Merry Stacking Season
Core Team: Kristin Graham, Erin Robinson, Cristina Castro, Erin Ridgeway, Julia Mazerov, Vanessajoie Castillo, Josh Lang, Alice Lin (it was a big one!)
The brief
Acquire new members and drive first-time-buyers (FTBs). Position Rakuten as the place for the biggest holiday savings—by earning Cash Back on top of holiday deals.
Build on learnings from previous holiday campaigns and evergreen growth testing, while evolving to expand audiences and categories.
The campaign theme
Our brilliant copywriters and creative directors came up with the platform for the holiday campaign, “Merry Stacking Season.” The smartest shoppers, Rakuten shoppers, know that the most wonderful time of year isn’t just about stacking latkes on their plates or gifts under the tree—it’s about stacking those savings. Cash Back on top of holidays deals for savings so nice, they feel a bit naughty.
Savings wonderland
With the look-and-feel established, we worked to extend the campaign to the growth audience—what works for current Rakuten shoppers doesn’t always connect with a prospect who may have never heard of us or understand how Cash Back works. The scene was set as a winter wonderland with bold colors and just a touch of magic.
We helped develop the shot list for the photoshoot, building on variants of proposed shots and adding in unique scenes and products to help us build a toolkit that could work across platforms and categories. On set, I worked with our production partners to make sure we captured just the right moments.
Paid ad execution
The growth campaign extended across multiple platforms—GDN and PMAX, Meta, UAC, Pinterest, GumGum, Smartly, Reddit, streaming pause ads, App and Browser Extension store listings, emails, and landing pages—as well as tailored partnerships with SoFi and T-Mobile Tuesday. All together, we created close to 300 assets to run in November and December with countless variants for categories, products, and merchants.
Results
NEW CUSTOMERS
App installs +2% YoY
GDN and PMAX campaigns drove +8% sign-ups YoY
Holiday landing pages with elevated Cash Back and featured merchants +37.5% conversion YoY
First-time-buyers
PMAX campaigns drove 50% of all FTBs (+85% YoY)
Custom category landing pages drove 22% of FTBs (+68% YoY)
Quick Pivots
Ask me about how we emergency-swapped one store logo for another on hundreds of assets right before the live date due to a celebrity’s assault allegations.