TW Telecom
Situation
TW Telecom needed to get the attention of enterprise-based IT decision makers — a notoriously difficult audience to target because they can be jaded when it comes to marketing messages. The company was promoting its fiber-based network.
Approach
W launched The Active Interaction Campaign in November 2008 with Faction Media. IT executives were targeted via direct mail and e-mail that prompted them to query their name in a major search engine. On the results page, a customized pay-per-click ad led them to a URL. There, they saw a variable video that addressed them personally with a 90-second spot on the benefits of the network.
“There was great debate about the architecture of the campaign internally,” says David Greves, co-founder and partner for Faction Media. “We believed in the uniqueness of connecting with prospects through ‘direct search engine marketing,’ e-mail and direct mail; however, our discussions centered around the level of interaction we were asking [of] our audience.”
Results
The e-mail click-through rate was 14% and the paid search response rate was 5.5%. The campaign is ongoing; new prospects are entered into the database and mailers, e-mails, URLs and videos are automatically generated.
—Carol Krol
Bibby Financial Services
Approach
Euro RSCG-owned agency Palm & Havas Chicago created a Facebook campaign for Bibby Financial Services North America, a business financial services company. The goal was to position Bibby as a trusted provider using testimonials, both on a Facebook page and in banner ads intended to drive people to Facebook. This, in turn, would lead prospects to check out the corporate site.
Results
In the first half of 2009, visits to the Bibby corporate site rose 86%. The number of deals is also up 70% compared to 2008.
—Nathan Golia
Monsanto
Approach
To woo cotton growers, Monsanto, owner of the Deltapine cotton seed brand, created a social networking site for farmers — the “Cotton Community.” When the site launched in January, 7,000 farmers received a direct mail piece, which offered a trip to St. Louis for the Major League Baseball All-Star game and a tour of Monsanto facilities in exchange for signing up.
Results
More than 580 farmers have joined the Cotton Community, and the site has attracted more than 2,000 unique visitors, 4,000 visits and 39,000 page views.
-Lauren Bell
PRIVATE VIEW
Nicholas Platt
Executive creative director, Rapp
Creative work today has to be simple, relevant, engaging and, as a result, responsive. It’s through this lens that I took a look at the three business-to-business campaigns below.
TW Telecom wants to get IT decision makers to re-evaluate their managed voice and data network solutions. The tongue-in-cheek campaign focuses on bad relationships between you and your computer and directs you to find out how to fix it with TW. The e-mail focuses on an instant message between you and your unhappy PC, which brought a smile. The direct mail uses a series of ‘post-it notes’ to build the story of a disgruntled PC, which was amusing.
The Bibby Financial Services campaign features a Facebook page, where visitors can flip through testimonials of happy customers. Although these days everybody seems to have a Facebook page, I liked the way this complemented the more authentic tone Bibby is trying to create. I also appreciated the way the page is being used as a customer service tool, allowing customers to post questions and for Bibby to respond in real time. Although the intention is right, the banner ad featuring testimonials from customers felt cluttered. Too much copy for a banner.
Deltapine, the leading cotton seed brand in the United States, created the ‘Cotton Community’ in an effort to develop stronger links with farmers. This site and the direct mail, although not pretty, really hits home on the criteria of relevance, and the incentive was quite compelling.
