With its first major marketing campaign getting underway this week, Freightwise hopes to get the age-old industry of transportation to embrace the world of e-commerce.
Freightwise, Fort Worth, TX, a wholly owned subsidiary of the more than 150-year-old Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, is a Web site designed to bring together freight shippers and carriers to fill capacity.
For its first business-to-business campaign, it is running one print ad in business trade publications, including those covering the logistics and supply-chain business. Four more ads will appear over the next few months and throughout next year.
The ads will run a full page or as a two-page spread. The publications include Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies; In-Bound Logistics; Logistics Management and Distribution Report; Supply Chain e-Business; Fortune; Business 2.0; and e-Company Now.
An online campaign featuring home page buttons and banner ads also has begun and will continue into next year. Sites running these ads include LogisticsMgmt.com, SupplyChainLink.com, freightworld.com and truckingnet.com.
A direct mail push is in development. The campaign will include more than 10,000 pieces and will involve a series of three mailings that all prospects will receive, said Scott Murray, president of TFA/Leo Burnett Technology Group Southwest, the agency behind the entire campaign for Freightwise. It will begin in late third quarter or early fourth quarter.
The current print ad contains the message: “You can't find a carrier to ship your freight. You can't find freight to fill your capacity. How about a computer? Can you find a computer?” This message is written on the back of a truck. On the other door of the truck is a box telling people that they need to look no further than Freightwise to make their logistics process easier. They are directed to visit www.freightwise.com.
The banner and button ads are linked to the Freightwise home page. At the home page, prospects are asked to register, and those names will go into the company database. To register, they must answer questions about their transportation needs. Once Freightwise has determined it can fulfill the registrant's needs, it will ask him to enroll. The registrant will have to provide account information and then will be set up as a user.
If a user merely wants more information on Freightwise, he can browse the site or ask to be sent more specific information.
“The goal is not to push Freightwise as this dot-com company,” Murray said. “We want to get the message across that this is a company that has a service whose distribution point is the Internet. And the message is simple in that we are telling them all they need to do to make their lives easier and make the logistics process more efficient is find a computer.”
The content of the next four print ads is still under development.
