Best B2B marketing campaign by a small business
Runner up: Asperity Employee Benefits
Agency: N1 Creative
Campaign: Asperity Launch
The key objectives of the marketing campaign were to:
– Establish an authoritative, credible profile
– Generate leads to support 12 new clients in 12 months
– Get Asperity onto the pitch list of every major company’s HR director.
HR directors and senior HR managers within blue chip companies were the principal targets, as they choose who provides the benefit package. Finance directors and CEOs also needed to be convinced, as an organisation’s benefits package requires funding and has a significant influence on corporate culture.
With limited resources, a national advertising campaign was out of the question and Asperity needed to appear solid and dependable immediately to gain respect and credibility with a cautious target market. N1 therefore arranged meetings with the BBC and BA and advised Asperity to win these clients at any cost’. With two leading blue chip corporates as clients the foundation of Asperity’s credibility was assured.
Asperity’s new identity gave comfort and assurance and looked like it had been around forever. Asperity Blue was defined as a safe, solid colour and the swirl logotype was thought to represent the dynamic approach of the company. The strapline, the leader in employee discounts’ refers to the product’s superiority against its competition. Quotes from launch clients were written and included to add external credibility.
To underpin credibility Asperity needed to be seen to be at the forefront of market debate so a programme of monthly white papers was devised. The titles of the six white papers focussed on key benefit issues facing HR directors, but making only light reference to Asperity’s product to ensure credibility. A senior HR consultant was commissioned to join Asperity as their director of HR policy & strategy’; a job title devised by N1 to emphasise Asperity’s commitment to the market.
Two leading trade magazines were selected as key to the market. N1 aimed to place a story about a new client win or product development in one of these magazines each month and quickly built relationships with editorial and advertising. N1 also provided PR training to the Asperity board and arranged meetings for Asperity directors with key journalists.
It was important to gain an independent view of Asperity’s product against those of key competitors so research agency Alan Voyle Associates, a member of the Market Research Society, was commissioned to provide an impartial view. The agency’s work demonstrated that Asperity’s product was measurably better than the competition and underpinned the strapline the leader in employee discounts’.
An initial launch package including a cover wrap around the March 2007 issue of Employee Benefits was negotiated on the strength that Asperity would succeed and could become a big advertiser. The magazine also included advertising and editorial on a new contract win and was sent to 14,000 benefits decision makers. At the same time Asperity launched a monthly email newsletter Benefits Connection’ to 1400 decision makers. A corporate website also went online which contained product information and leading articles plus a news database with backdated articles for the previous six months. The final strand was DM that included the first Asperity white paper, Why it’s worth making employee discounts relevant again’ which was sent to 2500 HR decision makers.
The positioning and immediate market impact was so strong that the company was widely recognised as the leader in employee discounts’ by the trade press who started quoting this in editorial online and in print. A total of 275 leads were generated within three months and led to eight immediate clients; 66 per cent of the year’s sales target.
A mere two months after the launch, Lloyds TSB contacted Asperity with a view to transferring their competing business BringMe’ to Asperity. Their view was that Asperity had raised the bar so high they no longer wanted to continue in the marketplace with a product which couldn’t compete. They wanted instead to transfer their whole client list to Asperity and outsource the product provision for future clients.
With a budget of £25,000 and only a small team, Asperity received widespread market and press credibility. Simon Voysey, business development director at Asperity was understandably delighted. “We knew we had a great product but the launch that N1 gave us was phenomenal – we couldn’t have done this without them. They delivered the most dramatic B2B corporate and product launch I have ever seen,” he says.
