Learn how Quarry helped Oracle earn an ROI of 38:1 and a pipeline of $5 million, exceeding its target by $1 million.
About the client
Oracle is a global enterprise technology leader. The Oracle Cloud offers a complete suite of integrated applications for sales, service, marketing, human resources, finance, supply chain and manufacturing, plus Highly Automated and Secure Generation 2 Infrastructure featuring the Oracle Autonomous Database.
Quarry is a top-ranking demand marketing firm dedicated to B2B technology.
Strategy
This campaign was in support of Oracle’s broader adoption of account-based strategy to identify, reach and engage high- potential customers and prospects. In this particular case, the strategic focus was on attracting new “greenfield” accounts who had no current relationship with Oracle.
Objectives
First and foremost the campaign was an awareness play, aimed at accounts that had little familiarity with Oracle, which made breaking through all the more challenging. Our secondary goal was to open doors and drive pipeline results.
Target audience
This highly targeted and personalised ABM campaign was designed to reach, engage and persuade HR executives at top- tier accounts about the power of Oracle HCM (Human Capital Management) Cloud. And though we were marketing a sophisticated product from a company known for their technology leadership, we had to show HR leaders that we knew what they know better than anyone: the future of business is still people.
This singular insight inspired the campaign. HR teams work with people. They get people. They’re the “people” people. This sparked our creative concept and drove home our need to communicate in a very human way.
Media, channels and techniques
Reaching the “people” people
Power to the “People” People was a multi-touch, multi-channel account-based campaign targeted at nearly 400 contacts at approximately 100 accounts. Tactics included hyper-personalised email and landing pages); several carefully selected direct mail touches that delivered different experiences for different seniority levels across the buying group; and Sales-coordinated outbound phone calls, augmented when appropriate by the use of conversational AI software Conversica.
While digital played a large role, the key factor in this campaign was a series of direct mail (DM) gifts with a real human touch. As put by Kelvin Gee, Senior Director of Modern Marketing Business Transformation at Oracle, despite the technological sophistication of the ABM approach, “The message still needs to seem like it’s coming from a human to another human, and with empathy. The direct mail gifts were carefully selected with the intention that they would resonate with the ‘people’ people.”
The first DM was a premium co ee set, ensuring the recipient’s morning cup was just to their liking. Personalised messaging told them that Oracle understood their talent acquisition and retention challenges and that we wanted to help fuel their search.
The second was an “ecocube” desk garden designed to liven up individual working spaces with personalised messaging that again spoke to HR’s unique challenges and Oracle’s ability to help them ourish.
The third, a book titled The Science of Story, positioned the brand as a reflection of work culture. Sent to senior contacts, this book was accompanied by a personalised bookmark that told them that if anyone understands the culture of people, it’s them.
Later in the campaign, we sent premium Squish-brand candies as a little reward for the “people” people, recognition of the hard work that goes into building a top-notch team. Finally, for those who engaged, we followed up with a vintage gumball machine—hand-delivered by reps to prospects—which let them share that reward with their people.
The power of personalisation
Power to the “People” People featured a variety of tactics that employed high levels of personalisation. A series of emails drove to a personalised landing page with content based on vertical and subject interest, derived from up-to-date intent and surge data from Bombora.
Our lead asset was a dynamically optimised white paper. Readers were presented with personalised messaging that not only featured their names and organisations, but also highlighted their verticals with dynamic, vertical-specific imagery.
Consistent alignment between Sales and Marketing was another priority. On top of scripted sales calls supported by campaign messaging, we implemented 1:1 pre-campaign and launch training, 1:1 follow-up reminders, prospect engagement notifications, and shipment notifications.
Timescales
Strategy conceived and created in Q3-4 2018, with campaign activated Q4 2018 running in market into 2019.
Results
The results (and the client) speak for themselves The campaign was a resounding success, exceeding its pipeline goal of $5M by over $1M in pipeline actuals and achieving an impressive 38:1 agency ROI. In the words of Lynn Barnhart, Oracle’s Senior Director of HCM North America Marketing, “We saw a 38:1 return from working with Quarry. This means that for every dollar that we spent, we got $38.00 in the pipeline. I feel like that’s a good investment of our money.”
All in all, Power to the People is a proven use case for strategy, creative and technology working together under the ABM umbrella to deliver extraordinary, people-centric B2B experiences—and results for the client.
“For us, it’s finding partners [like Quarry] willing to try something new and unconventional, and to get away from the MQL game.”
