We live in a world of uncertainty. Unmitigated levels of scepticism – and perhaps worse, apathy – are impacting peoples’ ability to take bold steps, especially in B2B marketing.
Instead of taking giant leaps, B2B brands often take small, iterative steps, with tomes of bold and innovative agency ideas left to collect dust in the pitching library. Yet, those who take the jump can reap the rewards. Gravity Global and its client Embraer certainly took that leap.
With its ‘Profit Hunter’ campaign seizing four B2B Marketing Awards wins at November 2017’s ceremony (including the evening’s star prize – the Grand Prix trophy), Alex Clarke caught up with Gravity CEO Mark Lethbridge to discuss why this campaign was voted best in class.
Bold, bold, and even more bold
Right off the bat, Mark is keen to emphasise Embraer’s attitude, rather than his agency’s contribution. “The reason we won this award was actually because of the client,” he says. “What I mean by that is the client allowed us to take some big steps for them in terms of direction, strategy and implementation. They supported the programme, from start to finish.”
Who exactly was the client? Embraer is a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate, and the third-biggest aircraft manufacturer in the world. Herein lay a huge challenge for the Gravity team, right from the outset.
“The aerospace sector is a multi-billion pound space,” says Mark. In fact, the R&D costs of the aircraft Gravity was hired to promote reached $1.7 billion. “To be brave when such significant sums are at stake necessitates a client that is completely behind the campaign’s strategy. If we’d presented this to other businesses out there, they’d have rejected it on the grounds of it being too risky.”
“What really impressed us and attracted us to this account was Embraer’s boldness and its willingness to overcome enormous challenges”
Gravity had done its homework. Embraer was clearly an organisation that wasn’t averse to taking risks. “A really powerful manufacturing business that’s right at the heart of the latest innovations – and it’s come out of Latin America, a much less established aerospace market than the US or Europe – now that’s commendable,” Mark observes.
“What really impressed us and attracted us to this account was Embraer’s boldness and its willingness to overcome enormous challenges.”
‘Challenge, create, outperform’
Embraer tasked Gravity with launching its new range of jets, and Mark explains his team built the campaign strategy around three core principles: challenge, create, outperform.
“For us, that’s what Embraer is all about. It challenges the marketplace, is brave enough to create solutions that establish new segments and opportunities in the market, which, in turn, allows its customers to outperform their goals.”
The approach was bold for what is normally quite a conservative industry. Furthermore, it was completely connected: from the brand strategy right through to the deployment of the campaign across every channel. “The alignment on this particular programme was exceptional,” Mark says.
Gravity had to ensure its work – and its communication with Embraer’s audience – reflected the campaign’s desire to instil challenge, creativity and performance. It did all this with the renaming of Embraer’s launch aircraft.
The birth of the ‘Profit Hunter’
“You’ve got aircraft like Airbus’ A380 and A350 and Boeing’s 737 MAX – then suddenly we launched one and decided to call it ‘Profit Hunter’,” says Mark.
The technical name of the jet is E195-E2, but Gravity convinced Embraer to take a bolder step, instantly injecting the product with more personality, and, ultimately, communicating what it can do for the customer.
It was a real break in convention for the aerospace sector, which proved to be an underlying theme throughout the campaign, exemplified by a giant eagle painted onto the nose of the jet. Reflecting on the boldness of its move, Mark laughs: “We were asking the client to paint an eagle on the nose of a brand new £50 million aircraft just about to launch into the marketplace.”
The key, yet again, is smashing industry conventions. Traditionally, aircraft graphics sit exclusively on the side of an aircraft, which is exactly why Gravity decided to plaster a giant eagle on the front of Embraer’s. “When we showed the marketplace that jet, we knew people were going to pay attention,” says Mark. Images of the Profit Hunter went viral across the globe with reports by CNN, BBC and CNBC.
How did the Profit Hunter make profit?
Savvy B2B marketers will know that a creative idea is only as good as the instruments used to take it to a wider audience, and Mark stresses this was a key component of Profit Hunter’s success.
“We didn’t just want to employ the traditional channels,” he says. “We were keen to use the latest technologies to demonstrate that we’re an innovative organisation.”
To fulfil this, Gravity live-streamed the launch of the aircraft using a full-size TV studio and numerous social channels, which Mark claims to be a world-first for the aviation sector. Gravity knew demonstrating the new platform would be a real challenge, and that to achieve standout, the team would have to maintain their mantra of using new technologies to disrupt the market, throughout the campaign.
“We knew a number of people wanted to see this aircraft,” explains Mark. “So, we chose virtual reality as a mechanism to give people the experience without physically going in the aircraft.”
Courage can cause turbulence
It wasn’t all clear skies when it came to convincing Embraer to take such bold and unconventional approaches. “You can’t be afraid to try new things,” Mark stresses. “We identified the normal challenges and ways that brands go to market in a particular industry and then determined how we could disrupt and utterly transform it.
“If you’re bold in your approach, you’ll achieve more standout, more share of voice, and more engagement – all for less money than your competitors.”
The night of triumph
Fast forward to 23 November 2017, the night of the B2B Marketing Awards, when Gravity took not only the coveted Grand Prix trophy but also scooped prizes for the ‘Best multichannel campaign’, ‘Best product launch’, and the inaugural ‘B2B bravery award’.
“We were absolutely delighted with the outcome,” recalls Mark. “To gain recognition from our peer group for all that hard work and all those late hours, while being named as the best of the best, is fantastic.”
Award wins don’t just provide a shot of motivation for the team involved, but also attract the industry’s finest talent to join your ranks. “In the talent crunch, trying to find the right people is a constant battle, especially in B2B,” says Mark. “But to be seen as the best in the business helps significantly.”
From a new business perspective, the value of winning such trophies can’t be underplayed, as Mark underlines. “We’re being phoned by prospective clients, who have seen our success at the B2B Marketing Awards, and, therefore, want to talk to us.”
Mark staunchly believes this element of competition ultimately helps to improve the industry, driving higher levels of innovation, creativity, and boldness. “It’s always worth fighting for that cut-through,” he says. “We’re a very competitive industry and we’re all driving each other to do better. We’ve won the Grand Prix in 2017, and hope that inspires the next agency to do even better and come up with an even more imaginative solution this year.”
