Best use of a creative in a B2B marketing campaign
Runner up: GM UK Fleet
Agency: BMB
Campaign: 19,186
The firm wanted an eye-catching mailing campaign to target decisions makers not currently considering Vauxhall and Saab brands for their fleets. To do this the campaign needed to communicate the benefits of the new 2007 Saab range and new Vauxhall Corsa, Astravan and Vivaro. The target audience was fleet decision-makers of companies with fleets of 25 or more vehicles who did not currently consider GM products. Company acquisition decisions are driven by low whole-life costs and competitive leasing terms, while drivers will base choices on perceived brand values, specifications and benefit-in-kind taxation versus the competition.
A mailing list of 6482 companies was compiled by a specialist research agency for GM UK. BMB’s experience with GM UK Fleet and its very busy target audience suggested that direct mail needs to work very hard. The mailing therefore needed to create a reaction and demand a response from the recipient. It had to become a talking point and have a ripple effect within the office. Only then could it break the ice for the planned phone follow-up encouraging fleet decision makers to book appointments with GM UK Fleet sales managers and/or register for a free three-day test drive.
The 19,186 mailing communicated the benefits of new Saab and Vauxhall models and included an interactive puzzle challenge, the bedlam cube, linked to the creative. The outer box simply said 19,186′. When the lid was flipped open, it contained the bedlam cube, which has 19,186 possible solutions, and the resounding statement quantifying GM UK Fleet’s ability to be placed as the fleet manager’s one solution. Recipients were challenged to find just one of the 19,186 solutions to the puzzle or to call GM UK Fleet for assistance. The telephone number was reproduced on one of the top pieces in the cube.
The creative linked the challenge of finding one solution with the concept that in GM UK Fleet recipients had found a single solution, with a single point of contact for all fleet needs. It also reflected how the many pieces of the overall GM UK Fleet business had to fit together to provide that single solution.
All GM UK fleet communications must balance the creative with the rational, i.e. present the vast amount of key information which fleet decision-makers and their company car drivers demand clearly and concisely as well as memorably. Three brochures were also included in the pack providing information about the model features and leasing rates plus the benefit-in-kind and whole-life costs compared with each other and competing brands. The literature also promoted the free three-day test drive.
Branding is a further complication. All GM UK Fleet communications must work within strict brand guidelines for individual marques, yet parts of the mailing applied to more than one brand. A specific brand neutral’ identity was developed for these generic parts of the mailing. The budget of £90,000 included design, production and print and the quality production reflected the high value aspirations of the two vehicle brands.
The mailing was staggered over three months to allow time for the GM UK Fleet prospecting team to follow up promptly by phone. Calls to the mailing group raised 265 sales appointments and 24 test drive appointments, while a further 87 recipients agreed to both. A control group of 500 received no pack, but were cold called as part of the phone follow-up and raised two sales appointments and one test drive booking, thus demonstrating the success of the mailing. More significant still in a market where getting fleet decision-makers to take a call is regarded as an achievement, the mailing even generated some inbound calls from new prospects – considered extremely rare in this market.
The total of 376 new leads represents an incredible 5.8 per cent response which is all the more significant when just one could produce sales with a typical value of at least £250,000.
Linda Unsworth, communications manager for GM UK Fleet, says, “With its perfect balance of the creative and the rational, this mailing achieved every objective. As the results show, it paved the way for the prospecting team, which in turn got sales managers through more doors than expected and set a lot more people within our industry talking about GM and innovation in the same breath.”
