The opportunity
Woolworths had been considering a wine club for some time, particularly in response to proposed government legislation that would restrict communication about alcohol unless customers opted in.
The challenge was to avoid overcomplicating the strategy. So we focused on launching something viable quickly to test traction in the market.
The solution
We centred the communications strategy on three key customer questions: What do I get? What do I know? And what do I experience?
The answer was WCellar, a branded wine club supported by a monthly mailer. The mailer educates customers about wine, offers special deals and discounts, and invites them to events or wine-related prize draws.
To support this, we created a wine hub on the Woolworths website that houses additional content linked from the mailer. We repurposed content from TASTE magazine, making this a cost-effective solution.
The results
The initial target group was 350 000 people who had purchased wine from Woolworths within a defined period. Of those, 17 000 signed up, achieving a conversion rate of 4.8%.
The monthly mailers enjoy an open rate of over 53% on average, significantly higher than the industry standard of 15 to 25%.
Beyond building a database of engaged wine customers, the goal was to increase wine sales. Over a five-month period, sales grew year on year by 20% among VIP-tier WCellar customers and by 38% among regular-tier customers who opted in. Wine sales among customers who did not opt in showed little change.
In the first eight months, Woolworths saw a sales return three times the amount spent on content, promotions and incentive vouchers, proving the content marketing delivered real return on investment.
