Earlier this year ROI Revolution's Michael Harrison wrote a very useful post for marketers who wanted to track their offline (print, radio, TV, etc) ads using Google Analytics.

Yesterday, Kevin Newcomb (writing on the ClickZ network), wrote how New York-based retailer BuiltNY actually implemented this and agreed to be interviewed about it:

To track the print campaign, BuiltNY put a unique, easy-to-remember unique URL in the ad, which was only in use for that campaign. That landing page shows colorful x-ray images of objects like wine bottles, lunches, seashells and beach gear, all inside the appropriate BuiltNY bag.

Through Google Analytics, BuiltNY was able to attribute an 800 percent boost in traffic when the ad hit newsstands, and a 40 percent increase in online sales from visitors that came through that URL, Steve Bowden, art director for BuiltNY, told ClickZ.

"We can read it like the Wall Street Journal for our own Web traffic," Bowden said. "Every morning we get an update on how our Web, print and e-mail campaigns are doing, correlated to sales."

"Instead of gathering around the table scratching our heads, we actually have data to show how the campaign is performing," added Aaron Lown, a principal at BuiltNY and its co-creative director.

and finally, check this subsequent paragraph out (sound familiar?):

BuiltNY ran a more traditional test ad in Dwell earlier this year, before it began using Google Analytics. "But I have no idea if it worked," Lown said, since he had no way to track its success. Prior to implementing Google Analytics about the same time the X-ray campaign began, BuiltNY hadn't used any Web analytics products for its first three years in business. "We just had too many other things to do, like design new products, run our business...," Lown said.

Who else has used Google Analytics to track a print or otherwise offline advertising campaign? Write to me and if you've got a good case I'll post it here.