Fuji Xerox is well known for its market-leading document imaging hardware. However, around the world, thousands of businesses rely on Fuji Xerox for software and solutions to make them more efficient, more effective and more competitive.
One such solution is the XMPie Variable Data publishing suite, designed especially for creating, implementing and managing successful one-to-one marketing programmes across a variety of output media. To prove the effectiveness of cross-media campaigns using VDP, Fuji Xerox recently implemented a campaign, using XMPie, with excellent results.Fuji Xerox’s “VDP Market Awareness Campaign” was principally based around impactful personalised posters that drove recipients to personalised websites (PURL’s) so to create a two-way dialogue; and then culminated in events to further showcase the XMPie technology. The end result was an astonishing response rate in excess of 25 per cent.
Objectives
Fuji Xerox’s objectives were:
• to create market awareness for VDP-based direct marketing (New Zealand is lagging behind many other countries);
• to develop a local VDP case study;
• to develop Fuji Xerox’s own VDP production capabilities
The potential of personalisation in direct marketing has been well documented. The challenge has been how to deliver on this promise. Fuji Xerox wanted to demonstrate to industry participants how a sophisticated
cross-media campaign could be created and executed.
The latest generation of cross-media applications provide tools for creating and tracking sophisticated campaigns, both on printed media and on the web. Using XMpie PersonalEffect, Fuji Xerox sought to introduce New Zealand marketing and advertising professionals to an integrated campaign using a combination of personalised print, personalised web pages and email. The objective was to create awareness of these capabilities while at the same time tracking the response rates through XMPie so as to be able to provide a realistic report on response rates in the New Zealand market. In addition, Fuji Xerox wanted to raise the interest of the creative community while developing an understanding amongst digital print providers of what is possible to deliver.
The Audience
• Marketing Professionals: 1478
• Ad Agency - Creative: 44
• Ad Agency - Production Manager: 219
• Printers: 477
• Total: 2178
Phase One
Fuji Xerox used the Adobe InDesign suite and XMPie to develop a personalised poster, which was sent to the entire database – its purpose: to arouse interest and create discussion.
The poster created a city scene based around a number of images personalised to the recipient (name, company name, etc.) and contained an invitation to visit a personalised URL, such as: www.theresonlyone.co.nz/richardpenny Once at the web page, the customer was asked to provide further personal information and preferences, thereby dynamically updating the database with information to be used in Phase 2. To ensure maximum participation, individuals who did not respond within a set time period were sent a reminder postcard that re-used the image from Poster 1.
Phase Two
A second poster was then developed based on the using the information the customers provided at their personalised URL. Garnering this information allowed the level of personalisation on the second poster to be even deeper than the first.
This time the poster depicted an imaginary and ‘aspirational’ scene involving the recipient; for female recipients the scene was set in an intimate wine bar, while for males it was set outside a grand residence (see versioning above). Both posters clearly reflected the preferences that were chosen at the website, e.g. hair colour, drink preference, favourite musician or sports team, etc.
The copy of this poster again centred on the power of personalisation and the positive results that it can achieve. It also drew the customer back to their personalised URL to provide further information and collect contact details, enabling Fuji Xerox to invite them to a VDP seminar.
Phase Three
The final phase of the campaign was to invite a small subset of the database to a VDP seminar. These seminars were conducted in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland and primarily targeted the printers and production people from creative agencies, focussing on providing attendees further education and information on:
1. Cross media technology;
2. How the Fuji Xerox campaign was developed and executed;
3. Results and lessons learnt; and
4. Fuji Xerox’s VDP Certification Programme
Attendance at these seminars far exceeded expectations. Across the three venues these events attracted over eighty attendees, allowing Fuji Xerox to further develop key industry stakeholders awareness of the power of VDP and cross-media marketing.
Results
As mentioned, industry standard response rates for un-personalised and semi-personalised mail-outs hover around the 2 per cent mark. This campaign was designed to validate the assertion that even simple personalisation can result in a significant improvement in response rates, with the potential to achieve 30 per cent response rates from highly personalised/targeted communication.
Of the 2,000+ members of the marketing and advertising industry that received this campaign, a phenomenal
28 per cent chose to respond to the first piece by participating in the online ‘survey’, and thus continued on to phase 2. A further 18 per cent of recipients of the second piece then went back to their PURL’s and sought further information on VDP. Overall the campaign was considered an overwhelming success with response rates far exceeding traditional direct marketing engagement.
The results should be taken in the context of the nature of the campaign and the outcome that it sought. In this case, the desired result was simple participation and did not ask for either money or significant effort to be expended on the part of the recipient. It is important therefore to note that while personalisation significantly increases response rates, the single biggest determinant of the success of a campaign remains the offer itself. That said, the 28 per cent response to this campaign far exceeded expectations for awareness building campaigns. In addition to the measurable success, the considerable feedback on this campaign was extremely positive and strongly indicates that the key objective of market awareness was achieved.
For more information on VDP, cross-media marketing or XMPie, call Murray Miskelly on 09 356 4406.
