Getintothegame.com for Target Stores

Promotional Feature and Content Integration with third party hosting, content and updates.

Client: Minneapolis-based Target serves guests at 1,648 stores in 47 states nationwide by delivering today's best retail trends at affordable prices. Target is committed to providing guests with great design through innovative products, in-store experiences and community partnerships.

Work: Target's Getintothegame.com had a long standing presence online promoting the video games it sells in store. The contract with the current content provider was due to expire opening up the potential to eliminate large amounts of human touch points in the re-purposing of the game content, the creation of micro-promotional sites, and re-architecting the system to ensure Target's promotional content could live closer and in harmony with the deep content from the provider. After an extensive search and evaluation process Gamespot was identified by the team to be a front runner due to its rich community presence, its width and breadth of content, and the long tail of its product descriptions for all game platforms. After I completed a detailed analysis of its content management system, templates, rich media features, deployment scheduling features, and ease of re-design and use we sealed the deal with CNet's Gamespot. Our team, an outside design agency, and Gamespot mapped out the new site's design, navigation, promotional architecture, feature pages and promotional content update strategy. On a parallel path we evaluated and selected an outside production partner to do the work of weekly updates that included flash promotional design and content features in alignment with the weekly release schedule of new game titles. I partnered with the production agency to refine their processes and techniques for adding new content with the demanding review and approve cycles with Target's marketing teams. We seamlessly shuttered the legacy site and launched the new feature rich site to much fanfare.

Results: The huge effort we undertook was greeted heartily by the users of the legacy site and they quickly latched on to the new site, its greater depth of content, broader selection of games and platforms, utilizing its community features, discussion boards and community ratings systems to a high degree cementing the Target brand at the top of mind to the user base when the time came for purchasing video games. The outside production partner succeeded in efficiently updating the promotional areas of the site with minimal intervention of internal Target teams. The already "in place" deep content from Gamespot replaced the constant entering of game data into the legacy system allowing us to reallocate headcount to other initiatives. The site's traffic rose to over 11 million unique visitors per month and is to this day Target's most successful promotional site outside of Target.com.

Target.com/health

Deep content integration over four hosting platforms for a seamless experience.

Client: Target.com brings the unique shopping experience of a Target store to the Internet with a vast selection of trend-right merchandise as well as useful information on the company’s guest-focused services. Launched in August 1999, Target.com today is among the top 20 most visited Web sites worldwide with more than 20+ million unique visitors each day. The site features more than 200,000 products in the key categories of home décor, toys, gifts and apparel and provides guests with access to Target’s signature and exclusive brands.

Work: Target's Health strategy needed rich and deep content available online to highlight in the guest's mind Target's commitment to them and their healthy lifestyles. After a content partner was selected my team was engaged to figure out how to seamlessly integrate the content into Target's website. I analyzed the content partner's system, restrictions in Target's Amazon shopping platform and Target's internal hosting platform for a way to integrate the content and developed a plan to "skin" the partner's content on their servers. The team architected a unified navigation that would be hosted in four environments, Amazon, Target hosted for Interactive, Target hosted for Pharmacy and the content provider. My team developed a unified package delivery system of code, styles and navigation templates to each hosted environment on a monthly basis for easy updating and integration across all platforms.

Results: Target.com/health delivers deep health content and news to the guest while being seamlessly integrated into the online selling experience, Target's Pharmacy system, and Target hosted promotional areas such as Clear/RX and other health initiatives.

Target.com Dynamic Email System

Massively variable targeting and segmentation of marketing messages and promotions.

Client: Target.com brings the unique shopping experience of a Target store to the Internet with a vast selection of trend-right merchandise as well as useful information on the company’s guest-focused services. Launched in August 1999, Target.com today is among the top 20 most visited Web sites worldwide with more than 20+ million unique visitors each day. The site features more than 200,000 products in the key categories of home décor, toys, gifts and apparel and provides guests with access to Target’s signature and exclusive brands.

Work: Target.com's email list had grown by leaps and bounds yet wasn't progressing as a selling vehicle week after week. In order to capture an increase in incremental sales we needed to segment ad target the product mix and marketing messages to an infinite degree, while maintaining brand standards and team efficiency. The former process and tools of email creation and production would not be able to handle the increase in volume of messaging. After an extensive survey and scoring of database driven systems a new tool was chosen by our team. In a parallel path I worked within the Creative department to architect and design a system of modular stackable and interchangeable content blocks that my team would code and enter into the new system. We created a simple form based system for the marketing team to deliver its targeted and variable promotions and messaging to the creative teams and templates for the creative teams to deliver to the production team for final images, pricing, last minute promotions production and coding and loading into the system on a weekly basis.

Results: By breaking down the massively complex task of infinite variability into bite size executions we enabled the teams to focus on the creation of discrete deliverables quickly and efficiently. The amount of promotions available to the marketing team increased three to ten fold in the same amount of space and massive segmentation for targeting on a weekly basis became routine. The implementation of business process changes and template automation meant the creative and production team did not have to add personnel to accomplish what became 3 to 10 times the amount of effective work on a weekly basis. Conversion and incremental sales increased by multiples allowing Target.com to break through the sales plateau that was hindering growth with this strategic channel.

ERIN RAUK

Account Director and Strategist, IA, UX

Erin provides a unique blend of strategy and big-picture thinking while applying tactical elements to every client engagement. Throughout her 15 years in the marketing industry she has developed a broad background, starting in traditional mediums. She worked in the direct mail and the incentive and recognition industries, which involved print, promotional products and sales and promotional events. At Anderson Performance Improvement, the first in the incentive and recognition industry to leverage the Internet for employee programs, Erin recognized the power of the Internet as a marketing communication vehicle. She sought further interactive marketing specialization at Target Corporation, where she led many interactive campaigns, including the award-winning Web site “Ready. Sit. Read!”

Working the last several years at local agencies including Atomic Playpen, Popular Front and Cadria Marketing, Erin has focused on driving interactive process and strategies, moving her teams toward agency growth and best practices. In addition to managing client services teams, she has worked in the Account Director role with such companies as General Mills, Hasbro, Mall of America, Michelina’s, ShopKo and the Vikings. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association. Erin graduated with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing from Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma.

Follow Erin on twitter : @erinrauk

Matt Lee

Technical Strategist and Development Manager

Matt bridges the gap between ideas, people and technology with critical analysis and innovative thinking. After starting out as a frustrated designer, Matt discovered that his real strengths lie in the gray area between strategy, innovation and management. Matt is an extroverted techie; a forward-thinking people-person; a socially evolved geek. From brainstorming to maintenance and operations, Matt helps drive technological innovation in change-driven business environments. For nearly two decades, Matt has defined and refined processes, built teams and delivered new and innovative solutions for small start-ups and Fortune 25 companies alike, maximizing efficiency and reducing costs along the way.

His track record speaks to team growth, mentorship of new leaders, and productive, hard-working systems and teams. He really, really likes to help people make their businesses run better, through the magic of new processes and the thoughtful application of technology to create new services and products for their customers and clients.

Matt is a natural team builder and optimizing agent who has created highly respected teams and solutions at Target.com, Target Marketing, OLSON Advertising and the legendary Bitstream Underground.

Matt has most recently been busy running the Digital Asset Management program at Sears Holdings, optimizing Interstate Batteries e-Commerce site for search engines and mining the social webs for new and exciting people, tools and ideas.

Stay tuned for an exciting new platform addition to Bingo Theory's service offerings, Matt thinks he have may have found the interactive one two punch that small and mid-sized businesses have been waiting for.

Follow Matt on Twitter : @coolass