GEORGIA PORTS AUTHORITY Gateway to the WorldStrategy and implementation of e-blast campaign

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OpportunityLooking for a creative way to draw attention to their Gateway to the World video campaign, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) turned to us to help them leverage these videos featuring industry leaders who count on Georgia’s ports for their businesses, as well as for U.S economic growth. Knowing that similar industry leaders would find the opinion of their peers both informative and persuasive, GPA and Realm worked to create an experience that would reach out to engage this audience, but also provided added value and insight once a targeted recipient returned to the GPA website for more information.

AnalysisThe audience for this project included directors of logistics, supply chain and transportation for companies engaged in global imports and exports and who need a port that can simplify the movement of cargo and reduce time to market.

Industry leaders in the videos include representatives of Lowe’s, The Home Depot, IKEA, Georgia-Pacific, Kia Motors, Caterpillar and AJC International. They discuss the scope of their operations, and how their businesses and the nation’s economic well-being would be jeopardized if not for Savannah’s continued reliable, efficient and cost-effective operation. This includes infra-structure, scalability, just-in-time delivery capabilities and first-mile/last-mile connections.

Today, the Port of Savannah reaches 44 percent of the American population — roughly 140 million people — within a two-day drive. It serves as the cargo hub for a region covering the entire U.S. Southeast and reaching into the heartland. Beyond the well-known accolades of being the fourth busiest and fastest growing in the nation, this port creates jobs and economic opportunity throughout the country.

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4thbusiest and fastest-growing U.S. port

Georgia Ports Authority GATEWAY TO THE WORLD

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Four emails featuring the four videos

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Goals and ObjectivesTo prove the campaign’s effectiveness, the sales and marketing teams set specific targets to assure a broad engagement of their intended audience:

• An email open rate of more than 20% (industry average for transportation is a 20% open rate with a 2.4% click-through rate)

•More than 100,000 views of four videos

SolutionWe combined email and website components for an integrated experience. We conceived, designed and wrote four emails to feature each of the four videos – Infrastructure, Scalability, First Mile/Last Mile and Just in Time. Every two weeks an email blast was sent by industry publication Journal of Commerce. The video links connected viewers to a Gateway to the World landing page that we created where that specific video was featured, but also provided access to all the videos, as well as additional information.

4 emailsfeature 4 videos

Georgia Ports Authority GATEWAY TO THE WORLD

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Landing page

Link to landing pagehttp://www.gaports.com/gatewaytotheworld/globalsuccess/

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Implementation and ChallengesWith the videos still being edited and finalized, we had to begin copy and design before they were complete. And before each video was posted, we updated the landing page to rotate videos, ensuring that week’s video was the one featured at the top of the page.

Measurement and EvaluationThe Gateway to the World e-blast campaign proved successful, though the open rate was lower than we targeted. The view rate was positive as the only marketing of the video was through the email and landing page. Other videos posted to the YouTubeTM channel served as a control for measurement as they experienced very low view rates when not associated with a campaign.

Campaign open rates from Journal of Commerce list:

Infrastructue 16%Scalability 15%FirstMile/Last Mile 14%Just in Time 22%

Goals and Objectives Results

An email open rate of more than 20%

With open rates that ranged from 14% to 22% for the four emails, the average open rate was 16.75%

More than 100,000 views of four videos To date, the GPA has had 114,077 video views

To make the most of the initial investment, a second campaign was scheduled using a different media outlet, Maritime Executive.

16.75%average open rate

Georgia Ports Authority GATEWAY TO THE WORLD

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