Submitter
Dan Keir, Senior Director, Direct Marketing
Company
Comcast
Industry
Media
Business Challenge
Comcast employed a multivariate test (MVT) in direct mail to re-energize existing efforts to acquire a strategic segment. Initial testing had been implemented two years prior, but shifting competitor strategies necessitated a strategic refresh as legacy campaigns focused primarily on winning back customers.
Analytics Solution
To address the challenge of accelerating acquisition, Comcast employed the MVT project. This type of experimental design radically increases the power of direct marketing, enabling the company to test over 1,250 possible combinations of attributes using less than 50 different mail versions with a partial factorial design. Once the test objectives are fully defined, Comcast’s analytics team works to create an experimental design that would ensure the optimum combinations of test cells are included to maximize the combinations of attributes to be tested. Once data is collected and cleansed, statistical analysis and regressions are performed to understand the elemental contribution of each tested attribute. Identifying “winning” attributes across various customer segments/markets allowed Comcast to develop full-potential marketing strategies tailored to the specific needs of various segments.
Impact
Overall, optimal combinations of attributes lifted responses by more than 50% among the tested segment. Test results were implemented across the organization to help improve existing campaigns. From a single test, the organization had not only a new stable of champions, but also a strategic plan for how to sustain the lift and maximize the impact across various customer segments.