Eurocamp and Keycamp, Europe's leading holiday parc and campsite companies, have appointed eCRM specialist Underwired to develop the brands' eCRM strategies. Both Eurocamp and Keycamp are part of Holidaybreak plc, with market leading positions in the UK and other major European markets.

Underwired will create a fully integrated eCRM strategy to drive further engagement with key audience segments. As well as introducing Eurocamp and Keycamp holidays to new audiences, Underwired's brief is to help increase out of season bookings and overcome perception challenges within the category.

Dave McKenna, Head of Brand at Keycamp, said of the selection, "We are excited about working with Underwired to help us develop more individual, relevant and optimised contact strategies leading to better conversion and cross selling opportunities."

Felix Velarde, Underwired's co-founder, added, "We are really thrilled about the appointment and the opportunity to again demonstrate our insights within the travel and leisure sector. Having the opportunity to work with two of the market's leaders is a great opportunity for us."

Underwired's other clients include ASICS Europe, Hodder & Stoughton and McCain Foods.

Publisher Hodder & Stoughton, which counts Stephen King, Jeffery Deaver, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, Ranulph Fiennes and Peter Kay among its diverse range of authors, has hired eCRM specialist Underwired.

Underwired, which specialises in eCRM strategy development and campaign execution, will look at eCRM opportunities across the portfolio.

Hodder & Stoughton was founded in 1868, and last year had 36 titles in the Sunday Times Top 100 list, with eight reaching number one.

Vickie Boff, Hodder's Head of Non-Fiction, said of the selection, "We're delighted to be working with Underwired. We are really looking forward to seeing the results of working with the team to help shape our future communications and ongoing engagement with our readers."

Felix Velarde, the agency's co-founder, added, "This appointment is a delight for us. I gave a speech about customer engagement strategies at the Book Industry Conference a few years ago, and addressed (Hodder parent company) Hachette Group's conference earlier this year on some of the digital and eCRM issues facing the publishing world. Having the opportunity to work with one of the best publishers in the business to help create an industry-leading eCRM strategy is a fantastic opportunity."

Underwired's clients include Laithwaites Wine, ASICS Europe and McCain Foods.

McCain Foods, the leading FMCG brand, has launched the next phase of its personalised website, www.mccainitsallgood.co.uk, through specialist eCRM agency Underwired.

The site is designed to support the brand's highly successful eCRM strategy devised and managed by the agency, which has increased Average Purchase Frequency by more than 3% and revenue by 38% within the programme's opted-in customer base.

The website's content strategy is based on the same detailed segmentation established for the eCRM campaign, with highly relevant offers, promotions and competitions tailored to the site visitor's position within a defined customer journey. Opt-in is driven by the site's loyalty programme, 'Spud Shillings', which offers rewards based on an active brand engagement score and on visitors' use of advocacy tools.

"The launch version of the site had a strong emphasis on the 'experience' and 'discovery' of content. Over time the site's purpose and content developed further as regular visitors became familiar with it. So we had a challenge to keep the 'feel' of the original site design but make the content even more accessible and fresh," explains Underwired's co-founder and Creative Director Jason Holland who led the design team on the project.

"The new home page and structure within the site maintains the beautiful environment and brand experience of the real-life locations as depicted in the original launch site while key content is highlighted and the structure made even easier to use and navigate around for a more engaged experience."

The first version of the website garnered over 10,000 sign-ups in its first few days. The latest version, which has gone live this week, has been planned by Underwired's Head of Planning, Tim Williams, designed by Jason Holland's creative team and restructured and delivered by, Underwired's parent company.

Felix Velarde will be giving a talk at Internet World on the integration of Social Media with eCRM and customer retention programmes. Felix was one of the industry’s founders, having started one of the first web agencies in 1994.

The talk is part of a series by the Institute of Direct Marketing, and will be held at 1.10pm on Wednesday 11th May in the Design & Build Theatre at Internet World, Earls Court.

For further information, please visit the Internet World website.

Underwired, the UK’s leading eCRM agency, has launched a major new Social CRM (sCRM) tool for integrating Facebook functionality with segmented email campaigns and eCRM programmes. The Underwired sCRM tool leverages the Facebook API to take advocacy-based segmentation to a brand new level of sophistication.

Until recently driving traffic to Facebook pages was the equivalent to old-style viral or word of mouth marketing, using it as a venue for people to engage with a brand. The evaluation of a campaign’s success was based on inference rather than end-to-end tracking – indicated by click-through rates, sentiment scores, mentions, ‘likes’ or Facebook transactions. However until now there has been no simple way of linking prompted Facebook activity to an individual customer’s record.

The new Underwired sCRM tool allows address-level tracking, the holy grail of social strategies. It closes the loop between the outbound customer journey and subsequent engagement, bringing relevant data back into the eCRM database. Underwired sCRM allows brands to employ social as part of a fully tracked eCRM programme that never loses sight of an engaged customer.

Underwired sCRM enables brands to capture social data, including an individual’s clicks on ‘like’ and ‘comment’ buttons, external links and video content (including how long they watch it for), photo upload, post and share with friends functions. For example, this means that customers who don’t spend much but have huge social influence can be identified and messaged appropriately, leveraging their real value. For the first time marketers can add an Advocacy dimension to their segmentation.

Felix Velarde, Managing Director at Underwired, commented, “Making address-level tracking a reality solves an epic challenge for digital marketers, allowing them to pinpoint exactly who is doing what in their brand’s social channels and identify – and properly target – their most active brand advocates.

“Social behavioural insight will be critical for marketers in 2011. By building Underwired sCRM into Underwired’s four week audit process, we can now include Facebook as an intrinsic part of a brand’s eCRM and email marketing campaigns. It means we can remove the final remaining blind spots in tracking ROI for online campaigns.”

For further information, please visit www.scrm.co.uk

ASICS, the specialist sports footwear company, has hired Underwired as its eCRM agency across a number of key European markets, including Germany, Holland, Italy, France, Benelux, Austria and the UK.

ASICS, which is an abbreviation of “Anima Sana In Corpore Sano”, meaning “Sound Mind In A Sound Body”, has been developing innovative technical sports shoes and apparel for more than half a century. The brand has built a strong reputation amongst athletes with products including its Impact Guidance System and Biomorphic.

Raphaël Mazoyer, ASICS’ Digital Communications Manager, commented: “As a manufacturer, ASICS is keen to develop a closer bond with consumers, and to support their practice of chosen sports. In particular, runners show the brand a lot of trust and loyalty, and we want to demonstrate the highest respect for them in our digital communications. Underwired brings the expertise we need to fulfill this brand promise, and to develop a powerful eCRM platform.”

Underwired’s appointment followed a comprehensive audit of the brand’s online customer relationship initiatives. The brief includes the development of the brand’s European eCRM strategy, as well as a new campaign to support the refreshed MyASICS portal, and ongoing delivery of the multi-language programme throughout Europe.

Tim Williams, Underwired’s Planning Director and previously Head of Customer Insight at mobile brand Three, said of the project, “ASICS is a good example of a growing desire amongst brand owners to get closer to their end consumers through deeper insights and innovative relationship building techniques. By getting under the skin of what motivates different customer segments, we are starting the process of helping ASICS craft an effective eCRM programme. This is designed to deepen the engagement of its existing customers as well as to increase awareness amongst the brand’s target customer base across Europe.”

Underwired is a digital strategy consultancy and creative agency specialising in sophisticated customer engagement strategies and eCRM. Underwired’s clients include McCain Foods, Laithwaites Wine and NSPCC. It is part of plc, a £15million European digital agency which currently ranks 5th in YouGov’s agency reputation survey.

Inish Turk Beg, the multicategory lifestyle brand from the west coast of Ireland, has hired digital agency Underwired to develop its digital marketing and social media strategy. The appointment comes at a time of rapid expansion for the brand. In addition to its range of award winning bacon and smoked fish, Inish Turk Beg is launching a unique limited edition Irish whiskey “Maiden Voyage”, with the first of a series of music CD/Books, “The Brilliant Irish Flute,” soon to follow. The task also includes the worldwide promotion of the Inishturkbeg Island itself; the Clew Bay island offers luxury accommodation available for rental and has its own Stud Farm producing Connemara Ponies.

Inish Turk Beg’s Nadim Sadek commented, “We’re delighted to appoint Underwired on our account. As a multi-category brand operating in six different areas of activity, we need subversive, smart, innovative partners, and they offer us full digital support in growing our commercial activities. Our Food business has expanded since launch throughout the UK and Ireland, and is now making waves in the US; our Whiskey launched this week and is vigorously inviting people to join us in living life at a tilt and our Music initiative, The Brilliant Irish Flute, goes on sale shortly – all helped by a partner agency able to support consumer engagement, rather than simply acting as an on-line advertising agency.”

Jason Holland, Underwired’s creative director commented, “I’ve spent time on Inishturkbeg, and it’s a truly inspiring place to be – the scenery is stunning and the atmosphere is just perfectly relaxing. Being tasked with expressing the island through its branded gourmet products and especially with the limited edition whiskey currently being launched through Harvey Nichols, is a dream challenge for us.”

Underwired is a digital strategy and creative agency. Its clients include McCain Foods, Laithwaites Wine and NSPCC. The agency is part of plc, a £15million European digital agency which currently ranks 5th in YouGov’s agency reputation survey.

Simply Business, the UK’s leading online insurance broker for small businesses, has hired digital strategy and eCRM specialist agency Underwired to develop an eCRM programme.

Featured in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 for the past three years, Simply Business is the insurance broker to some 150,000 small and micro businesses across the UK. Its industry leading online service allows businesses to quickly find tailored insurance products, such as professional indemnity and public liability insurance, and compare quotes from multiple providers.

Underwired has been brought in to develop three campaigns, which will help Simply Business extend its reach amongst small businesses in the UK.

Alastair Douglas, Head of Marketing and Analysis at Simply Business, said of the appointment, “Simply Business and its customer base continues to grow and diversify we recognise that we need to move to the next stage in our eCRM engagement. With everything we do we always look to work with the best-in-class partners and Underwired impressed us with its flexibility and impressive results, especially those outside the financial services sector.”

Specialist digital and eCRM agency Underwired has created a brand new website for FMCG giant, McCain Foods, designed to evoke emotional connection through the use of innovative creative and personalised content, which is personalised depending on where users sit within the eCRM cycle.

Underwired’s brief was to create a new website for mums with busy lifestyles, however, unusually for a global brand, no brand guidelines were issued for its look and feel, and the visual brief was directly linked to users’ emotional attachment and sense of discovery.

Having already executed a hugely successful eCRM strategy for McCain, which increased sales revenue by 38% during the first six months of the year, Underwired has created a stunning online experience taking users on an interactive journey to destinations through woodland walks. Users can play games at the Fair, learn how to make their own bird feeder at the Farm, or visit the Kitchen, which is filled with useful content such as local event information, downloadable money-off coupons and video recipes, featuring Loose Women’s Andrea McLean. Viewing content and interacting with the site is rewarded with spud shillings that can be redeemed for money-off vouchers from a range of high street brands..

Jason Holland, Creative Director at Underwired, commented, “Our aim was to make using the site really memorable, and something people want to tell their friends about and visit again. One of the key features is that it gives users the feeling they are interacting with a real life environment, rewarding them with engaging, relevant and useful content at each different location.”

Nicola Ech-Channa, Communications Manager at McCain Foods, commented, “Using the consumer insight we’ve gained through our eCRM programme, we’ve created a website that will not only help us to build an emotional connection with mums, but also to reward them for spending time online with the brand. We’ve been working towards this for some time and are thrilled with the results.”

The website, which has been built using the Agillic platform, will be promoted on packaging, via TV ads, Facebook, and with coupons and brand partnerships.

The new McCain Foods website can be viewed at www.mccainitsallgood.co.uk

The IDM’s one day course for marketers, Developing a Profitable eCRM Strategy, is running again on the 16th March 2011.

The course is led by IDM Fellow and Underwired MD Felix Velarde and planning director Tim Williams.

Being able to create accountable marketing campaigns is crucial for commercial survival - and personal advancement. eCRM has become a critical element of any marketing strategy, providing the means to generate millions in new revenues. This new course lays out the practical steps required in planning an eCRM programme, selecting suppliers and setting commercial targets.

Who should attend Developing a Profitable eCRM Strategy?

Senior marketing budget holders with overall responsibility for marketing strategy, e-commerce strategy or heads of digital. The course will use practical case studies from FMCG, retail, e-commerce and leisure.

How will I benefit from this training course?

This will give you a practical understanding of how to plan, schedule and cost an eCRM programme, estimate returns, set targets, select suppliers and evaluate results – all the essentials to run an effective campaign within an easy-to-use framework.

The course costs £445 for members and £495 for non-members. You can find out more about the course content, venue and tutors, as well as the CPD Award Scheme towards which this course contributes, at the IDM’s eCRM course page.

Laithwaites Wine, the UK’s largest independent wine merchant, with an annual turnover of £250m and more than half a million customers, has hired specialist digital relationship marketing and eCRM strategy specialists Underwired.

Underwired is the leading eCRM strategy agency, creating eCRM programmes delivered through email, web, mobile, CRM hubs and social media.

Mike Smith, Head of Web Selling at Laithwaites Wine, commented on the selection: “Underwired brings a fantastic range of experiences and a deep understanding of eCRM to Laithwaites. This new relationship will help us refine our digital communications strategy and provide a strong base for future growth.”

Felix Velarde, Underwired’s MD, said of the deal: “Laithwaites is a fantastic brand with a history of using extremely sophisticated Direct Marketing to remarkable effect. It’s a great opportunity to help Laithwaites introduce more of their customers to digital which will refine engagement and improve sales.”

Underwired’s eCRM campaign for McCain Foods increased revenues within the core segment by 38% in six months.