John Sicher

EVP of Marketing and Innovation, Zippo

Zippo is a manufacturing company that has been in operation since 1932 and is based in Bradford, Pennsylvania. While the company is widely recognized for its Zippo lighter, of which over 650 million have been manufactured, the company and its subsidiaries offer hundreds of products ranging from outdoor gear and cutlery to rechargeable hand warmers and high-end candles. The company maintains a robust marketing organization with unique divisions including an in-house Design Center, Creative Services agency, and Consumer Relations team managing 80,000+ annual customer interactions.

Supernova Award Category: 
Marketing & Sales Effectiveness
The Problem: 

Zippo's marketing team struggled with disparate data sources across departments and regions, lacking real-time insights to inform broader strategy. The company primarily focused on awareness metrics with no understanding of bottom-line impact or what translated to revenue. Finding reports and coordinating meetings was extremely difficult, often putting marketing teams in defensive positions when explaining their performance across different areas.

The Solution: 

Zippo searched across vendors for a solution that could help them get the U.S. marketing team in sync with their counterparts in Europe and Asia and compile insights for a complete global analysis. Unifying data would be key. Zippo then teamed up with Domo to create "Project Oz," a unified platform that consolidated marketing data streams into real-time dashboards. Through Domo's solution, Zippo integrated data from email/SMS campaigns, paid advertising across nearly 1,000 campaigns, e-commerce platforms, social media, and major retail partners like Walmart, leading to the launch of “Marketing After Action Reports,” a new process where 10-15 team members gather to review campaign performance, compare results to previous periods, and share insights.

The Results: 

The impact was transformational from an operational perspective, allowing Zippo's marketing team to move from defensive reporting to proactive optimization. Domo drastically reduced reliance on disparate systems and allowed the entire global marketing team to control their own data, uncover performance insights, and deliver transparency across all organizational levels. Multiple regular operational meetings moved from using laborious manual reports to using live Domo dashboards. By employing Domo’s technology, Zippo can now make strategic, data-driven budget decisions in real-time, fundamentally changing how they measure and optimize marketing effectiveness across brands, countries, and platforms.

Metrics: 

Before Domo, Zippo's email/SMS automated flows were performing poorly year-over-year due to changing consumer behaviors. After implementing Domo's insights, they achieved a 60% year-over-year increase in automated flow revenue and 26% increase in overall email/SMS program revenue. The team optimized paid media spending to achieve a global Return on Ad Spend of $6.04 across 963 separate campaigns in 2023. Cart flow optimization led to a 32% revenue increase within one year, while shipping cost analysis identified $200K in annual savings. Overall, Zippo saw a 12% increase in year-over-year attributed revenue across all channels, with the platform now supporting marketing teams across multiple countries and business units.

The Technology: 

Zippo used Domo, a cloud-native data experience platform that delivers intuitive experiences underpinned by data science and a secure data foundation to create Project Oz. Domo has set the standard for drastically expanding a company's access to its own information and democratizing that data across the entire organization. The platform provides AI and data products for real-time analytics, automated reporting, collaborative dashboards and AI agents, with native connectors for marketing platforms and retail partner data feeds.

Disruptive Factor: 

The biggest challenge was overcoming legacy technology platforms within the organization: Zippo already invested heavily in existing software with BI capabilities. However, Domo's real-time capabilities and collaborative features drove notable adoption beyond marketing, to the finance, retail sales, and EU teams. This project challenged the status quo by proving that unified data visibility translates directly to revenue growth. Unlike traditional single-channel analytics, Domo's holistic approach enabled cross-channel optimization that fundamentally disrupted how Zippo measures marketing effectiveness, setting a new standard for data-driven decision making in manufacturing.

Shining Moment: 

Domo's collaborative analytics have been key to Zippo transforming its marketing culture from data-defensive to data-confident across the global organization. The "Marketing After Action Reports" became a new standard for strategic decision-making, with 10-15 team members regularly gathering to review performance using real-time insights. This cultural transformation laid the foundation for Zippo's planned centralized business intelligence department, demonstrating how the right platform doesn't just improve metrics, it fundamentally changes organizational mindset.

About Zippo

About Zippo

One of the most recognized brands in the world, Zippo was founded in 1932 by George G. Blaisdell in Bradford, Pennsylvania, where it has since manufactured over 650 million Zippo® windproof lighters. With the exception of improvements to the flint wheel and modifications in case finishes, the Zippo windproof lighter remains unchanged and is backed by the company's famous lifetime guarantee – "It works, or we fix it free." Zippo's diverse product line includes windproof lighters and accessories; lighter fuel and butane; candles, candle lighters and torches; and a robust line of heat, flame and lifestyle products for outdoor enthusiasts. Zippo products are sold in over 160 countries. Zippo also owns the Bradford-based W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company and the Wellsville, NY-based Northern Lights Enterprises, Inc. as well as the trademarks to the Ronson and Ronsonol brands in the United States. For more information, visit zippo.com.