Hess Toy Truck Delivers a Masterclass in eCommerce Marketing

With so many competing messages, it can be tough to rise above the online noise nowadays. This is true even when you have a product as popular as the Hess Toy Truck, which arrives every year in new and exciting forms, just in time for the holidays.

Appropriately, though, this is a brand that is always able to deliver the goods. After closely watching the 2019 launch last month, we'd say our client delivered a masterclass in eCommerce marketing that other online brands can learn from.

2019 Hess Toy Truck Reveal: Intrigue and Engagement 

Rather than simply announcing the latest version of its wildly popular vehicles, Hess Toy Truck opts for a strategy that has served it well for many years.

Much like the hints that confident gift-givers drop in the run up to Christmas, Hess Toy Truck offers brief glimpses of its new vehicle in the weeks leading up to a big reveal date. To make the occasion even more tantalizing - and to cleverly encourage fan participation - the brand provides clues and asks followers on social media to guess what type of Hess Toy Truck this could be.

The first hint for example, pictured above, garnered thousands of reactions, hundreds of shares, and more than 800 comments participating in the brand-backed guesswork. Note also the 25,000 views on the native Facebook video alone and you have a successful campaign underway, any way you view it.

Intrigue, engagement, interaction, and amplification? Hess Toy Truck checks all of these eCommerce marketing boxes right out of the gate here.

The campaign continued to gain momentum over three more clues approaching the November 1st reveal, with a mysterious Halloween teaser showing the silhouette of not one but two trucks driving out of the mist towards excited fans.

A simple reminder that the set would be available at 10am the next day, along with a link to the purchase page, provided the final call to action required by any eCommerce marketing campaign to capitalize on the attention it has worked so hard to build. 

In the weeks following its big unveil, Hess Toy Truck continues to stoke excitement about its latest toy truck set. The company connected the value of its vehicles to National STEM Day on November 8th, offering the toys alongside a downloadable curriculum guide for 1,000 lucky teachers.

Then came the "5-Minute Response" challenge, calling for fans to tag someone they know for a reply on the post and driving further, time-bound engagement to a post including a link to purchase the trucks. Furthermore, many of the replies to this post included fans confirming they had already purchased the set and praising the speed of order shipping.

Such positive customer experiences provide further proof that this eCommerce marketing campaign is building interest, awareness, and sales. 

Key Takeaways for eCommerce Marketing

There's a lot to love about this campaign, but these are our three key takeaways for eCommerce marketers and brands gearing up for holiday promotions:

• Mystery Creates Momentum: Much like a compelling TV series or podcast that makes you anticipate the next episode with a cliffhanger, an element of mystery in your eCommerce marketing campaign keeps fans coming back for more.
• Encourage Participation: Excitement is important, but turning that interest into engagement is the key to spreading awareness beyond your immediate fan base, especially across social media channels.
• Deliver on Your Promises:  If marketing talks the talk, order fulfillment walks the walk. Quick and seamless delivery of what you're promoting fulfills the promise of your eCommerce marketing campaign and keeps the positive feedback rolling in as customers receive their order.

If you're looking for a great gift idea this holiday season, a 2019 Hess Toy Truck is as much fun as the campaign that revealed it.

Hurry, though. As we've established above, there are many excited fans already placing their orders!