FOXWOODS & VESTCOM

Automate Monthly Coupon Mailings

by Robert J. Sousa, Vice President, Travel, Leisure and Gaming, Vestcom
The issues, delays, risks and consequences of direct marketing is known (and felt) by everyone in the Gaming Industry. The stress of managing direct mail usually centers around time and money. We will take an in-depth look at how Foxwoods has broken through the barriers of managing their most critical campaigns. The segments, offers and copy alternatives became very complex at Foxwoods about 5 years ago. At first glance reaching this next level was a threat to their in-home date and budget. Through a detailed RFP process Foxwoods tapped into the resources they needed by selecting Vestcom. They began an evaluation that today has saved in excess of $1,000,000 over the past four years. The initial cost saving concept and implementation was quite simple. Link data files belonging to a husband and wife residing at the same household and with intelligent inserters and barcode scanning insert paired offers into a common envelope. The result a 26% consolidated of the pieces mailed, a 13% reduction in envelope consumption and postage dropped by $250,000.00 a year, delivered with 100% accuracy. Upon player request, linked records were separated allowing for separate arrivals on all future mailings. With the Foxwoods marketing budget back in line the next challenge for Vestcom was to save the time it was taking to manage the process. The first generation of change involved PDF proofs that continued through rounds of edits to final, then hard copy audits as a final check for content and bar code accuracy. Foxwoods requires a narrow window for in-home dates and pulling data early to enable the time-line was never an option. The next process evaluation offered improvement and as a result monthly programming decreased by 50% (from 80 hours to 40) we determined the programming and PDF delivery time needed to be the focus of our next set of accomplishments. AUTOMATION IN REAL-TIME: The potential value of a real time automated process was compelling to Foxwoods from both a marketing and operational perspective. IT resources from both sides were tasked with delivering a user friendly solution with the following requirements from the Foxwoods marketing department: Automate the complete development of letters and coupons On-screen composite view of text and design in final layout An asset library to store all historical text for future use Automate barcode creation Real time PDFs from initial proofs to Audit File Flexibility and scalability The Vestcom focus of reducing the remaining 40 hours of programming was also an important goal to the initiative. THE FIRST BIG HURDLE: Composing and constructing monthly letters was time consuming, redundant and in some areas still manual. Vestcom looked for a way to transfer the composition work from a programming function to a process that could be performed by a non-technical resource. The objective was to have fully composed final version letters come into Vestcoms print software instead of being constructed there. To accomplish that, we needed to figure a way to automate the letter and coupon composition and proofing process(s). THE SECOND BIG HURDLE: Implement a system with assistance from Vestcoms communications staff and the Foxwoods IT team, that could be used concurrently by both Foxwoods and Vestcom personnel with 100% integrity, and develop an easy way to install updates. We needed both Foxwoods and Vestcom users to have the tool on their separate workstations and didnt want to load it locally as this would have been too difficult to maintain. Without divulging Vestcoms e-CAF solution entirely, we respected each others security requirements and solutioned it appropriately. Foxwoods utilizes the web to access Vestcoms servers where the application and database reside, for all data transfers and transactions. This simulates access as if the tool was residing locally on the Foxwoods and Vestcoms workstations. VESTCOMS e-CAF (electronic-Client, Application, Front-end) system consists of five main parts to the automated composition process. Remember, the goal was to reduce time, effort and redundancy. i.e.; make a change in just one place and have e-CAF know where or under what circumstances to apply that change across the board. STEP 1 PARAGRAPH CONSTRUCTION: We provided the capability to build and store individual paragraphs with variable data place holders, which make up the letters. STEP 2 COUPON CONSTRUCTION: The capability to build coupons without specific variable information, such as offer dates, black out dates and denominations. We housed these coupons in e-CAFs coupon repository for later use. The variables for both letter content and coupons will be added later in the process. STEP 3 LETTER COMPOSITION: At this point in the development it was time to consider the user. The goal was to reduce the redundant tasks in the letter construction process while supporting the current Foxwoods offer matrix. Heres how it works. With a simple point and click method, the user selects the paragraphs that are to make up the letter and the composed letter is automatically built behind the scenes. STEP 4 COUPON COMPOSITION: The same basically holds true for the coupons. A point and click method is used to assign denominations, build dates, assign black out dates and add any remaining variable information. ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY BASED ON FOXWOODS REQUIREMENTS: Vestcom developed drop down menus to handle many of the tedious tasks, such as entering dates and denominations. We also provided a process that automatically rolls dates to the upcoming month, again by point and click. STEP 5 PROOFING: Automated proofing occurs with the click of a button. The letters are constructed with coupons and displayed immediately to the user complete with a pre-print overlay. This proof is a true WYSIWYG copy. e-CAF interfaces with the Microsoft dot net world, and we actually are working in WORD behind the scenes. So when the process is complete, the user actually has all of their work automatically stored in folders, and in WORD format. This not only provides a historical library, but these letters, paragraphs, and coupons, can be used in the future. This is how the e-CAF system actually saves, more time over time. Also, any functionality in WORD becomes inherent in our tool, such as spell check, fonts and font features. When any user is finished composing the months letters, or even if they just want to get a sample look prior to completion, we developed a real-time interface to our composition print software. So the Foxwoods direct marketing users get to see what would actually print as this proof is delivered from the print software, complete with barcodes and dummy variable information, or audit information. The user clicks on export and behind the scenes our task is kicked off. Data and resources that are already stored on our servers, is accessed, the documents get composed, and a PDF is automatically emailed back to the user. The composition print tool emits both PDF and print format in the same pass. At this point the user has seen their completed work in real-time on their workstation. When the production variable data file is FTPd to our site, we extract a sampling of the data that will produce each different letter. AUDIT PROOFS: Five copies of each possibility are created automatically and PDFs are FTPd back to Foxwoods again, in real-time. An accompanying hard copy print is also delivered. These audits are then circulated and approved by Foxwoods personnel. Upon acceptance, Foxwoods informs Vestcom that they are approved. Because we have already processed the production data file, the print ready files are residing in the Vestcom print queues awaiting release to the printers. Production printing begins immediately upon the audit approval. If there are any issues with the audits, changes are made and the audit process

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re-occurs. This is where e-CAF has eliminated the challenge of last minute changes. The users sign-on, and make their changes. Again if its data that is shared in multiple documents, they change it one time in one place and e-CAF handles the distribution to all versions. This process continues until all versions are approved. Remember, at this point they are doing their corrections with real-time viewing and PDFs. When Foxwoods has completed their review and corrections, the production data is re-processed. Audits are re-created and the files are again print ready. It is Foxwoods decision whether or not they would need another round of hard copy audits. ANOTHER CAMPAIGN: Foxwoods is also managing another campaign that runs weekly with e-CAF. Requiring a separate set of rules, a different template and managed by a different direct marketing coordinator. Both campaigns and coordinators share the same repositories. Once a coupon is created and stored in the repository, it could be used for either mailing. Again, create one-time and anyone can use them anywhere. An added feature with this weekly mailing is the Roll button. Coupon positions on the page are in chronological order with the first date on the bottom for redemption purposes. In the ensuing weeks, the coupons that are expired must be removed from the letter and the remaining coupons must be moved down on the page. Our Roll button does just that. So with no effort on the part of the user, the coupons are all correctly re-positioned on the page. FLEXIBLE & SCALEABLE: e-CAF is totally flexible to new formats and scaleable to an expanding or changing offer matrix. If a new format or template shell is required, we import the new template complete with margins and real estate assignments, load it into e-CAF, and were off and running again. The user simply selects the desired (new) template from a drop down menu, and e-CAF builds the letters based on that newly added shell. The user doesnt have to worry about positioning, word wrapping, or overflow. e-CAF takes care of all that and also alerts the user if the letter is too long. This is another example of how over time, e-CAF speeds up the process. All of these templates remain in the system and can be shared and utilized in the future. IN SUMMARY: e-CAF has been in place for close to 8 months. Vestcom turned it over to Foxwoods direct marketing department about 6 months ago. After a 2 hour training session the assigned direct mail coordinator composed the Foxwoods monthly mailer with numerous tiers each requiring over a dozen variable fields in just 45 minutes. On occasion Vestcoms CSR has shared the monthly effort with Foxwoods and knowing it is seamless, Foxwoods no longer worries about the many nuances of direct mail. More importantly, Foxwoods now has the option of working in advance and the immediacy of e-CAF allows them the luxury of making changes ON the day of production. For the past 13 years, Robert J. Sousa has implemented innovative marketing solutions in the Gaming Industry. He can be reached at rsousa@vestcom.com e-CAF was developed in cooperation with Pam Panciera, Director of Casino Marketing and Brian Charette, Executive Director Resort Systems, Foxwoods Resort Casino, under the direction of Bob Miesieski, IT Director, with programming by Kevin Murray, Vestcom.

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