INCnow.tv drives $90K with golf card

Posted

Matt Coen

Background
WISE-TV and WPTA-TV are part of Granite Broadcasting in Fort Wayne, Ind., where they are jointly known as INCnow.tv.

The stations have been running a deals program since 2011, but the Golf Tour promotion was their first foray into cards. Given their success, however, this card will be the first of many.

The idea
The stations decided to run a golf card after seeing another station in their group succeed with a similar card promotion.

The execution
The sales team at the stations sold their Golf Tour Card to 10 area courses and offered it as a $75-for-$230 card that could be redeemed for one 18-hole round of golf at each of the courses. They launched the card in December and left it up on their site until all 1,000 cards sold out in January. After many requests from viewers, the stations released another 500 cards in March, and within four days, they sold 200 and generated $15,000. 

Since the card was being sold at a more than 50 percent discount and the majority of the courses involved were upscale locations, some customers even called in to make sure the promotion was real – they thought it sounded too good to be true!

The courses were also incredibly pleased with the terms of the promotion as well, since cart fees were not included in the list price. This meant that they would not only see an increase in traffic as a result of the card, but also have the opportunity to upsell everyone who came to redeem it.

In exchange for their place on the card, each course received the following promotion:

  • 40 spots per month across WISE's NBC & MyTV channels and sister station WPTA's ABC & CW channels (10 per course per channel) between November and February.
  • Online brochure page on WISE's website including photos, description, map, contact information and links to the course's website.
  • Special promo ads on the WISE homepage.
  • Inclusion on the Northern Indiana Golf page on the WISE website.

WISE-TV and WPTA-TV also promoted the card with the following:

  • 400 promo spots, like the one shown below.
  • Six dedicated emails.
  • Weekly Facebook posts.
  • Side rail linking to card from their homepage.

To raise even more awareness and generate excitement around the card, the stations gave away 10 cards in a Facebook sweepstakes promoted by their weatherman, who is an avid golfer and very popular with the local audience.

The results
The INCnow.tv Golf Card has brought in $90,000 (and counting) in gross revenue for the station, which is the most revenue from a single ecommerce promotion than INCnow.tv has ever seen! Furthermore, the Golf Tour Card's placement on the station's regular deals site helped raise traditional deals sales as well, since new customers who purchased the card also saw the regular deals on the site and purchased those as well.

All of the courses involved in the promotion have also been delighted with the results, and more than half of them are already on board to participate in another golf card that will launch this month. This time, the stations plan to align their card with a pro golf contest and promote the two together.

Why it worked:

  • The card was discounted more than 50 percent, making it highly attractive to the station's customers.
  • Cart fees were not included in the card, which gave the courses an automatic upsell opportunity. Other upsell opportunities included concessions, pro shop purchases, lesson and club memberships.
  • The station promoted the card heavily on air and online – including a supplemental promotion to generate even more excitement. The station promoted the card using all of its unique resources, both on air and online, including special banners on the homepage and a dedicated landing page. The golf card was truly an event for WISE-TV and WPTA-TV and their viewers!

Matt Coen is the president and co-founder of Second Street, a leading provider of private-label online promotions platforms and partner success services for media companies based in St. Louis, Mo. He can be reached at (314) 880-4902 or matt@secondstreet.com.

Coen, Second Street, promotions, golf
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