Challenge
PRG was approached by the company’s Building Management Systems (BMS) division for support with strengthening its distribution channel by securing partnerships with System Integrators (SIs) across the UK, Germany, France and Poland. Johnson Controls was specifically looking for a partner agency to deliver a Pan-European digital marketing campaign, which could be first rolled out in these four countries and then eventually Europe-wide.
BMS System Integrators serving the “low to mid complex” market had limited awareness and familiarity with Johnson Controls’ range of BMS products. PRG was therefore tasked with delivering an integrated digital marketing campaign that would raise awareness of Johnson Controls’ range of BMS products amongst key SI decision makers; differentiate its products from competitors’ within each territory; and provide SIs with a clear understanding of how partnering with Johnson Controls could help their business grow.
Solution
Johnson Controls’ brief called for a Google AdWords campaign designed to target a list of preselected System Integrators. After undertaking extensive research into how this could potentially be achieved, PRG concluded that it would not be possible to target named individuals in companies and persuaded the client to focus on other digital activities.
PRG proposed designing a microsite that would tell the campaign story, explain the benefits of partnering with Johnson Controls and provide a mechanism for capturing enquiries. A key part of telling the story was creating video testimonials with customers from each of the four countries. This involved filming over two weeks in seven different locations and partnering with one of our Pan-European agencies to ensure that the video transcripts were professionally translated. We also sourced actors to provide a voiceover in all four languages to make the finished product even more dynamic.
United Kingdom
Poland
Germany
France
To ensure that the Pan-European digital marketing campaign successfully identified only SI decision makers, we also recommended a targeted programme of LinkedIn Sponsored advertising, including Sponsored InMail ads. For this we researched the audience targeting options in great detail to ensure we reached the very specific demographic required and regularly checked and refined the audience criteria throughout the duration of the campaign.
Alongside the LinkedIn advertising, we booked a series of third-party e-shots and online ads with leading BMS publications. We also used traditional marketing methods to support the predominantly digital focused campaign, this included PR and two forms of direct mail – an expandable brochure and a video mailer – which were sent out to named individuals from our client’s customer database across the UK, Germany, France and Poland.
Result
The key to success with this Pan-European digital marketing campaign lied in targeting System Integrator ‘leaders’ and funnelling enquiries directly to Johnson Controls’ reps to allow them to directly connect and build a rapport with potential partners.
According to HubSpot, a leading developer of software products for inbound marketing, to convert a visit to a contact, you should expect a 1.5-3% conversion rate for B2B marketing campaigns. PRG surpassed this achieving an impressive 5% conversion rate!
Rob Gregus, Head of Marketing Europe at Johnson Controls, said: “Johnson Controls have used PRG in a Europe wide mandate which included: channel positioning; content creation for print, digital, social, video; building channel websites; social and print delivery; and PR. The team is very responsive and managed the breadth of work with professionalism and energy. I will continue working with them next year.”
