'"
says Schwartzfarb. Beyond the actual game, though, Schwartzfarb is putting his money
on the underlying technology. "The track and serve functions here are highly
sophisticated and will continue to be valuable to e-mail marketing," he says. "We plan to
use our technology to bring more offline products online."
He's also banking on BigBroom living up to its name: "The company's a metaphorical big
broom – it helps clients and consumers clean up."
At a Glance
Name: BigBroom
URL: www.bigbroom.com
Location: New York, N.Y.
Founder: Evan and Todd Schwartzfarb
Founded: 1999
Industry: Internet marketing
Employees: 8
Revenue: undisclosed
Related Links
<a href="http://www.bigbroom.com">BigBroom</a>
<a href="http://www.Jasonkassel.com">Jason Kassel</a>
<a href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com">MarketingSherpa</a>
<a href="http://www.e2communications.com">E2 Communications</a>
<a href="http://www.innovyx.com">Innovyx</a>
<a href="http://www.forrester.com">Forrester Research</a>
<a href="http://www.memorex.com">Forrester Research</a>
SOURCES:
Evan Schwartzfarb
President
BigBroom
64 Fulton Street, #703
New York, NY 10038
(212) 349-3867
evan@bigbroom.com
Jason Kassel
President
www.JasonKassel.com
2555 Bryant Avenue South, Apt. A
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612-871-4000
jason@jasonkassel.com
Anne Holland
CEO
MarketingSherpa.com
1791 Lanier Pl. NW #5
Washington, DC 20009
202 232 6830
anneh@marketingsherpa.com
Mike Kiyosaki
SVP, Sales and Marketing
e2 Communications
6404 International Pkwy., Suite 1200
Plano, TX 75093
972 931 7000 x264
kiyo@e2communications.com
David Townsend
CEO
Innovyx
1600 Fairview Ave. East, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98102
206 336 3053
davidtow@innovyx.com
Sean Smith
Director of marketing
3200 Meridian Park Way
Westin, Florida 33331
954 660 7000
sean.smith@memorex.com