We have a few great case studies that illustrate what we believe we do best: delivering customized strategies, finding a highly-targeted audience, stretching a budget and mixing the traditional with the unique.
This first case study shows how important a good (and flexible) strategy is to an overall campaign. It also demonstrates that we don’t just spend your dollars. We want to allocate every penny in the most effective way possible.
The client, a newly-opened cancer treatment facility in Seattle. It fell to LeeAnna Buis to develop a strategic approach and media plan that overcame significant challenges, both pre and post launch.
As a new cancer treatment facility, budget was tight.
We were starting with zero brand awareness.
This type of treatment was widely unknown. We couldn’t use high-visibility, short-form branding placements like outdoor boards to build awareness. Media placements had to allow enough room to educate people on the treatment.
Cancer treatment is highly-specialized, relevant to a very specific and hard-to-reach audience.
Messaging was split between general cancers, prostate cancer and pediatric cancers; each with a completely unique target audience.
Lead generation was expected to come from seven surrounding markets.
Frequency is key to building brand awareness, which was going to be tricky considering the challenges above. It also became clear the cost to reach three completely separate audiences across 7 different markets simply wasn't feasible. We were spread too thin to be effective. The recommendation; focus and maximize. We needed a smaller, more refined target audience and geography to concentrate our dollars, find the "right" people and deliver our message with enough frequency to be impactful. We suggested narrowing our attention to a single malady with the highest levels of occurrence, prostate cancer. After a short, light test run in 7 markets, we were able to see which markets were generating leads, compare average media costs by market and research prostate cancer levels in each; leading to a recommendation to cut back to three key markets. This change allowed us to focus our dollars on the audience with the greatest need, in those markets with the most reasonable media costs and highest propensity for this type of cancer.
These were not easy conversations to have with the client. They felt strongly, and rightfully so, that it was important to reach as many people as possible and tell them as much about the center as possible. It took many discussions, campaign tests and expressions of genuine concern to come to a place that left all of us feeling good about the use of the budget and the expected results.
The result; The Seattle center not only met their initial patient volume goals, but did so faster than any of their centers nationwide.
The second case study comes from the same campaign, illustrating the value in a solid audience targeting strategy.
When it came to identifying our best target audience for this initiative, we chose to divide and conquer; splitting our targeting into three “characters.”
The older male, recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, in order to generate the immediate leads necessary to launch the center. This was our primary target.
The average senior male, in an effort to lay the branding foundation that would sustain the center over time. This was a secondary focus.
Friends, family and those likely to do research on behalf of a loved one. This was an ancillary, but important, audience segment. Since it wasn't feasible to cover this audience through a dedicated campaign, we made sure all placements and messaging had some spill-over into this group.
A solid campaign soon emerged using highly-targeted media.
- Print focused on senior interests such as travel, retirement and investment, while giving us ample room to explain the treatment and connect visually with readers.
- Radio, as a top reach and frequency medium, was used to target a mostly older male demo through NPR, sports and talk stations.
- Knowing Major League Baseball also tends to skew toward an older male demographic while still providing reach to younger friends and family, broadcast sponsorships for the Seattle Mariners were incorporated into the plan.
- The final layer was an extremely targeted digital campaign, seeking out users by age and gender, as well as by use of relevant keywords in searches and within the content they were reading.
The digital portion of this campaign presented its own set of challenges. It's true banner ads offer little room for messaging, on the surface. They are essentially outdoor boards in the digital space; quick reminder messages. As we know, the creative for this campaign needed to say a lot. But having an online presence was imperative considering the web is the first place people go to begin the research process after a diagnosis. We were able to use unique ad units that allowed users to interact within the banner itself to read more about the treatment, request more information or view a map, all within the banner space. This reminder message ad unit was expanded into a miniature digital research tool. We were also able to use standard banners more effectively by placing them next to relevant content. As people were reading articles about prostate cancer, we were able to show our ad. The relevancy of the message compensated for the fact that we were not able to deliver much information in the banner itself.
The next case study illustrates the benefit of combining traditional and lifestyle-based marketing.
Advertisers in the financial space have to tread carefully between the old and the new; finding a balance between trusted, well-respected mediums that feel like the all-knowing grandfather in the family and fresh, new opportunities letting customers know they're progressive and technologically-advanced. So we introduced lifestyle marketing carefully, as a baby step; testing the waters to make sure the marketing team was comfortable and stakeholders outside the marketing department were happy with the direction and would support a later expansion.
It started simply, but cleverly. The client wanted a presence at a couple of the large home and auto shows in town. Not only had one of their competitors scooped up exclusive rights to the events, the sponsorships were costly. So we took another approach. We couldn’t get inside the event. But the street outside was fair game. A team of pedicabs, branded with messaging relevant to the event, offered free rides to the hordes of attendees making the hike from their cars to the event sites. Not only did we build good will by helping worn out families make the trip at the end of a long day, we were also able to hit people with our message before they entered the space our competitor was trying to own. As an added bonus, the visual impact of the pedicabs around the event sites gave us an even larger presence than we could have garnered through the traditional sponsorship. Then we decided to go bigger, literally. The challenges:
Placements needed to reach a massive audience. This was the only way to ensure we were using the budget as efficiently as possible. These were not disposable dollars.
Placements needed to allow us to get into the details of the service lines we were marketing.
On the surface, these are contrary ideas; going big while simultaneously getting into the details. To add another challenge, it was our recommendation that the overall marketing strategy that year speak to people on a more personal level. We wanted to come down off of the billboard and talk to potential customers face-to-face.
Given the need to reach residents of 3 counties, it made sense to let people come to us instead of trying to track them down. The next challenge was to combine big, impactful and budget-friendly with up close and personal; three concepts that do not play well together. The solution came in the form of mall installations. We worked with 3 malls to develop custom installations that included multiple elements. Individually, we could get the details across through each element. Working together, we got the big impact. The result, in the case of Tacoma Mall, was full ownership of the charging lounge. A massive ceiling banner and half wall around the space checked off the high-visibility box. Wraps around the charging stations and table tents got us down to eye level with mall patrons at a time they were essentially a captive audience, charging their phone, resting with their kids, waiting while their teens shopped. At South Center, we took the same approach, branding nearly every surface of the Dining Terrace Fireside Charging Lounge. As standalone media placements, these are unique and garner a lot of attention. But it’s the combination of time-tested radio, print and billboards alongside something like an unexpected mall takeover that helped this campaign evolve without losing any of its well-earned integrity.
This case study is a simple one; a real-world example of our negotiation power. When it comes to media buying, it’s not about what the budget will allow us to buy. It’s about what we need to buy to be effective and how we can make it happen with your budget. Even given the same budget from one year to the next, we will strive to stretch it further.
For a recent $1MM media campaign, we negotiated nearly $600,000 in rate discounts and added value offerings. That's a 60% increase in value, at no cost to the client! How do we do it? At Elemental, added value isn't an afterthought we hope our vendors will throw in at the end of a campaign. It is part of our negotiations, laid directly into our vendor contracts so we can hold them accountable. This isn't the norm in our business. But it's something we fight for.
TV rate negotiations and added value freebies including news tickers, bonus spots, program sponsorships and :05 news billboards valued at $408,000 across 5 stations.
Radio rate negotiations and freebies including bonus spots, sponsor mentions, web content placement and streaming spots valued at $78,000 across 10 stations.
Print publication discounts totaling $17,000.
Outdoor board and transit discounts totaling $73,000.