Independence Day Update

Independence Day Update
By John Landsman, Director, Strategy & Analytics

Welcome to full summer! As if we needed proof of what season we’re in, searing heat has been oppressing just about every part of the continental U.S. Still, we had a somewhat peaceful midweek July 4^th holiday, the All Star game is about a week away, and that same date also marks Amazon’s much-anticipated 2018 Prime Day event.

So, first, a quick look at this year’s July 4^th email campaigns, and then a few words on early Prime Day emails.

Independence Day (see table just below) does occasion heavy promotional email activity. Patriotism aside, this is not a gift-giving event. It’s almost all about sales. In the month ending on July 4^th, we see almost 33,000 related email campaigns this year, reflecting a 16% increase over last year’s 28,000. (Not in table) 23% deployed this year on July 4^th itself, versus 21% in 2017.
Based on the percentage of that activity achieving better than 90% inbox performance, deliverability improved this year, extending a longstanding trend.
However, based on the percentage of activity achieving better than 20% read rate performance, audience engagement eroded this year, continuing another longstanding trend (see my recent Blogpost on the subject).

(*) Identified by screening for related subject line language; e.g., 4th, fourth, independence, flag, red/white/blue

The table below shows examples of twelve related best performers, ranked by their read rates. They cover a range of sellers, but all represent retail and/or food categories.
Nine are explicitly promotional, and five of those use aggressive price-offs. Only two make any direct reference to specific products.

Now . . . on to Amazon’s Prime Day.

As you likely saw, Amazon announced to Prime Members on July 3^rd that its 2018 Prime Day would start at 3 PM on July 16^th, and run through July 17th. They deployed a series of high-volume campaigns, most with the subject line, “Prime Day is coming on July 16. Woohoo!” The largest such U.S. campaign went to 54 million customers. The campaign to India had an audience of over 200 million. Similar campaigns deployed to proportionally large audiences in other countries. By Amazon standards, read rates have not (yet) been uniformly strong (10-25%), but their reach is still extensive, considering the audience sizes.

As in past years, it’s clear that the Prime Day event has actually already begun, long before the official start-date. We’ve now also seen numerous smaller mailings, with “Prime Day” offers — all effective immediately — on specific categories; e.g., Kindle, Echo, music, magazines and books.

For the most part, other sellers have not yet asserted themselves regarding Prime Day, but we see two interesting exceptions:

PepsiCo deployed an email on July 3^rd to one million of its subscribers (“Don’t miss PepsiCo deals on Prime Day”), promoting sale of its many brands — on Amazon.com! We’ve not seen a coordinated cross-brand Prime Day promotion before, but I suspect we’ll see more.
Ashley Furniture deployed a campaign on July 5^th, (“Extended savings & PRIME DEALS (no membership required)”), to an audience of 44,000. Numerous competitive brands have historically used this approach, but this was the first of the type we’ve seen this year.

Our ongoing Prime Day coverage will continue shortly after Prime Day itself, with our “Prime Day– First Look,” a topline report on campaign activity and engagement. Several days later, we will publish our “Full Prime Day Recap,” analyzing send volume and read rates by day, best performers, year-over-year Amazon business lift, and related competitive activity.

Independence Day Update

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