Founded in 2004, Powwownow offers customers low-cost conference calling facilities with the ethos of no booking, no billing, no fuss.
Powwownow is the leading free conference call provider in the UK with over 65 per cent market share. They also hold 3 per cent of the total UK conference call market. With over 200,000 users holding 5,000 conferences a day, turnover for 2010 is expected to reach £8m.
The company operates in 15 countries including the US and major European markets.
Strategy – broader business issues
Powwownow always markets itself as the next best solution to meetings. As realists they recognise meeting face-to-face is a better option, however business travel is costly, time consuming and damaging to the environment. Powwownow offers a practical, low-cost solution for SMEs and Corporates who can’t afford the time or money to travel to every meeting.
Its story began in September 2009: British Airways flew Boris Jonson to New York, business class. On arrival he held a press conference advocating the value of flying compared to conference calling, even quoting statics that claimed companies were less likely to win the business if they used conference calling instead of meeting face-to-face.
The story appeared in The Guardian on 15th September. Powwownow thought this was ludicrous, pressurising companies to fly thousands of miles for meetings during a recession was simply wrong. Powwownow fired off a response and it was published in the Guardian on 17th September.
Then came more negative messaging regarding conference calls:
- BA’s UK Opportunity Grant offered 5000 free flights to SMEs, backed up by an editorial campaign in the Daily Telegraph.
- A campaign by Flybe with the strap line ‘Conference Calls Don’t Win Business’ hit billboards and national press.
Powwownow still wanted to promote the benefits of conference calling, but doing so without reference to the misinformation put out by the airlines was no longer an option; Fly Powwownow was born.
In essence Powwownow’s strategy was to raise awareness amongst potential customers of the benefits of having a Powwownow over flying to meetings, focusing on the ‘cost saving and ‘green’ perspective.
Objectives of the campaign
- Drive visits to flypowwownow.co.uk and powwownow.co.uk during the duration of the campaign
- Reinforce the brand identity by creating a guerrilla-style, tongue-in-cheek awareness campaign
- Inspire new customers to register for Powwownow’s service
- Maintain usage levels amongst existing customers
The target audience
- SMEs
- Corporates
- Business Travellers
Media, channels or techniques used
Fly Powwownow was an integrated campaign with the following phases:
- Phase One: The Launch – ‘Fly Powwownow (a rival ‘airline’ to Flybe) – Takes Off’
- Phase Two: The Offer – 5,000 Free Flights
- Phase Three: Ongoing – BA Strikes
The campaign utilised the following channels:
- Microsite – www.flypowwownow.co.uk
- Offline Advertising – Metro advert
- Online / Offline PR
- PPC – Google AdWords
- Social Media – Blog, Twitter, Facebook
- Email / Newsletter
Creative highlights from Phase One: Fly Powwownow – Takes Off!
Fly Powwownow was created as, comparing conference calling to air travel for business travellers.
Powwownow responded to Flybe’s adverting campaign in mid-November by ‘vandalising’ their creative to create a cheeky campaign of their own. Here is how this advert reached over 2,000,000 people:
- Offline Advertising
Flybe’s misleading press ad and our cheeky response
- Microsite www.flypowwownow.co.uk
Website banner
- Google AdWords
- Launch Press Release appeared in key publications including Meetpie and B2B marketing.
Social Media
There were three Powwownow Twitter handles.
Our blog revealed that the ‘research’ cited by the airline adverts was sponsored by two US travel industry group.
Creative highlights from Phase Two: The ‘Free Flight’ Offer
British Airlines’ 5,000 free flights to SMEs’ was a significant gesture, but not strictly ‘free’ as there was a lot of tax to pay. Powwownow duly responded by introducing 5,000 free conference calls for SMEs – with absolutely no hidden charges.
The offer was publicised through the following channels:
- Microsite
- Google AdWords
- Follow-up Press Release appeared in key publications including Terracurve and The Manufacturer
- Social Media
Creative highlights from Phase Three: BA Strikes
The latest campaign (May-June 2010) offered free conference calls for the duration of the BA strike period, helping alleviate some of the pressure for BA and its business travellers.
This was publicised as follows:
- Microsite
- Email to 160,000 business contacts
- Google AdWords
- Press Releases
- The Blog
- Social Media
Time line of the campaign
Planning: Sept 15 – Nov 12 (Idea started from ‘Boris’ article in the Guardian)
Phase one: Nov 12 – Nov 23 (Response to Flybe campaign)
Phase two: Nov 23 – Dec 24 (Response to BA’s 5,000 ‘free’ flights offer)
Follow-up: Nov 2009 – Feb 2010 (monitoring of all the Media mentioning the related subjects)
Phase three: May 17 – June 9 (Response to BA Strike)
Results
Tactical results
- Press coverage: Guardian, B2B Marketing, meetpie.com, The Manufacturer, Terracurve
- E-newsletter: opened by 4237 people
- Email blast: 14,051 views, 319 clicks
- Google: mentioned on 5,100 web pages
- PR Web: 58,645 impressions and 1196 reads
- Blog pageviews: 671 for The Real Cost of Air Travel, 250 for Powwownow keeps it ‘Business as Usual’ whilst BA strikes
- Twitter followers: 7432
- Facebook followers : 627
- London Metro ad: readership of 2,209,419
Impact on the bottom line
- Microsite traffic: 860 visits
- Additional website traffic: 1,865 visits
- Conversion rate to registrations: 30 per cent
- Additional Powwownow users (attributable to the marketing): 560
- Average profit per Powwownow user: £80
- Total estimated bottom line value of new users from the marketing: £44,800
Other benefits
- Immense brand awareness: More than three million opportunities to see
- Reinforcement of the brand’s distinctive style, which help us retain our current customers
