Financial technology specialist Logica was one of the first payments systems providers, but after 30 years in the industry its technology was seen as outdated.
Challenge
This, coupled with the financial meltdown last year meant that Logica realised it had to bolster its sales pipeline for the coming years. It wanted to dispel its out-dated perception, and open a dialogue with major financial institutions, ultimately by securing one-on-one meetings between prospects and Logica sales representatives.
Changing payments systems within banks is often compared to changing an aeroplane’s engine in mid-air. Financial institutions can be wary of investing in new technology, because any system failure is likely to cause significant reputational and financial damage – another perception based hurdle Logica needed to overcome.
Solution
A highly targeted campaign was developed, blending direct marketing with tailored digital outreach to communicate to a select audience of decision makers. Activity was designed to engage prospects with vanity URLs, handwritten notes and personalised video messages from Logica sales representatives.
A very specific target audience comprised of 72 payment specialists from 15 banks, many with global responsibilities for their bank’s payments infracstructure, hand picked by Logica.
Prospects were targeted over a three day period. On day one, a Tuesday, prospects received a box at around 10am, a quiet time for banks. It contained a DVD of a blockbuster film, alongside the original book, with an accompanying insert reading The film is good. The book is better.’ This teaser copy was designed to tie back to Logica’s brand values by emphasising the depth their of experience and their view to giving the full picture. This piece of DM also featured hand-written address labels and contained a vanity URL lead to a 52 second personal video message, in which a sales representative greeted the prospect by name and outlined the business benefit of a meeting.
On the Wednesday morning, a second box arrived, which included a dollar bill and an ingot-shaped Swiss chocolate bar shaped to look like a bar of gold, along side a printed insert stating Cash is good. Gold is better’. This message played on the fact that the value of gold was at the time rising sharply due to the global credit crisis.
On the same afternoon, a short letter was delivered, discussing the banking crisis and making the business case for Logica. In theme with the ongoing personal touch, the letter was hand-signed by Logica sales representative and included a hand-written URL.
The following day a follow up email was delivered. Following that, telemarketers sought to engage with prospects over a two week period to arrange a one-to-one meeting with a Logica sales representative.
Results
The campaign was rolled out over a three week period, in order to create a high-level of personalisation, and immediately made a strong impact, generating high response rates and conversions. It generated discussions with nine out of the 15 banks (60 per cent in total), and one-one-one meetings with 41 out of 72 individuals.
Seven months on, it was negotiating multi-million pound deals with several major financial houses as a direct result of the campaign, including JPMorgan Chase, whom it had previously targeted at a trade show with no success. “(The) campaign really opened their minds and improved the perception of our products. As a result, we went through a sequence of meetings and consequent product evaluations. Now, only two vendors remain for this £25 million deal, and we feel we are on top. A decision is expected in quarter three of 2009,” says Anthony Brockley, JPMC Account Manager at Logica
Logica has also since struck gold with HSBC and Bank of Tokya-Mitsubishi (BTM).Deals with HSBC in France and Malta are expected to close this month (November 2009), delivering a £0.5m product sale and Logica ultimately expects to roll out its system for HSBC’s global operations, with a projected deal size of £32.5m. With BTM, Logica realised that the only way to get traction with its HQ was through personal recommendations. The campaign helped it to engage with the bank’s European payment specialists, who have since recommended Logica to their Japanese counterparts. Logica now expects to be invited to a four-way RFP, worth £15m, in early 2010.
Long-term, Logica predicts that its £25,000 investment in the campaign will generate profit of £1.9 million over 18 months, and nearly £9 million over ten years.
