Summary
In April 2011 Gyro created a fully integrated marketing campaign for digital
tachograph specialists Stoneridge, to help them capitalise on a unique ‘window of opportunity’.
For one month Stoneridge found themselves with a clear market advantage, when their new model was the only ‘One Minute Rule’ ready tachograph available. The rule, which forms part of forthcoming legislation governing tachographs, is revolutionising the way drivers’ are regulated – yet the industry leaders Continental/Siemens VDO was at least one month behind Stoneridge in being able to profit from this. Gyro had a difficult task ahead due to Stoneridges’ negative position in the market, attacked with a clever re-positing strategy and inventive creative campaign, including a ‘One Minute Rule’ drivers’ hour’s portal with ‘comparison tool’ page. The campaign was fully integrated with online and offline media supported by pan-European trade advertising, online banners, emails and stand at the Commercial Vehicle Show.
The results saw a huge increase in leads generated, with 52 sales coming from the show alone, something never achieved by Stoneridge before. New visitors to the website overachieved by 226 per cent, whilst Amanda Robertson, head of sales & marketing at Stoneridge, told Gyro “We’ve shaken VDO which is a real success”.
About the client company
With an engineering pedigree that spans three decades, Stoneridge is a leading manufacturer of digital tachograph systems, and supplies to commercial vehicle workshops and fleet owners globally.
Tachographs are fitted to trucks in order to measure and record drive time to
ensure drivers are taking the appropriate breaks in accordance with law.
Strategy – broader business issues the company is facing
A new ‘One Minute Rule’ legislation was created stating that every working minute of a driver’s hours had to be measured more accurately. Current tachographs round up drivers’ time to the nearest minute; Stoneridge created a tachograph that meant every second could now be recorded.
Before launch a vast number of barriers had to be overcome:
- VDO, Stoneridge’s biggest competitor owning 80 per cent market share.
- Stoneridge’s negative brand perception – thought of as cheap, basic, unsophisticated and British (not efficient).
- Hauliers uninterested ‘box that does a job’.
- Workshops fit like-for-like.
- Tachos rarely fail and rarely replaced.
Being able to launch the new tachograph first (at least one month before VDO) meant Stoneridge had a clear market and product advantage.
Objectives of the campaign
Gyro were tasked with re-positing and launching Stoneridges’ new tachograph, the objectives being:
- Capitalise on one month of clear market/product advantage.
- Re-position the new tachograph to lift its brand positioning and take some of VDO’s market share.
- Launch as the only “One Minute Rule” ready tachograph on the market.
- Position Stoneridge as a technology leader and thought-leader on optimising drivers hours in order to maximise revenues.
- Create a personality more desirable than the ‘cold and distant’ market leader (be the anti-VDO).
- Understand customers’ issues and say ‘we’re on your side’.
- Persuade workshops to recommend and fit the tacho.
- Persuade fleet operators/owners to ask for the new tacho by name.
- Ultimately increase sales.
The target audience
Changing the minds of the target audience posed a significant challenge. The brand re-positioning and campaign had to encourage hauliers to stop thinking about tachographs as a ‘box that does the job’ and start caring about the brand they choose. The problem was that all tachographs essentially function, perform and cost the same, so when it comes to replacing or retro-fitting one, people generally replace like for like or take workshop recommendations. In response, gyro targeted workshops and operators, including fleet specifiers and engineers who, because of increased fuel, taxation, VAT and maintenance spending, are very receptive to any message that helps them manage and mitigate cost. When hauliers come in for replacements they seldom ask for a brand by name and are happy to take recommendations, so it was important to target workshops and persuade them to recommend and fit Stoneridges’ new tachograph.
In addition to this, Stoneridge was thought of as unsophisticated, British and inferior to VDO’s German technology – when in fact the new tachograph was designed and built in Sweden.
Media, channels or techniques used
In order to re-position Stoneridge, Gyro utilised their Swedish heritage and branded the new tachograph as SE5000 Exakt – taking the original product number and adding the Swedish word for precise. This immediately inferred their superiority and accuracy within the market.
Throughout April, when SE5000 Exakt was unique to market, a mix of on-and offline activity was implemented:
- Internal launch seminar in Tallinn, Estonia.
- Press launch in all local markets.
- Creation of ‘one minute rule’ drivers’ hours portal powered by SE5000 Exakt. Including a ‘comparison tool’ page that allowed visitors to upload their data to see how much extra drive time they could gain.
- A number of press advertisements and online media banners were negotiated with leading Commercial Vehicle publications in Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, UK, Netherlands and Germany.
- Email campaign targeting workshops and fleet operators.
- Exhibition stand for the CV show, including graphics, sales leaflets, event giveaways and plasma screens showing the website/comparison tool to encourage engagement.
- Thought leadership/seminars – including sponsorship of the Motor Transport Directors forum.
A friendly and caring brand was created that countered all of VDO’s weaknesses and a campaign was formed that capitalised on Stoneridge’s first to market advantage.
Timescales of the campaign
Stoneridge briefed gyro 11th January 2011, creative planning and strategy was completed immediately, after which creative development started 27th January.
The campaign was completed, approved by Stoneridge and their stakeholders, and the pan-European roll-out began March 14th implementation of the campaign is due to finish August 2011.
Results
The strategy and creative positioning was extremely successful across all channels and internal audiences, with the messaging and new branding proving to be genuinely motivating for all distributors/subsidiaries.
- Workshop emails achieved 33 per cent open rate and click-through of 6.37 per cent.
- Fleets emails achieved 31 per cent open rate and click through of 4.74 per cent.
- Unique visitors to website increased in each country, overachieving expectations by 226 per cent (from 1,900 visits previous year).
- Qualified leads with a low 35 per cent bounce rate and 65 per cent new visits to pages within site. Average time of 3.23 mins spent on site overachieved industry standards and suggested audience were engaged.
- Peaks in visits to website showed the effect of the advertising and online banners which performed above industry standards.
- 52 new leads were generated on the stand at CV show.
- Feedback was extremely positive from all internal staff and campaign/branding buy-in – including proactive office re-branding.
- Value for money media plan secured 90 per cent extra free media (based on the rate card).
- Comparison tool had an excellent conversion rate, saving users an average of 42.14 minutes driving time per day. A total of 22.57 hours across all countries to date.
Client testimonial
“We are delighted to have secured No 1 spot in the industry by getting our new generation tachograph to market first. Gyro helped us to create a brilliant,
integrated campaign which produced the results we were aiming for and more!”
Amanda Robertson, Stoneridge’s UK marketing manager.
