Oceana Boosted Store ROI with Personality-Driven SMS
We built a system that captured momentum when the tide suddenly changed.
5 min read | Illustration by Mayara Lista
Oceana is an international ocean conservation organization that mobilizes supporters around marine life, climate action, and policy change. Their digital engagement team works across advocacy, fundraising, ecommerce, email, social media, and SMS to keep “Wavemakers” connected to the ocean, informed about urgent threats, and inspired to take meaningful action.
Oceana’s supporters are deeply connected to the mission.
They care about marine life, climate action, conservation, and the future of the ocean itself. Many already identify as environmentalists. They are emotionally invested long before they ever donate, buy merchandise, or take political action.
Maintaining the connection between advocacy moments isn’t always easy.
“We’re not convincing people,” explains Jess Kiesa, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing at Oceana. “We’re going deeper.”
Her team oversees digital engagement across social media, email, fundraising, advocacy, and SMS. Their goal is not simply to generate transactions, but to sustain participation, maintain momentum, and keep supporters emotionally connected over time.
Environmental advocates have to navigate the ebb and flow of public attention. Interest can swell quickly after a policy change, a political controversy, or an environmental event, then fade just as fast.
Without the right systems in place, momentum disappears with the tide.
Before working with Banter, Oceana already had an SMS program, but it was limited operationally and strategically.
“We could get a text out the door,” says Kiesa. “But it wasn’t strategic.”
The existing platform felt restrictive and difficult to manage internally. Ownership lacked clarity. The workflow was cumbersome. The organization could send messages, but sustaining an ongoing relationship with supporters felt much harder.
Turning a wave of outrage into lasting engagement
Just as Oceana completed a major SMS platform migration and strategic reset with Banter, a political controversy around endangered species protections triggered a surge of public outrage and engagement.
Suddenly, thousands of people were paying attention.
For Oceana, the moment became a real test of whether the organization was prepared not just to capture attention, but to sustain it. Had the infrastructure not already been in place, much of that momentum could easily have been lost.
Supporters who took action could now immediately enter a more intentional engagement flow. The team could segment audiences properly, personalize communication, and continue the conversation beyond a single moment of outrage.
“We were ready,” says Kiesa. “Had we not had it in place, we might have squandered the moment.”
The results were significant:
SMS list growth increased from roughly 18,000 to more than 60,000 supporters
Deliverability improved from roughly 80% to 95%
Unsubscribe rates dropped from approximately 1% to 0.6%
Introducing Mira: from fundraising alerts to emotional continuity
One of the most important changes Oceana introduced was a recognizable SMS persona named Mira. Named after the Sanskrit word for “ocean,” Mira became the emotional anchor of the program: curious, hopeful, playful, and deeply connected to marine life and conservation.
Kiesa describes her as “a bit of a Miss Frizzle.” Instead of treating SMS like a fundraising alarm system, Oceana began treating it like an ongoing conversation.
Mira personifies the reason people follow and support Oceana in the first place: they love marine life. Through species facts, quizzes, awareness days, conservation wins, and playful ocean moments, Mira gives supporters a regular way to stay close to that love. The texts don’t feel like another fundraising ask. They feel like a continuation of the curiosity, wonder, and care that brought people to Oceana in the first place.
Campaigns became less transactional and more participatory. Supporters were no longer only reacting during moments of urgency, they were staying engaged.
“There was no drop-off,” says Kiesa. “Mira does a great job of welcoming everybody. We take good care of the people we have.”
Turning engagement into a 287% ecommerce ROI
Engagement continuity translated into measurable ecommerce performance. Working alongside Banter, Oceana developed conversational SMS campaigns tied to merchandise, awareness moments, and supporter participation.
One example was a Penguin Day campaign that combined interactive quizzes with merchandise discounts and ecommerce flows. Other campaigns, including otter- and Valentine’s-themed activations, blended storytelling, humor, emotional connection, and store engagement into a single conversational experience.
These campaigns did not feel pushy, they felt like extensions of the relationship supporters already had with the mission.
A communication channel supporters actually want to stay part of
Today, Oceana sees conversational SMS as a core part of how it maintains supporter relationships over time.
The team continues to brainstorm new engagement ideas with Banter regularly, developing campaigns that combine advocacy, storytelling, education, and ecommerce in ways that feel emotionally coherent rather than transactional.
Most importantly, the relationship no longer resets after every campaign. Supporters remain connected between moments of urgency, and when critical moments arrive, Oceana is ready to mobilize.
“We feel really proud of the program we’ve put together,” says Kiesa. “We see it as an important tool in our toolbox.”
