Summary
Part of Stericycle, Shred-it is one of the UK’s leading information security companies.
Having already launched a successful SME-targeted strategy with Really B2B, it wanted to mirror this success in the enterprise market.
Although expert in its field, it operates in a crowded marketplace and had the added challenge of having to tender for these larger opportunities – a process that takes time and relies on relationship-building. In order to differentiate the brand and reiterate its position as a market leader and expert in data destruction services, it needed a bold, creative proposition to make an immediate impact, followed by a smart, nurture strategy to take prospects through to a qualified opportunity – thus, ‘The Art of Destruction’ was born.
An ABM lite campaign was created to roll out the concept to 100 enterprise prospects. A high impact direct mail piece kick-started the campaign, followed by an integrated lead generation strategy. This was all backed up by in-depth persona research which informed the messaging.
The campaign has already generated 160% lead target, a sales pipeline over £1m and generated appointments with the likes of New Look, Unipart Logistics and Tesco.
About Shred-it
Shred-it is one of the UK’s leading information security companies, providing data protection advice and secure shredding services to businesses of all sizes in the private, public and third sectors.
Recognised across a diverse range of industries, including financial services and healthcare, as the protection experts, Shred-it’s information destruction services ensure the security and integrity of their clients’ private information.
With more than 25 years’ experience, they protect more than 500,000 global, national and local businesses across 17 countries.
Part of the larger group Stericycle and founded in 1987, Shred-it continues to stay focused on offering confidential information destruction services.
Strategy
Differentiation
Although Shred-it is one of the industry leaders in information security, there are a lot of competitors offering similar information destruction services. Shred-it needed to be positioned as the ultimate experts in data destruction in order to achieve cut through and stand-out in a crowded industry – and this message needed to be delivered in a hard-hitting and impactful way.
Increasing presence with key accounts
Although a successful SME campaign was in progress, Shred-it knew that a different approach was needed to increase brand presence with enterprise businesses and to drive awareness of their service portfolio – an approach that hadn’t previously been a focus.
Tender timelines
Tenders are a big part of Shred-it winning national accounts, but in a crowded marketplace, it recognised the need to get on prospects’ radars ahead of the tender process starting.
These contracts are usually awarded for two to three years with an average yearly spend of £100,000, so the importance of winning these was paramount to the business’ growth. To do this Shred-it needed a strong campaign concept to grab the attention and nurture these high-value prospects so that they would remain front of mind when the tender process began
Objectives of the campaign
Business objective
- Increase brand presence within enterprise businesses and generate a strong sales pipeline of national account opportunities.
Marketing objectives
- To raise awareness of Shred-it and its superior offering to the enterprise market in a highly impactful and memorable way.
- To build relationships with enterprise prospects to remain front of mind when the tender process begins.
- To create an impactful ABM lite strategy to cut through the noise and engage the hard-to-reach decision-makers.
- To build a pipeline of enterprise opportunities to convert into real revenue for Shred-it.
The target audience
The target audience was businesses in the UK with more than 500 employees in the following sectors:
- Private healthcare
- Leisure and hospitality
- Legal and professional
- Banking and financial service
- Logistics and transport
- Retail
Persona research was carried out on the 300-strong database to drill down into these key decision-makers and inform the campaign messaging.
Media, channels or techniques used
Campaign theme
Starting with the framework of Shred-it’s brand, customer and service truth, Really B2B created a campaign theme which summarised how Shred-it wanted to portray themselves to their enterprise audience.
The creation of any great work of art is a delicate process which relies on experience, commitment and attention to detail, just like Shred-it’s solution. ‘Destruction’ lies in direct opposition to this concept – but through the contrast of these two words, we created a powerful idea. We demanded that people take notice.
‘The Art of Destruction’ positioned Shred-it as the ultimate authority in data destruction – providing customers with complete peace of mind.
The confidence of this statement inspired the confidence of our prospects. It told our audience that Shred-it are the complete experts, turning destroying confidential material into an art form through their skill and innovation.
Destruction is an art best left to professionals, and Shred-it protect what matters.
Direct mail
A big impact was needed to kick off the ABM lite campaign and grab the attention of the busy decision-makers, so a powerful direct mail concept was developed to roll out the big idea.
Prospects were sent a graffiti-painted box which opened to reveal a golden frame containing a piece of art – but, taking inspiration from Banksy’s auction shredder stunt, the artwork was shredded half way. This high-impact delivery showcased Shred-it as a forward-thinking, relevant and modern business, who are experts in the art of destruction.
The message was reinforced with the inclusion of copy on the panels either side of the frame, which then fold back, allowing the prospect to put the frame on display.
The piece was accompanied by a personalised booklet, demonstrating that Shred-it have the experience and expertise to manage the art form of data destruction – offering customers complete protection and freedom to focus on what matters.
Landing page
The direct mail drove prospects through to a tailored landing page. Continuing the theme, the landing page reiterated destruction is an art form best left to the professionals and that Shred-it were their go-to partner. A strong call to action to get in touch with the sales team was used to drive results.
HTML
Following the theme in terms of both design and messaging, HTML emails were used to follow up the direct mail, drive further engagement and prompt landing page click-throughs.
Highly-personalised plain-text emails
To create a 1:1 message, plain-text lead generation emails were launched from Shred-it BDMs. Segmented by job function and industry, these communications focused on key prospect pain points and reiterated how Shred-it is the partner to solve these issues.
LinkedIn sponsored posts
Running in-line with the dispatch of the direct mail, LinkedIn sponsored posts were served to prospects on the distribution list. The copy and creative mirrored the campaign theme and drove prospects to the tailored landing pages.
Telemarketing
To add a human element, and to secure an extra layer of qualification, telemarketing was used to follow up all inbound enquiries and to convert them to face-to-face opportunities for the Shred-it account team.
Timescales of the campaign
July 2018: Research
November 2018: Big idea development
February 2019: Direct mail launch
March 2019: Follow-up campaign launch
Results
Appointments generated with:
- Tesco
- ITV
- M&Co
- Unipart Logistics
- Mail Boxes Etc
- New Look
- DS Smith
- 1321% pipeline ROI
- 1,011% of HTML click-through target
- 160% of inbound lead target
- £1.2m sales pipeline.
“The Art of Destruction campaign has achieved exactly what we needed it to - breaking down barriers with large enterprises and generating a solid pipeline for the team. Having such a strong creative idea is a real talking point with prospects and they definitely remember us!”
