In 2014, BT and Affiliate Window worked together on a series of objectives across volume, profit and innovation.
In the face of increasing price competition, the team had to find new opportunities throughout the year, while working closer than ever with the BT group and their publishers to protect and grow market share, without increasing average cost.
Innovation & Uniqueness – The same process, brings the same results…
Transparency: Direct management was extended from the top five to the top 20. The publishers in this group received weekly reports built to align them with BT’s own metrics and objectives. Mid-tier publishers identified as key growth areas were put on a bonus per sale structure with their bespoke weekly reporting used to highlight progress and align them with advertiser objectives.
A second year of churn analysis was conducted and the results fed back to the wider business. By highlighting the low propensity to churn from cashback activity the team secured £1.2 million additional budget over the year.
Refinement: The team consulted with publishers to find the voucher that best suited their users. Multiple vouchers were trialed to find the most effective options. Options trialed were: Next, Dabs.com, M&S, Love2Shop and Sainsbury’s.
For larger volume partners it was feasible to have bespoke propositions built. These publishers were consulted on their ideal BT deal and this was fed back to proposition teams. BT’s first ever trial of 12 month contracts and a £5 price point on unlimited broadband was a result of this process.
Truly Social Communication: BT reached out to supporters of specific Premier League clubs involved in BT Sport’s winter fixtures with a ‘risqué’ series of tailored clips highlighting a famous chant sung by their fans,. All ads worked on a click-to-play basis and were displayed in the user’s newsfeed/timeline.
Smart Execution – Do more, be different
Volume Target: Timing activity with untraditional market peaks
January 2014 energy changes – Following Scottish Power’s announcement on 6th December they would be raising prices, it was predicted that the surge in visitors to comparison sites could also be tempted to change their broadband provider. Previous overlay and cashback activity was brought forward and publishers were consulted for cross-sell opportunities.
Result – For December BT sold 83% more units from the 26th – 31st December. The programme drove 65% more units YoY for January – w/c 6th January 2014 was the largest online sales day in the programmes history, until this was broken again on Black Friday.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday – Traditionally a highlight in the retail calendar BT created two bespoke props, increased overlay vouchers and scheduled increased cashback activity to capitalise on the surge in customer activity. This was ran in conjunction with a countdown clock on bt.com and in unison with other online channels.
Result – 4,755 more units YoY over the two days, Friday was the largest online sales day in BT’s history and the record was broken again on Cyber Monday. Channel share of online increased to 52% from an average of 30%.
Volume Targets: Adapting to competitor offers to protect BT Group market share
Sky’s 12 month free broadband deal launched w/c 5th May and benchmarking reporting revealed BT’s share in the calls and broadband (dual play) market was declining whilst Plusnet’s was holding strong. BT’s calls, broadband and TV (triple play) market share remained constant. The decision was made to increase the Plusnet dual play cashback rate and reallocate BT dual play budget to triples.
Result – BT increased triple play unit sales from cashback sites by 483 units WoW. Dual play sales decreased by 156 units resulting in a net gain of 327 units. Plusnet increased broadband market share from 12% to 14% whilst BT maintained their own resulting in a 2% increase in overall group share.
Development fund to trial new publishers and opportunities – £15K of budget per quarter was dedicated to new activity and given to the account team to use as they saw fit without sign off. This helped foster the fail fast strategy outlined at the beginning of the year to encourage innovation.
Result – Brought four affiliates into the top 20 driving 2,474 RGUs units with an average CPA 34.83% below target.
Objectives & Results
| Objective | Result |
| Grow YoY Sales by 40,000 units | Sales up 46,449 units
an additional 16% uplift in revenue |
| Increase BT Group Market Share YoY by 5% | BT Group market share up 8% – (Market grew 46% in volume YoY) |
| Maintain programme unit CPA within 5% YoY | 4.03% below target |
| Increase Direct Management to the top 20 Publishers | Completed |
| Increase BT’s Social Media presence and appeal to a younger demographics | Facebook campaign received a reach of 4,067,981 and Twitter campaign received 23,865 video views with a spend of less than £50K |