Product launch campaign
So many B2B software ads are boring. A smiling person in a suit looking at a screen with a tagline and a logo. The end. AppIntel, the company's new piece of software, however, was far from boring — it was revolutionary!
AppIntel put decades of important information, research, and analytics at its users' fingertips. That data could be used to make or revise business strategies, better utilize or protect a company's assets, or just gain insight into advancements in the industry. Since knowledge is power (as the saying goes) AppIntel contained enough knowledge to give anyone superpowers.
When I took the lead for developing and implementing a marketing campaign for this product, the choice to portray business people with superpowers stuck out in my mind. With support from the president and the engineering department, and while coordinating with the sales team, I set out to bring this concept to life.
A businesswoman flying. A businessman shooting lasers from his eyes. The images I created for the new Discover Your Superpower campaign did not shy away from making an impression. They were meant to grab the attention of busy professionals and stay with them.
We sent the messages out initially as postcards.
Postcards?
The psychology is simple: once a postcard is in your hand, you will look at it — you practically don't even have a choice in the matter. And odds are, you'll flip it over. If the message is powerful, that can be enough.
From there, the messages were re-broadcast regularly via newsletters and web stories, then followed up on by the sales team. These conversations were suddenly much simpler: "We sent you a postcard recently, and just wanted to know what you thought of it."
And people did remember the images. And they did want to know about software that could give them superpowers. The sales team began to book appointments to show live demos to potential users — dozens of appointments! For months, the sales team was booked solid with face-to-face interviews with everyone from engineering technicians to vice-presidents of companies.
Using an advertising budget of less than $200, the new software generated 50% of the company's total revenue for the year it launched, and the new revenue stream it created helped to buoy the company through the economic downturn.