November 27th, 2007

Digital Services Best Practice: Happy Hour Promotion Case Study

By Dr. Shuki Idan

A long-distance provider decided to make his Philippines customers really happy right in time for New Year’s. He went to all the trouble of setting up a Happy Hour special rate during January so that more of his customers would be inclined to call home on this special occasion and speak longer. Those of you that have experienced launching such special plans would understand the trouble involved and the return needed to justify such an effort. It requires major changes in billing and handling complex issues such as calculating customers’ calls that span between the Happy Hour rate and regular hours. But apart from all that, the plan backfired in a big way because his customer base calls a total of 150 destinations and there were other segments that wanted preferential treatment as well for their holidays.

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November 18th, 2007

Digital Services Best Practice: Happy Hour Promotions

By Dr. Shuki Idan

Expanding users’ tastes and influencing consumption habits are one of the challenges of digital marketers. Happy Hour promotions are one of the more interesting marketing practices that can help digital marketers achieve their goals. We think we have it down to a science at this point and today we’re going to share some of that insight with you.

Happy Hour Promotions can influence users to try services they have never used before by giving a discount during certain time periods. Another motivation can be in changing the customer’s behavior patterns, ideally moving them from high consumption periods to off-peak hours. For example, by offering happy hour calling rates in off-peak hours, a long distance carrier can expect users to use this opportunity. But the carrier should make sure not to substantially cannibalize full rate hour margins.

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