Bonsai

Background

Harrison Troughton Wunderman were tasked with selling Microsoft Branch Office Solution to IT directors in the UK’s top high street banks. To make it more difficult they had to create something that the target audience would keep on their desks for months, if not years. Why? Because they knew that this group was resistant to change and it could take months, if not years, for them to switch their branch offices to a new software platform. They wanted to make sure their message was still there when they decided to change their system.

Idea

The software makes the staff in bank branches more productive, by freeing them up to concentrate on selling to customers. So the agency came up with the proposition: ‘Get greater growth from your branches’. To communicate this, they sent them a Bonsai tree. However, the support cane was much taller than you’d ever expect for a Bonsai. Attached at the top was a label saying, with Microsoft Branch Office Solution you’d get ‘a lot more growth from your branches.’ This was accompanied by a leaflet that carried on the theme of caring for your Bonsai and caring for your office branches.

Results

Switching a software platform is a major corporate decision that can take up to 18 months or more to make. As a result of this mailing, however, Microsoft have already picked up eight enquiries and two firm leads - which could lead to sales worth more than £18m.

Target Audience

IT directors at major UK high street banks

Size

28 mailings

Our Thoughts

Okay, so this idea is based on a pun – the idea of ‘branching out’ and using a tree as a metaphor - but what makes this work for me is the fact that recipients got a real Bonsai for their office, which, most, I’m certain, would have wanted to keep. So every day the tree would be a reminder how Microsoft can help your business grow.