Platforms
Website, Social, On-site Event
Client
Costco Wholesale (HQ)
Focus
Customer Acquisition
Impact
More than 9,700 new members signed up online for the special membership offer, and an additional 7,000+ in the warehouse
THE CHALLENGE
Membership acquisition and retention are the bread and butter of Costco’s business model.
For years, Costco partnered with Sheer.ID (an identity verification platform) for a special military promotion. Military personnel validating their ID on Sheer.ID could sign up for a Costco membership and receive a $20 or $40 Costco Shop Card. Auto renewal was required.
Although this Sheer.ID promotion was active for years, it wasn’t well known. Costco also lacked targeted educational content on their website; there was nothing explaining “Why join Costco? What’s in it for me and my military family?”
Our goal was to create a campaign in 2020 – a period of low sign-ups due to the COVID-19 pandemic – targeted at military personnel. Because this was a digital promotion through Sheer.ID’s website, we also needed to create an in-warehouse experience for employees to meet their location’s monthly sign-up goals.
THE STRATEGY
I designed a content-heavy campaign focused on sharing the benefits of a Costco membership.
A military campaign landing page was created to track our digital success.
Two blogs were published on Costco.com about how to use Costco as a military family. At the end of each blog, a “Join Now” button encouraged members to sign up through Sheer.ID.
Each blog was promoted for 25+ days on the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages (via Meta Ads Manager) to people with military-based interests and job titles. I targeted cities in the United States with local warehouses near military bases. Each ad set contained at least 3 different copy variants, and suppressed Costco’s current member list.
In addition to sharing the blogs, I launched targeted ads directing to a campaign landing page. I ran 100+ different traffic ads throughout September with an $80,000+ budget. Each ad shared the Costco Shop Card promotion within the copy; within each ad set, we A/B tested creative to determine the best-performing variant. Instagram Stories and Facebook square image traffic posts were our most successful formats.
On the Costco.com homepage throughout September 2020, we also promoted the Sheer.ID offer with a large banner.
Warehouse employees at 117 locations (near military bases) hosted an in-person “Military Hour” at 08:00. Veterans and current active-duty members of the military were welcome, in addition to family members. A valid military ID was required to enter; a valid Costco membership was required to purchase products. The event included free food, product demonstrations, and swag.
THE IMPACT
Over 9,700 new military personnel signed up for a Costco membership online and an additional 7,000+ in-warehouse across the nation.
Our blog and campaign landing page had 315,000+ visits from paid and organic social media posts. Over 7.2 million users were reached on social with a cost-per-click of less than $0.29. Over 58,000 clicks happened on our best-performing Instagram Story ad.
While the campaign was running, 50+ news articles were published to share the in-warehouse events.
