Best Sports Email Message

As part of our ongoing online support for ESPN programming, AKQA was tapped to develop and maintain the online presence for College GameDay. We wanted to not only develop a site rich with fresh video and news content, but also keep the show top-of-mind with frequent reminders and updates.
We developed a site that worked with a fourteen-week trivia-themed TV campaign to challenge fans to prove how well they know the show. Every week users were quizzed on their GameDay knowledge with a new video question, and several times through the season we met up with the College GameDay crew at the site of the big game to film On the Bus behind-the-scenes segments for the site. Users were treated to behind-the-scenes interviews with the talent and helped us hunt for the home team's most devoted and, of course, decorated fan.
Faithful college football fans could also sign up for twice weekly email updates. Monday's installment recapped the weekend action and reminded users to answer the next quiz question. Thursday emails previewed the upcoming Saturday’s episode.
By the end of the season we found the email subscriptions would measure the campaign's success. The number of subscriptions tripled from August to November, with unsubscribe rates under three percent. In all, we sent 180,000 emails to 16,700 fans. Nearly a third of those emails got opened and click-though rates reached as high as 13 percent – something nearly unheard of compared to ESPN and standard industry expectations.

Contributors:

Creative Director:	Brendan Dibona
Art Director :	Michael Powell
Designer:	Khoi Tran
Content Developer :	Brett Reese
Web Developer:	Alex Nguyen
Quality Assurance Engineer:	PeggySue Teising
Account Director:	John Deschner
Account Executive :	Ed Davis
Assistant Account Executive:	Mattie Yaco

AKQA

Location: USA