Global business and marketing director at Arjowiggins Creative Papers, Jonathan Mitchell, is helping to put the pizzaz in paper. Victoria Paley meets a creativity king
You know the idea of trying to sell sand in the desert? Well I get the impression that it’s kind of how Jonathan Mitchell, global business and marketing director at Arjowiggins Creative Papers, sees his job sometimes.
“It’s a challenge marketing creatively to the design community,” he admits, referring to how scrupulous this audience can be to anything or anyone that claims to be creative, edgy or innovative. It must be intimidating – rather like when Masterchef contestants serve up their best dish to a Michelin-starred gastro guru. Still – if Arjowiggins Creative Paper’s latest marketing campaigns are anything to go by – Mitchell needn’t worry about impressing the cool crowd.
The recent ‘Pop’Set’ campaign, aimed at promoting the brand’s newest set of colour papers, not only puts the funk in funky (think eye-grabbing DM pack with zany origami characters in a range of sexy colours), but it also boasts social media-esque tactics to engage the design community in an online contest and a charity auction – proceeds of which go to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Award of Excellence for Handicrafts.
The decision to work with UNESCO in the campaign was not just about ticking a CSR box either. Mitchell says, “It was chosen specifically because the organisation is relevant to the Arjowiggins Creative Papers brand – and it goes both ways, UNESCO can equally tap into the paper manufacturer’s design community. When you partner up with anyone, you’ve got to make sure
it’s relevant.”
Creativity with class
I can’t imagine Mitchell doing anything that’s not relevant. He doesn’t strike me as a marketer that will try things just to be wacky or conversely because everyone else is doing it. The campaigns and projects he has delivered have all come about after meticulous consideration as to whether they meet the values and objectives of the brand. And he explains the point of any of his campaigns has to be about being creative. But being creative doesn’t necessarily mean being ostentatious. Indeed Mitchell’s tactics present an oxymoron of sorts – on the surface, campaigns may appear extravagant but the marketing message behind them is actually cannily subtle.
Highlighting this point, Mitchell explains that when Arjowiggins Creative Papers relaunched its Conqueror brand last September, it did so by offering five free fonts that designers could download, with examples and techniques of how they could actually use the fonts. Over 20,000 downloads were made globally, and Mitchell’s team were subsequently able to use the data for lead
generation activity.
Mitchell also reveals details of the brand’s forthcoming ‘The blank sheet project’ campaign. Featuring a plain piece of paper, it focuses on the themes of creativity, sustainability and legacy, and will ask the campaign’s hugely diverse audience ‘How will you leave your mark?’
Mitchell says, “The campaign is an innovative way of engaging with our customers without wanting to be in their face shouting ‘We’re paper and this is why you should buy us’. There’s a deliberate drive to be understated. It’s about quality, premium, professionalism. It’s about being classy.”
Think the unexpected
It’s this guileful approach that helps Mitchell drive the success of the Arjowiggins Creative Papers brand. “It’s about appearing in places people don’t expect to find you,” he states, mentioning numerous examples of where the brand has appeared at relevant live events, galleries and business summits but not simply trade shows. In fact, Mitchell even goes as far as to say that he doesn’t see the point of trade events unless you’re looking to raise brand awareness in a new international market. “If your customers discover your new product or service at a tradeshow, they’re not happy,” he says, adding they should’ve known about it well before it got to the trade show.
Mitchell’s attitude to maximising customer touch points is refreshing. It’s almost as if an idea to engage with his audience comes first ahead of any marketing objective to sell a product – though of course that’s not true. The point is, however, I’m sure that’s how the design community must perceive it.
A sense of community
Mitchell often talks about encouraging creative excellence within “the design community”. When referring to designers, he never really talks about the target audience – it’s always the community. Not only does his choice of lexicon invoke a real sense of interactivity but Mitchell seems to very much see his brand as being part of this community. It’s not a case of ‘us and them’.
“Marketing for me is putting yourself in the shoes of the person you’re trying to market to,” he says. “It’s thinking what’s going to catch their attention? What’s going to be relevant to them? What information do they need?”
Mitchell’s belief in the importance of getting into the mindset of his community is manifested on a physical level by encouraging the brand’s sales force to carry iPhones. “Business people, such as our paper consultants, carry BlackBerrys, but designers all have iPhones,” says Mitchell, “If we’re going to think like our community, we’ve got to use the same tools as them. Our paper consultants should all have iPhones.”
Many marketers can learn from Mitchell’s innovative approach to work. After all, the guy’s marketing paper – a product many will perceive as pretty old-fashioned and uncomplicated to the point of being boring even. But in the 21st century, when all every marketer can talk about is digital, Mitchell is helping Arjowiggins Creative Papers show the relevance, artistic potential and timelessness of paper, and quite frankly knocking the socks of other B2B brands in the creativity stakes.
