When Sage marketing leaders needed to hit their event KPIs like driving early registrations to their customer summit event in Atlanta, they asked XPROMOS to create the hook. We tapped into iconic Atlanta megabrands Coca-Cola and CNN to created hosted VIP events on the night before the conference began. Sage exceeded their goals, with an added bonus of driving advocacy from customers who enjoyed a memorable tour, drinks, appetizers, photos and swag before the conference opened.
Philips Media needed to gain support from gamers and retailers when it launched Chaos Control, a first-person shooter game. XPROMOS connected the essence of the game to a bucket-list prize of a Lear Jet Weekend Trip with friends to anywhere in the world. The promotion excited retailers, who gave the game shelf space and feature, and it drove awareness to drive consumer purchase.
XPROMOS helped Glidden meet objectives across multiple business units by negotiating a sponsorship with Major League Soccer (MLS).
The deal included having the Glidden brand as the first title sponsorship and jersey deal for the Columbus Crew (who won the championship in the first year of sponsorship).
The sponsorship and related programs delivered a positive ROI in the first year, including:
Give your target audience or ideal customer persona the chance to get what they really want: a relevant bucket list reward.
Stremicks Heritage Organic Milk increased their brand awareness 10X among their ICP soccer parents by offering a relevant bucket list reward.
XPROMOS created the “coolest prize a Cal South soccer team could win”: a team trip to Hawaii (to play in an invitational tournament). Stremicks used on-site events, Cal South (partner) support and Facebook to promote the contest. The prize created a “wow” that literally lasted years.
Winning Entry:
The Iconic Slinky enjoyed its best sales year ever since its launch in 1943 when XPROMOS discovered and promoted the 50th anniversary of the “Slinky Jingle” with a YouTube contest. The “anniversary” gave Slinky a reason to convince key retailers to promote the brand, and extend their support with a limited-edition product.
Go Big to Win Back Customers
It’s always cheaper to retain customers than chase new ones. Winning back existing customers is more effective than acquiring new customers, especially if they’ve fallen off their subscription plan. Sage gained over $1MM in unexpected revenue in Q4 through a win back “amnesty” program that eliminated the typical “off-plan” customer fees and penalties. The amnesty offer was just the incentive customers needed to get back on track, and it delivered big revenue during the critical year-end timeframe.
The president of Sage North America was so pleased by the “Officer Finkel” program that he had a full-size cutout of the character made for his year-end presentation. He credited the salty officer with providing the last-minute spark the company needed to hit its numbers.
Win back programs became a standard part of the marketing mix for Sage, allowing the software giant to reduce churn by wooing customers back to subscription.
Align with the passions of your target audience.
A sponsorship is a clear way to connect with your ideal customer persona. Understanding your target audience includes identifying with their passions. Makita power tools became Hispanic category leaders by turning to XPROMOS to create a soccer sponsorship with MLS and the Mexican National Team. The results were felt immediately and lasted over 15 years. In year one, it translated to distribution in over 350 new doors and $9MM in incremental revenue.
How an Aspirational Reward Delivered 3X Quota for a Big-Ticket Item
Incentives drive purchase, whether it’s an impulse buy or major life purchase. By offering an Entertainer Home “upgrade” (inclusion of a home entertainment system at cost), Fleetwood Homes 3X’d their quota sales. The Entertainer Home became the single best-selling unit in Fleetwood’s history simply by recognizing what their ideal customer audience most desired to make their new home “perfect” .
XPROMOS guided Glidden paints to optimized their sponsorship ROI with MLS by becoming the paint of choice on new soccer stadium builds in North America. By recognizing the opportunity, multiple Glidden business units capitalized on new opportunities to win multi-million dollar contracts. While still supporting consumer efforts, such as collaborations with The Home Depot, the B2B efforts drove the event sponsorship ROI.
Use MarTech to Connect
Use new marketing technologies to create excitement with your target audience. To create buzz around the launch of Sage mobile apps, we created a “Tweet-to-Win” vending machine at Sage Summit that brought attention to the mobile products, enticed on-site customers to share on social media, and rewarded their actions with instant win prizes from the vending machine.
