Client Showcase2020

A lot has happened since last year’s client showcase. Offices have closed, marketing strategies have pivoted, consumer behaviour has changed. But throughout it all, one thing has remained consistent: the power of referral marketing.

When times get tough, people are even more motivated to spread word of their favourite brands. For many of our clients, referrals dramatically increased during lockdown and remain significantly higher year-on-year. But firing up this motivation relies on compelling campaigns. It’s been exciting to oversee – and track the results of – some truly outstanding programmes over the past year, complete with seamless customer journeys, striking designs and strategic experimentation.

From fashion to finance, young startups to heritage brands, this client showcase highlights how referral marketing can work across a diverse range of businesses. Whether you’re new to referral marketing or a seasoned professional, I hope it provides you with ideas and inspiration for running your best campaign yet.

Now, let’s get started – turn the page for this year’s showcase!

SimonHead of Client Success

BestExperience

Best ExperienceGOOD ENERGY

The renewable energy supplier has given its referral programme its own brand identity, Good Together, to build upon the theme of tackling climate change together. By emphasising how we can collectively protect the planet, it encourages customers to tell friends about Good Energy and get rewards for their good deed. The team has developed this further by experimenting with incentives, from offering £50 credit to wine vouchers (organic, of course).

Best Experience

BLOOM & WILD

When refreshing the designs in its referral programme, the flower delivery service applied the same customer-centric approach its shoppers love it for. The result? An integrated, on-brand refer-a-friend experience that delights customers and delivers results, at every stage of the referral process.

Best ExperienceTOAST

TOAST’s online customer journey reflects its modern, thoughtful and straightforward aesthetic. Simple fonts and clear messaging complement aspirational imagery and an honest tone of voice to present a seamless user experience at every stage, from browsing to checking out and introducing friends. Resulting in quality referrals that convert into valuable new customers.

Best Experience

PROVIZ

The award-winning sports brand scaled its word-of-mouth marketing to take brand awareness to the next level. By featuring eye-catching imagery in newsletters and automated post-purchase emails, Proviz has significantly increased revenue from referral sales.

Best ExperienceTED BAKER

Throughout its referral and retention customer journeys, Ted Baker delivers a smooth customer experience that always feels entirely on-brand. By integrating referral into seasonal campaigns, including the hugely successful International Friendship Day, and promoting it at touchpoints, including PPC and Instagram, it’s got people talking and acquired new customers who keep coming back.

BestAB Test

BestAB TestMAMAS & PAPAS

A comprehensive A/B testing plan has significantly improved the baby retailer’s referral performance. This test experimented with offering referees £30 off £150 minimum spend versus £20 off £100 minimum spend. It discovered the former to be the winner, increasing average order value and share rate to acquire more, high-quality customers.

Winner

BestAB Test

OUTDOOR & COUNTRY

The outdoor clothing retailer continuously refines its referral programme to provide a compelling user experience that increases conversion rates. It experimented with running a new customer journey against its standard one and increased share rate in a single test. It’s built on this success by regularly updating copy and design to reflect seasonality, as well as testing the best-performing incentives.

Winner

BestAB TestAWAY RESORTS LTD

The travel brand’s first A/B test experimented with incentives. It offered a blanket 15% off versus £70 off its premium product, Indulgent accommodation. Running this test for 8 weeks revealed Away Resorts’ customers appreciate the finer things in life, with the discount on luxury accomodation proving the winner.

Winner

BestAB Test

TOAST

The lifestyle retailer took A/B testing 15% versus 20% off a step further by segmenting customers based on spend. By setting up a campaign that triggered when shoppers spent over a set amount, TOAST discovered high spenders were more likely than other customers to refer friends. Offering an exclusive 20% off to this cohort increased share rate and resulted in TOAST’s strongest month for referral performance.

Winner

BestAB TestVIRGIN EXPERIENCE DAYS

The experience provider made a surprising discovery when it experimented with switching up its iconic red. It A/B tested running a red versus white background, and found the latter to be significantly more effective. Customers shown the white background were more likely to share Virgin Experience Days with friends, and these referees were more likely to convert into new customers. That’s not all. Those shown the white background generally went on to spend more, too.

Winner

BestAB Test

ICELAND

After learning Facebook referrals were unlikely to convert into new customers, the British supermarket chain experimented with de-prioritising the social media platform versus removing it completely as a sharing method. It discovered that de-prioritising it meant referrers were more likely to use higher converting share options like WhatsApp, but that it could continue to grow brand awareness when people did choose to share via Facebook. An effective experiment with valuable results.

Winner

BestNewcomer

BestNewcomerGOOD ENERGY

Since partnering with Mention Me, Good Energy has run more than 30 refer-a-friend campaigns to its domestic customer base. The utilities brand has used the platform’s flexibility to create an entirely new channel that targets consumers through existing business customers. Merging the worlds of B2B and B2C to benefit both customers and Good Energy’s revenue. That’s what we call a win win!

BestNewcomer

BIRCHBOX

The beauty subscription brand has powered impressive performance since launching its referral programme in August 2019. Its Black Friday promotion proved particularly successful. Over the week, Birchbox acquired significantly more customers and increased revenue from new referred customers. Its biggest week since launching referral and a phenomenal result that made for a stellar month.

BestNewcomerELVIE

After launching its refer-a-friend programme last summer with one product, Elvie relaunched in November with an improved offer and second hero product. It immediately saw a huge uplift in share rate, which it built on with an email promotion. This increased the female-first tech brand’s purchase rate, with the majority of new referred customers coming from its target market, the USA.

BestNewcomer

BOUX AVENUE

Since launch, Boux Avenue has experimented with countless elements of its referral programme to improve performance. A/B testing incentives, call-to-actions, sharing options and more has culminated in increasing both share and purchase rates. Highlights include an International Friendship Day campaign that significantly increased sales and share rate, and a dedicated NHS referral campaign during the pandemic.

BestNewcomerVIRGIN EXPERIENCE DAYS

Within its first year of partnering with Mention Me, Virgin Experience Days has significantly grown its referral scheme. Strategic A/B testing has been fundamental to this, with the brand testing everything from design and copy, to the offer itself. It’s also got creative, partnering with sister brand Virgin Wines to get more people talking and introducing their friends.

BestNewcomer

LA COQUETA

After launching referral in October 2019, the independent childrenswear brand soon saw the results of incentivising its cult online following to spread the word. It has built upon its compelling incentive - 15% off for both referrers and referees - with continuous A/B testing. Experimenting with elements, ranging from copy and design to sharing methods, has helped La Coqueta achieve a steady share rate that regularly converts into new customers.

BestDesign

BestDesignBOOST

Boost’s bold and bright visuals brim with personality and stand out from the crowd. Its celebration theme sets a feel-good vibe that emotionally engages customers to drive referrals. The energy provider builds on this with clever use of animation, creating the effect of confetti exploding from its emails and corner-peel banner, that make its programme impossible to ignore.

BestDesign

LA COQUETA

La Coqueta’s design approach puts its products front and centre of its referral programme. Beautifully styled product photography combines with sophisticated, minimal monochrome layouts to present a high-end offering that feels timelessly elegant. Perfect for capturing the attention of fashion-conscious parents.

BestDesignITCH PETS

Subscription pet worming business Itch stands out from the competition with cool and distinctive branding – its referral programme is no exception. Bold typography combines with innovative photography of pets to create visuals that catch the eye and emotionally engage customers to drive referrals.

BestDesign

BLOOM & WILD

Bloom & Wild’s programme pushes the boundaries of software customisation. Its design team’s work, in collaboration with Mention Me, proves that investing time and love into perfecting the user journey can deliver something truly special. Friendship-themed photography, commissioned especially for its referral programme, is peppered with hand-drawn icons and extra illustrative touches, then finished with custom-designed font. Resulting in a user experience that radiates Bloom & Wild’s delightful personality.

BestDesignPRETTYLITTLETHING

The design of PrettyLittleThing’s referral programme is both visually pleasing and functional. It opted for one of our experimental design approaches, simplified sharing UI, to present sharing methods without explanation, reflecting its digitally savvy customer base and innovative style. Cool and colourful imagery catches shoppers’ eyes and makes them want to get involved, while its simplistic approach makes it quick and easy to refer the brand to friends.

BestDesign

MATCHESFASHION

The luxury fashion retailer appeals to its diverse range of customers with original visuals of timeless products. Based on its iconic marbled paper boxes, Matches’ design resonates with every customer throughout the seasons and reiterates the theme of giving to friends. Sophisticated typography adds the finishing flourish to high-end designs, executed seamlessly around the world (four languages in nine locales at last count).

BestDesignFASHION WORLD

Fashion World uses elegant typography and bold colours to create a striking design, rooted in the theme of sharing secrets, that catches the eye and motivates customers to refer friends. It’s built on this by experimenting with different layouts throughout the design process, culminating in a customer journey like no other. Our favourite part? The sweet deal message delivered by an animated envelope.

BestDesign

LIBERTY

Liberty left no stone unturned when it overhauled its platform, completely redesigning its referral programme to match. Featuring new styling rules and a modern aesthetic, its updated programme is effortlessly elegant and on-brand. Simple fonts combine with splashes of colour to catch the customer’s eye, while product range-specific CTAs motivate referees to shop for the first time and increase the referral conversion rate.

BestDesignFATFACE

FatFace juxtaposes colourful photography with monochrome text and CTAs to create one of the most memorable geometric designs we’ve seen. A consistently applied angled split between image and text platforms creates interesting, dynamic layouts, finished with powerful typography to complete the look. Better yet, the flexible set-up means the team can regularly update its campaign with fresh visuals without impacting other design elements.

MostInnovativePromotion

MostInnovativePromotionFARFETCH

The luxury fashion retailer rolled out referral in-app to build on its refer-a-friend success in September 2019. It fully customised the referral journey to serve both referrers and referees seamless, on-brand experiences across devices. Farfetch has subsequently built on this with extensive A/B testing across regions, including sophisticated elements like animations, to discover how best to engage customers and drive results. It’s working - since launching referral in-app, Farfetch has acquired significantly more customers via referral.

MostInnovativePromotion

ALLPLANTS

The vegan food delivery service is rooted in sustainability and protecting the planet. It incorporates this ethos into every element of its referral programme, from growth strategy to promotions. This approach inspired a Black Friday promotion with a twist: Green Friday. Offering both referrers and referees £10 off, allplants planted 10 trees for every new customer introduced via this channel. Resulting in happy new customers, more sustainable consumption and thousands of trees planted.

MostInnovativePromotionFIGLEAVES

The lingerie brand took a playful approach to its Christmas campaign. Instead of offering its standard percentage discount, it offered referrers and referees the chance to win £500 worth of Figleaves products - a generous gift that tied into the festive spirit and got customers feeling excited. Playful copy presented the offer with ‘Sleigh your Christmas lingerie’. Running the campaign in both the UK and America got people talking about the retailer and increased its purchase rate.

MostInnovativePromotion

TED BAKER

In July 2019, Ted Baker was one of the first brands to run an International Friendship Day campaign. It promoted its offer of 25% off for both referrers and referees across emails, Instagram posts and PPC ads to achieve remarkable results. In addition to acquiring significantly more new customers, these new customers spent more on average. Ted Baker continues to build on its referral success with its retention programme, serving meaningful customer interactions to keep customers coming back.

MostInnovativePromotionHUEL

The rapidly growing nutrition brand has given its referral programme a unique twist from the very beginning. Rather than have an open landing page for referral, users must be logged in, building on its sense of community and exclusivity, while a dedicated FAQ section means customers can learn exactly how it works. It promotes its refer-a-friend rewards smoothly via numerous touchpoints including the homepage and in solus emails, such as its ‘How to stick to your New Year resolutions’ email at the start of the year.

Best App

Best App

FARFETCH

The designer fashion retailer worked with Mention Me to roll out a full API integration in September 2019. Referral customers can now enjoy a seamless app experience, complete with intuitive navigation and a smooth journey that lives up to the brand’s stylish reputation. Regular push notifications keep referral front of mind and encourage even more customers to share the brand with friends.

Best App

JUSTPARK

Integrated through the entry point API, JustPark’s in-app referral programme delivers a strong user experience. Customers are encouraged to refer friends in the app menu, keeping the programme front of mind and likely to be engaged with. The team has built on this by experimenting with messaging. It’s learnt, for example, that customers are more likely to refer when encouraged to ‘earn free parking spaces’, rather than simply ‘refer a friend’. At present, JustPark’s app delivers a strong proportion of successful referrals.

Best App

BLOOM & WILD

When Bloom & Wild overhauled its referral journey, it gave special attention to the experience of its app users. A prominent banner in the account section promotes referral and takes users through to an embedded referral programme, which both mirrors the website flow and matches the in-app user experience. Featuring unique animations and a beautiful design, Bloom & Wild’s in-app integration has inspired technical consumer flow optimisations for countless other brands.

IndustryAdvocateof the Year

IndustryAdvocateof the Year

Senior CRM Executive,HUEL

Charlie has taken the challenger brand’s referral programme to new heights, especially in the target market of the US. With an unwavering focus on improving the on-site customer experience and strategic A/B testing, Charlie has helped to increase both share and purchase rates to achieve outstanding results.

CRM & Ecommerce Senior Coordinator,BENEFIT COSMETICS

Since taking ownership of Benefit’s referral programme, Ursula has incorporated name sharing, upgraded the customer journey and rolled out the beauty brand’s retention programme. She’s championed Mention Me internally to drive its international referral programmes, including persuading the US head office to implement add-ons to maximise referral performance.

Charlie Smissen

UrsulaCasserly

Paid Media Manager,SCHUH

Under Donna’s management, Schuh’s referral and retention scheme has significantly grown. Donna is a key advocate for Mention Me, regularly involved with product testing, providing references for sales calls and contributing to press coverage. Mention Me and Schuh were even listed as Drapers Digital Awards finalists for Best Customer Engagement and Retention Strategy.

Marketing Partner,ALLPLANTS

Having worked with Mention Me at two companies, Chloe is a true ambassador for Mention Me. In addition to championing the platform internally and driving optimal results, she regularly takes part in Mention Me press activity, content marketing pieces, and presents her invaluable insights at events. Chloe is always looking for new ways to drive performance and has implemented allplants’ first refer-a-friend programme with great results.

Senior Product Management Executive,OCADO ZOOM

Since the beginning of Mention Me’s partnership with Ocado Zoom, Alexandra has been committed to optimising its referral programme. Under her management, Ocado Zoom has run numerous A/B tests, added promotion points throughout the customer journey, and been an advocate for referral to sister company Fetch. Alexandra has also contributed to numerous research interviews held by Mention Me, helping to inform platform development and improve future performance for all our clients.

DonnaMacrury

AlexandraWilliams

ChloeWatt