Summary:
Not an immediately obvious business tool consideration, the use of headsets in the office place is still relatively low. The Plantronics Headset Adoption Programme (HAP) campaign is an acquisition/demand generation campaign developed to promote interest in and consideration of office headsets, and specifically to encourage the trial of one. Conversion rate from trial of headset to purchase is extremely healthy.
With so many different benefits of using a Plantronics headset, we targeted four distinct groups within companies with 250+ employees, and devised separate and relevant messages for each: finance, sales, HR and IT directors. The creative treatment was also refined for each target to clearly dramatise the four key benefits for our four different targets.
This campaign was designed for precision targeting of message and visuals which would talk to our targets clearly and immediately. A recent research project undertaken in Italy would filter through the communications and act as hard-hitting ‘proof points’ to support the product propositions.
The HAP campaign ran across seven key EMEA regions and was translated into French, German, Italian and Spanish. This campaign has over-achieved on all of its targets – to date, of all the trials generated, 76 per cent of these have been closed (24 per cent still to be completed)delivering 167 per cent of pre-campaign sales target.
About the client company
Plantronics Inc. introduced the first lightweight communications headset in 1962 and is today, the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of headset products used in Fortune 500 corporations. Plantronics supplied the headset from which the historic words ‘one small step for man’ were transmitted from the moon in 1969.
Strategy
The world of work and how and where we work from is undergoing immense transformation. Fixed hour, fixed place working will disappear as the future of work becomes more fluid and connected. ‘Virtual’ presence will eventually dominate over face-to-face meetings and a new armoury of tools will facilitate any time/anyplace working, unifying voice and data for more agile and productive working practices. The benefits of using headsets within this context are many. Yet headset adoption is still relatively low in large companies. This relates more to lack of consideration as opposed to active rejection, and underlines the need for further hard-hitting awareness work, with clear benefits messaging crafted to make headsets highly relevant to the target audience.
Objectives of the Campaign
This lead generation campaign was developed to meet a key objective: to drive product trials. Conversion from trial to purchase rates is very high for Plantronics headsets as the benefits become clear to the user very quickly.
Other objectives included:
1. Provide a highly creative campaign designed for immediate cut-through to target audience
2. Craft supporting messaging that make headsets highly relevant and emotionally appealing to the target audience
3. To make headsets the must-have accessory to give you the competitive edge.
The target audience
This campaign had four distinct audiences to align with four key horizontal functions in companies of 250+ people. The product features strongly through the creative treatment – but with the twist that each was retouched to highlight a key benefit to each audience type.
1. Finance directors are interested in one thing: money; how to make money and how to save money for the company. Research shows that Plantronics headsets not only pay for themselves within months, they deliver an ROI of around 12:1 over a five year period. When the clarity of calls, the health benefits, increased productivity and shorter call times are taken into account, the savings become apparent and significant.
2. For HR directors the well-being of staff is paramount. Plantronics headsets mean no more crunching a phone handset between shoulder and ear to work during a call. Also, the option to stand up and walk around while still connected means you’re no longer tied to a desk. Again, the health benefits were quantified and specified.
3. For sales directors, every minute could mean another sale. So the ability to work anywhere with great noise-cancelling was the key benefit. It becomes another weapon in their arsenal.
4. For IT directors, the technology and its compatibility with PCs and desk phones make Plantronics headsets a good investment for future working and unified communications.
Media, channels or techniques used
Centrally managed and delivered:
Campaign landing page
The existing ongoing campaign microsite was re-skinned in the new creative look and feel, and depth content, designed to highlight the benefits for all four target audiences, was delivered in six languages. This included: videos and e-books created per horizontal job function and product demos. The microsite is also home to the product trial application page.
Videos and ebooks
One video was created for each of the four target audiences. The video was scripted from an end target perspective and delivered by actors speaking in their mother tongues and through a Plantronics headset to demonstrate voice clarity. Ebooks talked directly in more depth to the benefits of deploying headsets in organisations from a financial, HR, sales and IT perspective.
Content delivered via a toolkit to countries which included:
Direct comms
All four audiences were contacted with different direct communications. Data was collated at country level to match the target audience profile and job function. The call to action was to the campaign website (a telephone number was supplied to the inside-sales team in the UK and Germany only).
1. Postcard DM – light messaging
2. DL format DM – depth benefits messaging
3. Email comms – HTML and Outlook templates for pre- and post-sales calls
4. Animated banner ads – Leaderboard and MPU formats animating the creative twist – transformation from normal headset to benefits driven version (gold version, thermometer, key, weapon).
5. Press ads – templates provided for press insertions
6. Posters
7. Telemarketing – telemarketing was carried out by countries as a follow-up to direct comms.
Channel Campaign
Plantronics Channel Partners were key recipients of the toolkit to drive campaigns to their own customer bases.
Campaign Timescales
Planning / Concepts January/February 2010
Production / Build March/April 2010
Direct Comms May 2010 ongoing
Results
From May 2010 – April 2011, the campaign delivered the following (as reported through salesforce.com):
• 3816 trial opportunities generated
• Of which, 3303 trials occurred – 118 per cent of target
• Closure of 2513 of trials (790 still to be completed):
• Average success rate to purchase per trial – 10 per cent above target (currently at 82 per cent)
• Average number of units purchased per successful trial – at 170 per cent of target
• Total sales at 167 per cent of target – with only 76 per cent of trial opportunities closed to date.
Client testimonial
“This campaign hit our four target audiences squarely between the eyes – and that is why we are seeing such fantastic payback on our marketing investment. All of the campaign targets have been hammered as we see a great reaction to this campaign’s message.”
Richard Robbins, Head of Demand Generation Programs, EMEA Plantronics
