Summary
Saxoprint is one of the largest printing companies in Europe but had a low awareness level in the UK. It faced an audience of print buyers who couldn’t find designers, and vice versa.
So in early 2017, Freestyle created a collaborative community platform called ProStudio. The idea was to connect designers and buyers, with Saxoprint at its heart. From here the campaign objective became to create broader awareness of the platform and drive sign-up in the design community.
To tackle this the agency created the ‘Great British Postcard’ design competition hosted on the ProStudio platform. The campaign was supported by The Big Issue and University of the Arts London, as well as celebrities and influencers such as John Lydon and John Bird, who used the platform to drive momentum and create more fame for the project.
In light of Brexit, the highly topical theme for the competition was ‘your Britain on a postcard’. The campaign ran for six months with no paid media by just using entrant’s postcards and social channels to drive awareness.
The campaign culminated in a packed prize giving event at Proud Gallery Camden, with Lydon as head judge.
Results were all above target, with press and broadcast coverage, over 50,000 votes, and 53% business increase for Saxoprint through ProStudio.
About
Printing company Saxoprint operates across nine European countries including the UK. It specialises in simple format printing, such as flyers or brochures and producing over 4,000 orders a day. It says its approach is deep rooted in modern technology.
Strategy
Saxoprint are relatively new entrants to the UK marketplace and needed to break through a base of low industry awareness, so Freestyle’s task was to create a highly visible campaign.
As Saxoprint’s customers are largely SMEs, not-for-profits, and entrepreneurs with small budgets, their customers want cost-effective, quality print, but often lack design skills and knowledge to find designers. The agency’s insights also highlighted a large proportion of potential customers had low awareness of Saxoprint as a print provider.
It was evident the company was missing a crucial service in its offering, leading them to be unable to convert some customers. And the answer laid in bridging the gap between print buyers and designers.
Objectives of the campaign
Having built PROstudio, the aim was to populate it with a community of enthusiastic creators. This led to five key objectives for success:
- Recruit new designers to the platform.
- Increase printing business through PROStudio by 10%.
- Create positive associations with the Saxoprint brand.
- Increase brand awareness.
- Boost social presence.
The target audience
The design community were the target for the campaign which included a variety of people such as aspiring, young artists, established designers, and amateurs. The agency decided what they all had in common was their enjoyment of a creative challenge, especially one that appeals to their sense of identity and humour.
Media, channels or techniques used
Freestyle used a mix of channels to deliver this campaign without investing in any paid media to boost the campaign at any stage. ProStudio was used to host all the elements of the competition such as the submission process, the gallery and the voting mechanism.
Social media channels:
- Social media promotion by Saxoprint, the competition, John Lydon, Big Issue and UAL.
- Although the grand prize was £5,000 and judged by a panel, the Peer Vote enticed the designers to share their entry within their personal networks in order to gain the public’s vote.
Partnerships:
- Charity partnership with The Big Issue to legitimise the social credentials of the competition.
- University of the Arts London partnership to engage and recruit young designers for the competition and ProStudio.
Influencers:
- Social engagement with influencers such as artists Richard Dedomenici and John Sheehy.
- Lord John Bird was the special guest speaker at the awards, he also created content through photo shoots and video at the House of Lords.
Print promotion:
- Postcard flyers and posters across student campuses, Rough Trade records, and final year student art and design shows.
- PR secured print and TV press from The Mirror, Channel 4, The Drum, Campaign, Print Weekly.
Timescales of the campaign
- Early-stage: Research, planning and build stages happened outside this campaign.
- May 2017: The Great British Postcard Competition launched.
- August 2017: Deadline for competition entries.
- September 2017: Awards evening.
- November 2017: Performance report was completed.
Budget
- Paid Media: £0
- Event expenses (incl. venue, drinks and decorations) £3k
Results
To gauge success the campaign looked at the amount of business Saxoprint received through ProStudio, the number of new designers and businesses signing up to the platform (247 designers and 66% increase in businesses), and number of public votes casted (more than 50,000).
In addition we looked at the reach of the campaign across media; @SXP_ProStudio gained 464 new Twitter followers and 703,551 impressions while Instagram engagement reached 8,700 and gained 574 new followers. Channel 4 News Facebook page also shared an interview promoting the competition on their Facebook page and received 4.2 million likes. User-generated content included 274 postcard entries.
"We are delighted with how well the Great British Postcard Competition has resonated with the UK’s creative community. We never envisaged this campaign making national news headlines with a paid budget of exactly zero pence. We smashed all our targets for postcard submissions and platform registrations and had a blast in the process."
This submission won the award for ‘Best use of content marketing’ at the International B2B Marketing Awards 2018. ‘The Great British Postcard Competition’ for Saxoprint by Freestyle.
