Citigroup's Women & Co. E-Mail Targets Female Investors

November 26, 2001

An HTML e-mail to New York news site DailyCandy.com's 75,000 subscribers yielded a satisfactory response for Citigroup's Women & Co. investment service.

Dropped Nov. 7, the e-mail peddled a $125 annual membership to Women & Co., a financial planning, investment and tools service for women. Recipients were asked to visit one of two Citibank branches in Manhattan, call a toll-free line or visit womanandco.com.

On the day it was sent, the e-mail garnered 60 phone calls, 225 requests for information on www.womanandco.com and 45 tell-a-friend e-mails. Topping it all, a producer from ABC's World News Tonight program called about doing a story on Women & Co.

"Our client was looking to attract upscale women with high incomes and who were motivated to take action in their lives," said Sam Travis Ewen, CEO of Interference, the New York-based creator and executor of the e-mail. "DailyCandy is a daily e-mail that goes out to that very target."

New members receive the "Go-To" financial organizer and welcome kit to help them get organized.

The e-mail linked to an advertorial on DailyCandy.com written by the site's editorial staff.

"[The e-mail] supported a guerrilla marketing campaign where we costumed eight women to work in the streets of New York," Ewen said. "They handed out 16,000 interactive, informational samples to women in Midtown and on the West Side of Manhattan."

Women & Co. was conceived at a Citigroup conference for women executives. The attendees said they "felt uncomfortable, even intimidated, when it came to investing," according to copy in the advertorial on DailyCandy.