Powwownow’s latest brand awareness campaign is causing a stir among the business world. Gemma Huckle reports
The public’s sense of loathing for bankers and elaborate corporate spending is something that video conference call provider Powwownow seized upon in its latest brand awareness campaign.
The tongue-in-cheek ‘More sense than money’ creative, delivered by global agency Gyro, poked fun at businesses that have more money than sense. The aim of the campaign was to position Powwownow as the type of service for companies looking to make savvy spending decisions and reinforced the message that free conference calling with the provider is a ‘smart decision’. It also wanted to stress that not changing service providers can be costly – posing the question ‘do you have more money than sense or more sense than money?’ to UK business people.
Pushing the boundaries
The launch of the campaign last month caused offence after Powwownow unveiled its creative featuring fictional ‘slime ball banker’ Cecile Goldwell, who claims to like his ‘coats mink, truffles white and secretaries Swedish’. The adverts on the London Underground were defaced, with comments such as ‘My woman is not a commodity’, after commuters took offence to the sexist slogans.
Responding to audience feedback, Powwownow’s marketing manager Casey Williams, said, “Our irreverent attitude and desire to constantly push the boundaries means we’re not unfamiliar with controversy at Powwownow. The stir the creative is causing reaffirms that we’ve achieved cut-through in an extremely crowded market, even if that has meant we’ve ruffled a few feathers of animal lovers, feminists and people with more money than sense along the way. The character is meant to be as archaic and out-of-touch as possible to provide an absolute contrast to the voice of reason that is Powwownow.”
Gyro was appointed the week before Christmas, which was a challenge when it came to timing. Powwownow hired the agency after experiencing obstacles with last year’s ‘Love/hate travel?’ campaign that urged commuters to share their travel loves and hates. The company says it was ‘surprised and disappointed’ from the lack of cut-through that the social media campaign provided. Realising this, the ‘More sense than money’ campaign was designed to be truly integrated to reach a mass audience with a very clear and direct message.
The ‘More sense than money’ campaign targeted user choosers in small to medium-sized businesses. It specifically directed key messages to directors, department managers and IT professionals in finance and accountancy, media and advertising, retail, manufacturing and public sectors. The campaign was communicated through a range of media, including advertising in publications such as Metro and ShortList, as well as on radio stations Heart, Magic, Absolute, Smooth, Jazz and Sunrise. Online banner advertising was created using Google Display Network and ARM DSP, with ads appearing on YouTube, Quantcast, Facebook, Eyeconomy, Maxad, Media 6 and AdPepper – equating to 156,000 impressions in February alone.
In addition, social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook were used to push and heighten awareness of the campaign.
The future
Initially running until the end of Q1, Powwownow can’t disclose results until after the campaign finishes and says it is very likely to continue with both the creative and strategic direction until the year closes.
Powwownow now operates in 15 countries worldwide, including the US and major European markets, and recently acquired web conferencing and business collaboration providers Yuuguu. The company says it will continue to aim to grow turnover from £7.6m in 2011 to £10m this year, in addition to trying to attain a larger share of the UK voice and video conferencing markets.
