HOW CREATIVITY BEATS BIG BUCKS

Our client needed help to market a major event: a 2-day Summit in Singapore for high-powered executives.  However, there were two other major conferences competing to sell tickets to our C-Suite audience.

Furthermore, both events would outspend us on advertising.  Our solution was a bold advertising idea promoting the key Summit theme: how businesses can deal with social issues such as anti-globalisation and rampant populism. 

To deliver, we assembled a multinational virtual team of art directors, designers, copywriters, project managers and developers.

The result? ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) of 4:1.


 

Intelligent creative meets smart placement

Where better to place an ad about rising populism?  To see the working version of the banner, please click here.

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edm delivers on CTR

Targetted Electronic Direct Mail (eDM) was a logical choice: we had a niche audience and an expensive product.  We developed a campaign of three eDMs. Much effort went into ensuring these worked perfectly on mobile, as more than half of all emails are now opened on a mobile device.  The work paid off. We delivered a clickthrough rate (CTR) of up to 25%.

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additional sales by going native

 We added Native Advertising to our marketing mix, using Outbrain.  For Native to work effectively, simple creative with an editorial flavour is crucial.  By following these principles, our creative generated 28% of total sales at a Cost Per Click (CPC) as low as $0.70.

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BUs ads: not sexy but hard-working

Buses may seem a surprising choice.  However, by targeting routes in Singapore’s Central Business District, our C-Suite audience saw the ads as they commuted to work (in their cars, not the buses themselves).  Moreover, buses are an underused  medium: not being  glamorous has a lot to do with it.  This made for a cost-effective way to raise awareness.

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Search marketing drove conversions

In addition to Display, Native Advertising and eDM, we leveraged the power of Search.  Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns are an outstanding way of generating sales, when done correctly.  Our campaign demonstrated this by delivering 19.5% of ticket sales; at a Cost Per Lead (CPL) of just US$1.17

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And the result: 

our campaign outperformed all previous years. Return On Advertising Spend (ROAS) was 4:1. 
In other words, for every dollar our client spent, we generated $4 in revenue.

 
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