Summary
RingGo is the UK’s leading parking payments provider. Impending changes to First Great Western’s contract allocations threatened both RingGo’s market share and, significantly, its entire business model.
Birddog was appointed to build a dynamic, engaging and creative awareness campaign to protect RingGo’s position as the premier supplier of car-parking support services whilst influencing decision makers and regulators alike.
Immediate action was required to minimise misleading third-party information surrounding major changes to service provisions in the South-West of England. Within 24 hours, Birddog created and
launched a blog-based user community sponsored by RingGo, but managed and run independently – ‘The Yellow Lines’. Central blog articles became the focus for user comment, concerns and discussion.
The urgency of the campaign required a hard-hitting launch, utilising the speed of both email marketing and Twitter to support its messages.
Within 14 days ‘The Yellow Lines’ had received over 22,000 unique visits, received over 800 comments to the site, and had achieved a positive sentiment value of 99.8 per cent.
Birddog has created a community based marketing asset that still continues to grow today, clearly distinguishing and highlighting RingGo’s unique product offering and competitive advantage.
The client
Effectively handling over 3 million telephone calls, and processing over £1 billion worth of payments, RingGo is the UK’s largest provider of mobile (or ‘cashless’) parking payment systems for local authorities, rail operators and private car parks. With a UK market share of 73 per cent and 2 million registered users RingGo has developed a reputation for innovation, service quality and product security.
Campaign objectives
As a third party service provider to First Great Western Railways (FGW), RingGo’s ability to directly defend itself against changes was limited. The short-term campaign objective was therefore to apply pressure to FGW, to reappraise its procurement processes and (correctly) inform rail users of impending service changes. The long-term objective was to build a community of brand advocates that would be an asset in influencing any future decisions relating to the use of the RingGo parking service.
Short-term
- To raise awareness of the impending parking service changes.
- To respond in the public domain to misleading and contrary competitor statements.
- To harness public opinion relating to service changes and direct it to accountable bodies.
Long-term
- To turn anecdotal user sentiment into transparent/ referenceable/ searchable brand advocacy.
- To create a measurable customer support asset for the RingGo brand.
- To act as a catalyst for the development of an independent user community.
Strategy
The strategy was to focus users of the RingGo brand into a single online community where customer opinion could be shared with, and thereby influence, business decision makers. Core content (the blogs) would direct the conversation, but the social and transparent functionality (comments/feedback) would allow contributors freedom to both redirect the conversation and, importantly provide the right of reply. Community response, positive or negative to the RingGo brand, would be permitted.
The community blogging site, ‘The Yellow Lines’, would be sponsored by RingGo, but managed independently by the user community itself after an initial two week launch campaign undertaken by Birddog.
During the two week launch, the strategy was to make business commuters aware of potentially adverse and significant changes to the parking services offered at FGW railway car parks. Thereafter, comments relating to the proposed changes would be discussed within the community and directed at the service providers (FGW/APCOA), external rail regulators and other interested parties (news media/local/national government).
With only two weeks before planned service changes within FGW were to be implemented, any attempt to overturn decisions that had already been made were unrealistic. It was therefore essential that the strategy offered long term value beyond the initial launch period.
Value would be achieved from the strategy by creating a community of active, passionate (and independent) RingGo users who would not simply complain about (changes to) FGW parking services, but advocate RingGo’s mobile parking solution generally. At any time during the future life of the community site, RingGo would be able to reference customer sentiment as a core selling advantage. Any prospective business customer of the RingGo parking solution (local authorities, transport operators and private car parks) could be referred to The Yellow Lines as independent proof of this user sentiment/satisfaction.
Highlighting RingGo’s efficiency was a key element in providing an internal sales tool that could be used for competitive advantage. Neither RingGo, nor their competitors, had historically been able to claim or demonstrate how engaged their user communities were in order to secure contracts from prospective customers. The strategy was to position RingGo as ‘the users choice’ and evidence that position of popularity to the exclusion of competitors.
The target audience
- Business commuters/RingGo users.
- Service providers (FGW/APCOA).
- External rail regulators/ Government.
- News media.
Media or channels used
Establishing the best social channels was imperative to the success of the campaign. With extremely tight time and budget constraints it was essential to develop a campaign that could resonate and engage with the community on various levels.
The social aspect of the campaign allowed users to engage with the blog content and share posts and comments through other associated channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). This helped content reach new audiences quickly, widening campaign reach and overall engagement. Working alongside the blog and Twitter, email marketing was used to activate the initial core audience and throughout the campaign as a call-to-action channel.
Timescale
The campaign commenced on Monday 21st February and was transferred to the RingGo community on Friday 11th March 2011.
Results/Return on investment
Community building/ Raising awareness
- Over 22,000 unique site visits – in two weeks.
- Continuous community growth of 10 per cent/ month since handover Community engagement/ Brand.
Advocacy
- Over 800 comments in the critical first two weeks.
- 99.8 per cent positive sentiment.
- Local media newspaper coverage.
- BBC radio coverage.
Policy review/setting
- Email petition submitted to FGW by RingGo supporters.
- Email responses from FGW board members and Directors to RingGo customers.
- 27 Letters submitted to MPs.
- Request from Office of Rail Regulators (ORR) to direct information.
Long-term
- Independent searchable customer reference site.
- Ongoing/growing digital asset.
- Proven competitive advantage on key elements of operations: trust, innovation, service support and security.
