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 # 346 |
Case
Study |
| Phone Mate
Situation Phone-Mate is the dominant brand in the phone answering machine business with 22% of the market. When you add its private label business, it controls 64% of the industry. The Company had just been through a shake up. With a new CEO, a new VP Marketing and a new Director of Marketing Services it thought it had a good chance of turning things around. But, Phone-Mate was running out of time. Problem Phone-Mate’s
sales had been down for five consecutive quarters. Dealers were feeling
nobody from Phone-Mate cared about them anymore. Its sales organization
was in shambles from resignations, firings, and the fallout from a
demoralized
staff. And, as if this weren't enough, the new Chairman/CEO was in
Japan
working out delivery schedules at the factory on a new line that should
have already been shipped. The good news was these were the first
answering
machines that let you retrieve messages from remote locations.
Solution The
We
Get The Message Campaign: The agency responded three days later
with an integrated campaign strategy outline, sketched thumbnails on a
single sheet of paper, a production timeline, as well as rough media
and
production budget cost estimates: |
closings
in
time for CES issues. It also bought twelve-month rotation schedules for
full-color bleed coverage in Ziff Davis and Peterson’s Consumer
Lifestyle
publications for start in April. It then created, produced, and
placed
all ads in these media as scheduled. The agency also created the Remote Message Sweepstakes, a Spring promotion that ran within the consumer campaign, to push the first remote message retrieval product in the market. The new campaign assured the 85% of all American families who take 1 or more 2-week vacations annually, that they could now call in from any remote phone booth in any “remote corner of the world" and get their messages. The Phone-Mate logo assembly carried the We Get The Message tag. The Spring promotion’s call to action was an invitation to stop by any authorized Phone-Mate dealer for a demonstration and for an opportunity to win a remote vacation to one of any four corners of the world. To support the sweepstakes, the agency negotiated a cross ruff with Club Universe in exchange for four free tour packages as sweepstakes prizes. It created full-color posters and "take one" POP counter card for entry forms at POS. It also wrote and designed the Official Entry Form to work as a prospect tracking questionnaire against which sweepstakes effectiveness was measured. And, the agency appointed an independent judging agency to certify sweepstakes winners. The Agency also created a complete dealer co-op advertising kit, including produced and scripted :60 and :30 radio spots and three produced product song Ear Warmers, musical outbound messages for answering machines. Click here to hear more. To have editorial coverage during CES, the agency wrote and hand-placed custom releases with trade media in advance of the press conference it had scheduled at CES. It also produced a sell-in flyer, a press kit., and then staged and produced a multi-image media presentation to introduce and demonstrate Phone-Mate's new line. The multi-image media presentation was shown to Phone-Mate Reps, to Phone-Mate Reps and Dealers, and then to the world press in two separate venues during CES. The agency delivered the entire package -- produced and under budget -- two days prior to CES, exactly five weeks from the client’s approval of concept. Results The
best sales
quarter in Phone-Mate History: Phone-Mate sold-through to a clean
warehouse and back orders, regained established itself with key
accounts,
and its sales volume was 17% above anyone's most optimistic projections.
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