SapientNitro powered the Citibank OMG! Sale on Facebook!

Citibank India finished 2012 with the first-ever 24-hour e-commerce mega sale called ‘OMG! Sale’ on 5th December, 2012. Designed exclusively for Citibank customers, this innovative program was intended to provide value added benefits and choice to Citibank customers as well as to spur the growth of e-commerce in India. The iconic sale brought 17 websites together on a single platform, offering some of the biggest deals, discounts and offers.

SapientNitro and Citibank India’s marketing team worked together to create a social media campaign worthy of the best digital bank in India and the first ever online mega sale. Besides using platforms for micro blogging and viral videos, the overall digital marketing campaign leveraged Facebook to create customer excitement  that translated to boosted digital sales for  the e-tailers.

In the words of Sridhar Iyer, Director, Digital business, Citibank India:

“The key to success of the ‘OMG! Sale’ was reaching out to our base of  customers in a simple, timely and effective manner, spurring the growth of e- Commerce. Our Social media campaign generated a buzz amongst our  customers by offering them a platform to  interact with each other and develop  conversations around the ‘OMG! Sale’. This resulted in more traffic to our  website and increased sales.”

Facebook, in particular, is an important platform for Citibank India with over 480,000 fans. SapientNitro’s focused attention on Citibank India’s Facebook presence played a pivotal role in the success of the digital campaign strategy and the ‘OMG! Sale’.

TARGET AUDIENCE:  Citibank card owners

OBJECTIVE: Bring Citibank card customers a unique shopping experience during the festive period. Provide a fillip to the Indian e-commerce industry by benefiting partnering e-tailers.

MEDIA: Microblogging, Viral videos, Citibank ‘OMG! Sale’ Microsite, Facebook

KEY RESULTS:

Citibank card spends grew eight times over average daily spends at the 17 partner websites
The average ticket size increased by 30% for the partner websites on Citibank cards
Partner merchants reported 50% reduction on ‘cash on delivery’ mode of payment
Citibank India Facebook page achieved the highest reach ever in 2012 - 20,95,104 and the highest virality - 7.63% during the OMG! Sale

Campaign background

The Indian e-commerce industry is growing at a rapid pace and there is a huge opportunity to tap the needs of the digitally connected consumer. Ranked as the best digital bank in India, Citibank India wanted to introduce an innovative digital campaign to benefit its customers and e-tailing partners alike. The campaign had to fulfill the dual objectives of providing exciting offers for Citibank card holders along with  enabling the digitisation of money, benefiting e-Commerce sites.

Big Idea – Citibank OMG! Sale

The first-ever 24-hour mega Citibank OMG! Sale campaign was conceptualised exclusively for the digital platform to reach out to the target audience: digitally active Citibank card users.

Facebook was chosen as the primary platform for promotion for two reasons: 1. strong presence of the audience base on Facebook, and 2. Facebook lends itself to superior engagement and analytics capabilities 

A customized event page, teaser images, regular updates and videos were used to engage Facebook users to help:

Receive timely updates about the OMG! Sale
Share information about the deals with friends
Invite friends to participate in the first ever 24-hour online sale

Citibank OMG! Sale campaign execution by SapientNitro

SapientNitro actively promoted ‘OMG! Sale’ on the Citibank India Facebook page to benefit existing and potential Citibank card holders

The first campaign teaser went live on 30th November, 2012

A pendulum shaped, countdown cover image of the ‘OMG! Sale’ campaign as a teaser was uploaded on December 3rd and 4th, 2012
A dedicated Citibank OMG! Sale event page was created two days prior to the start of the mega sale
The event link was shared on the brand’s Facebook wall
Interesting OMG! Videos were shared on Citibank India’s Facebook wall
Updates shared about the launch of the OMG! Sale