‘A perfect fit for business’ LTN’s mailer to attract
local SMEsBrand: London Luton Airport (LTN)
Agency: Milton Bayer
Campaign objectives: LTN wanted to engage with senior decision makers within SMEs nearby – and encourage them to attend a business event showcasing the wide variety of improvements made to the airport.
Target audience: 200 senior decision makers at SMEs located within an hour’s drive from the airport.
Solution: An integrated campaign under the mantle of Perfectly suited for business.’ This used both on and offline media to target business leaders. Three primary channels were used: traditional DM; email; and telephone follow-ups to ensure contacts were reached.
The first challenge was to ensure the DM piece got through to the intended recipient. Each piece was disguised as a fabric sample from a bespoke tailor. Three days later an e-shot carrying the same promotional messaging and styling was broadcast to all 200 contacts to reinforce the initial mailshot.
Recipients were encouraged to click through to a dedicated microsite to register their interest. Two days later an LTN telemarketing representative called any recipient that hadn’t responded.
Description: The promotional message was screen-printed onto metre square sheets of suit fabric mimicing tailor’s chalk. Button samples were attached to complete the illusion. A business reply card was included so that recipients could register interest.
Timescale: From brief to production of campaign material took four weeks. The three-part campaign itself was delivered over one week.
Results: Of the 200 prospects originally contacted more than 40 responded, with 48 attending the Perfectly suited for business’ event. This represents a conversion rate of 20 per cent.
Reuben Webb, creative director, IAS B2B Marketing
It’s definitely going to get noticed. Possibly by the bomb squad in these suspicious times. Now that’s impact! And who can argue with the results?
That’s the game we’re in right? But I can’t let this go; the idea at the heart of this piece is a B2B cliché. There I said it. I’m sure the client was happy and so they should be. I however am a soldier in the battle to raise the creative stakes in B2B and this let’s the side down.
It’s basically the ‘tailored to fit’ idea that we’ve seen in many guises. The tailor’s dummy, the tape measure (101cliches.com see no. 2) etc. What exactly has the tailoring of suits got to do with air travel for businesses? Maybe a suit does represent business as a whole, but, in the days of the Googleplex, only by the skin of its teeth.
Let’s not forget the B2B awards; it was Zero and One that stole the hearts of the jury for best creative. Two charming little characters linked directly to the context of the data manipulation software they were selling. They were contextual, different and multidimensional.
It’s hard to see where else you could take this idea if you needed to.
Suitable, but a little more charm wouldn’t have gone amiss.
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It is very easy – and perhaps tempting – to simply choose one-dimensional marketing techniques to roll out a campaign, especially as marketing budgets have been on a downward trend recently.
London Luton Airport’s ‘Perfectly Suited for Business’ campaign has used fully integrated techniques to fulfill a tricky brief – to ultimately persuade local commercial bosses to book business seats. The results speak for themselves.
By identifying early on the potential problems the airport would have in achieving cut-through to reach this notoriously difficult target audience of senior decision-makers, agency Milton Bayer has been able to transform the issues into solutions that could work to the client’s advantage.
The agency created the concept of perfectly fitting tailored suits to ensure the mailpack flew under the radar of ruthless PAs, and into the hands of intended recipients.
There is no question that blending complementary marketing techniques can increase response rates and give marketers the opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Combining an original creative idea and tangible mailing to open up a conversation with the audience, with both email and telephone follow-ups, was doubtless the reason the client was able to achieve an impressive 20 per cent conversion rate. For a difficult campaign this is no mean feat.
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