Best digital B2B marketing campaign
Winner: ITN Source
Agency: Mabox
Campaign: Cut to ITN Source
Unfortunately stock footage’ is a dirty word in the advertising industry. There are two reasons for this: firstly, creatives gain more kudos from shooting their own footage, and secondly, many creatives’ past experience with stock footage has been poor. The challenge for ITN Source was to prove that archive footage is a valuable addition to any creative’s arsenal.
The campaign needed to:
– Build awareness of ITN Sources capabilities amongst the untapped market of the cynical advertising industry
– Drive users to the ITN Source website and capture registrations
– Promote word-of-mouth and online recommendations within the target communities.
Advertising professionals are highly judgemental of any promotional material they receive. Most is met with the response I could have done better’ and dismissed. In addition far too much uninspiring mail passes across the desk every day. The only way to get under the radar of such people is to wow them with creativity. The most appealing ideas are irreverent and intriguing and don’t involve anything as tedious as opening an envelope. Advertising executives also have a magpie instinct and hoard anything of interest which might provide future inspiration.
Within the advertising industry the obvious targets were those in creative functions, but those influencing decisions such as TV and digital production teams were also targeted. With more of an eye on cost and kudos, targeting influencers would help to reduce the reluctance their creative peers have of using stock footage.
ITN Source was ahead of its rivals in two ways. Not only did it have truly iconic footage but such footage was accessible online. The advertising community is small and cynical. The challenge was therefore to reach them from several directions at once within a medium that they found involving – digital. Digital also provided a cost-effective way to demonstrate the quality and scope of ITN Source’s footage and reinforced ITN Source’s online accessibility.
Research within the UK and US advertising industries identified key websites visited by those in creative functions and revealed that most sites offering stock footage have only poor quality and limited variety. Awareness of ITN Source was also shown to be very limited.
Using the insights gained into how to connect with advertising professionals, the campaign was developed using the language of advertising scripts to build curiosity. The idea was based on posing questions such as, Who shot the Pope?’ and Who released Nelson Mandela?’ The end line Cut to ITN Source’ again used the industry language, while also implying that users could stop wasting time and head straight to ITN Source for inspiring images. Fresh and interesting footage was unearthed by researchers at ITN Source to support the claim.
Banner ads were placed on key industry websites posing the question, Who shot JFK?’ etc. To discover the answer viewers had to click through to an ITN Source microsite, which answered the question and directed them to explore the ITN Source digital library and register their details for a competition.
Acknowledging the power of word-of-mouth within the industry, a viral version of the Who shot JFK?’ advertising was also sent to individuals within the industry using data lists. Banner ads on third party emails (e.g. from Creative Review) also posed the question Who shot JFK?’
Finally, understanding the magpie instinct of advertising professionals, lenticular postcards were developed which brought to life iconic footage. Using 12 frames of moving footage brought clips such as Hurst’s perennially controversial goal in the 1966 World Cup to life. Even if the recipient did not visit ITN Source immediately, this sort of postcard would get pinned to the wall for future reference.
The campaign ran throughout April 2007 with a total cost of £64,000. The results were impressive. Independent research shows that 50 per cent of those who received the email via the viral campaign visited the website. The average industry response to such marketing is 26.1 per cent and only 21 per cent among the more cynical creative and media industries. A total of 39 per cent of those who received the email passed it on. Click through rates were more than double the industry average and cost per response represented enormous value for money.
