Intelisys Electronic Commerce, New York, has started its first major marketing campaign, which includes print, television, radio and more than 1 million pieces of direct mail sent between now and fall.
This multimillion-dollar business-to-business campaign will be conducted in two phases.
The first, which began earlier this month and will run until September, targets Intelisys' customers, particularly the chief executive, financial and information officers of Global 2000 companies. The second phase, running from September until early 2001, will be directed at customers of the Global 2000 companies.
“With the first part of this campaign, we are going to be doing a very targeted campaign at a few thousand decision-makers within these companies,” said Michael J. Collins, vice president of worldwide marketing at Intelisys. “The second part of the campaign is going to shift from marketing to our customers to marketing to their customers who use the product. These will be a lot of small- and medium-sized businesses.”
The purpose of the campaign is twofold, Collins said. The first is to conduct a re-branding of the company, including a new logo and tag line, “Powering e-Marketplaces,” while introducing itself and its new product, ConnectTrade, which is an open e-procurement solution, to the Global 2000 companies. ConnectTrade is designed to help these companies connect businesses of all sizes over the Internet as buyers and sellers. The second purpose is to further explain the benefits of ConnectTrade to the small and medium-size businesses using the e-marketplaces set up by the Global 2000 companies.
Collins said that from now through the end of summer, the company will drop more than 25,000 highly personalized pieces in the mail targeting CEOs, chief financial officers and chief information officers. The piece is a four-color attachment to a personalized letter from someone the recipient either will recognize or will know personally. The pieces include customized information to emphasize how ConnectTrade can easily and immediately be implemented into the recipient's company.
“The letter will be addressed from either an industry analyst, a colleague, a respected influencer or someone they recognize from within their industry,” Collins said. “It will contain information designed to speak directly to them and explain how we can help them immediately.”
Research has shown that CEOs and chief financial officers are not big on mailing back reply cards, so the call-to-action on the piece will be to visit the new Web site where they will receive a number to call, Collins said. That number will connect them directly to a senior-level marketing person, not to a telemarketing operator.
“Sometimes, they don't visit Web sites either, so we will follow up with a call two days after they receive the piece to make sure they have received it and try to get them in touch with the marketing people,” Collins said.
In September, Intelisys will begin a larger direct mail campaign when it drops “millions of pieces” to the small and medium-size businesses working with the Global 2000 companies. Those companies will receive identical pieces.
The print campaign started last week with a full-page ad running in Fortune magazine. Later this month, the ad will appear in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and CIO magazine.
This is the first ad in a series of four, all of which are designed to drive people to the Web site and to stress ConnectTrade's ease of use.
The print campaign will run into September. The second phase will then begin and be more TV- and radio-oriented. TV spots will run on national cable channels along with some direct response TV spots. Radio commercials will run on national radio as well as regional radio in 12 major markets.
For the direct mail portion of the campaign, Intelisys worked with Young & Rubicam 2.1, New York, and Creative Source International, Boise, ID, which also helped redesign the Web site. Duffy Shanley, Providence, RI, assisted with the print campaign.
