89 Degrees Enters 2013 with Strong Growth, 7 New Clients

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--89 Degrees, a customer engagement agency that leverages data and analytically driven strategy for maximum ROI, closed 2012 with strong growth, driven by a host of new clients, breakthrough marketing programs, and numerous key staff additions.

“89 Degrees devises innovative customer engagement that has attracted new clients and produced great returns for our existing clients”

New Business
89 Degrees added significant new business in 2012, including seven new clients in the last six months of the year – several of which are tapping into 89 Degrees’ email expertise:

Global humanitarian organization World Vision turned to 89 Degrees to better engage and retain members through email marketing that leverages data and analytically driven strategy to help World Vision engage with its audience.
Roomorama, an innovative online marketplace for travel accommodations, chose 89 Degrees to create and maintain email marketing communications, providing the strategy, technical integration and user experience to enable and optimize Roomorama’s customer engagement.
89 Degrees was selected by leading athletic apparel and footwear brand Fila to develop and support a comprehensive 2012 email marketing plan that builds and creates customer relationships.

“As we looked for a partner to help us use email to build our customer relationships, 89 Degrees emerged as a clear choice,” said Kelly Funke, senior manager of eCommerce at Fila. “They have had great success in this area with other businesses, demonstrating both the technical expertise and strategic guidance to create email campaigns that engage customers.”

Recognition

89 Degrees and client h.h. gregg were awarded a place in Facebook Gallery, Facebook's gallery of outstanding social creative ideas, for a sweepstakes-supporting social campaign that more than doubled entries from the previous year and drove a huge increase in the h.h. gregg social community.
89 Degrees won the prestigious Gold Communicator Award for Website Structure and Navigation for a global retailer, emerging from thousands of entries received throughout the US and the world.
89 Degrees also snagged a coveted Hermes Awards 2012 Gold for Website Overall/Business to Business for Fiesta Americana Grand Meetings Mexico, emerging from more than 4,700 entries internationally for this top creative prize.
89 Degrees and client h.h. gregg were chosen to speak at the 2012 Customer Relationship Management Conference, a top annual event for retail marketers, presenting “h.h. gregg: Turning Customer Contact into Retail Success”.

Talent
89 Degrees added 20 full-time employees to its staff in 2012, meeting new business demands across its departments and adding two key experts:

Loyalty
Retail industry expert Dennis Goodman was hired to head up 89 Degrees’ expanding loyalty practice, a highly successful application of solutions to loyalty marketing programs increasingly demanded by clients like IKEA, h.h. gregg, Crabtree & Evelyn and Geox.
Digital Marketing
Tim Pounanov was named director of digital marketing technology, leading 89 Degrees' Digital Marketing Technology Services. He manages a team of digital marketing application developers and engineers to offer integrated digital marketing solutions for clients like IKEA, h.h. gregg, Genzyme, the American Cancer Society, Crabtree & Evelyn, Fila, and Uno Chicago Grill.

Thought Leadership
In addition to a year-long stream of expert bylined articles and speaking engagements, 89 Degrees continued its Leadership Series with research, white papers and briefs on topics critical to marketers today:

“The Data Silo Breakdown: Achieving Optimized Customer Engagement”, a PACE Yourself white paper from the 89 Degrees Leadership Series is based on results from 89 Degrees’ PACE survey and study of 153 marketers’ customer engagement and marketing optimization practices. The study finds that small businesses are leading the way, and what larger organizations need to do to catch up.
“It’s Time to Pull the Trigger on Behaviorally Targeted Marketing”, another PACE Yourself white paper from the 89 Degrees Leadership Series, addresses the opportunity for micro-targeted, high ROI “trigger” programs.
The Trigger Marketing white paper was also the basis for an 89 Degrees brief outlining seven steps marketers can take to create these highly targeted, highly profitable trigger marketing programs.
89 Degrees also announced the results of its PACE Benchmark Study, revealing significant untapped data-driven opportunity to produce greater ROI for many marketers. The twenty-page study analyzes the PACE survey of 153 marketers during 2011 that examined marketing practices according to twenty attributes that measure levels of customer engagement and marketing optimization.
89 Degrees shared a free white paper, “Pick Up the PACE: Accelerating Your Pathway to Advanced Customer Engagement”, outlining 89 Degrees’ PACE technique, step-by-step, to assess marketers’ ability to leverage data-driven programs and formulate a plan for optimizing performance.

“89 Degrees devises innovative customer engagement that has attracted new clients and produced great returns for our existing clients,” said 89 Degrees President Phil Hussey. “One example is our work to help make IKEA’s global loyalty program a success in the United States. The IKEA FAMILY program has already attracted over 2.1 million members since fully launching earlier in 2012. Those are the kind of results that drive business and attract attention.”

About 89 Degrees
89 Degrees is an agency that specializes in customer engagement strategy and execution. Our results-oriented services combine database expertise, marketing analytics, technology integration, and creative as a means to connect consumers and brands for maximum engagement and ROI. 89 Degrees enables multi-channel success across a number of key verticals for clients including IKEA, Hyundai, World Vision, Genzyme/Sanofi and Uno Chicago Grill.