Positions Vacant

Background

Part of BT Business's larger communications strategy ‘do what you do best’, this direct mail piece needed to resonate with the managing directors of start-up companies under six months old. The audience, often time-poor and heavily targeted by other suppliers, have taken on a host of roles in their new business, flitting between sales manager one minute, finance director the next and occasionally, often ineffectually, in IT. The mailing needed to present BT’s bundled communications package as the solution to this IT problem, allowing managing directors to concentrate on doing what they do best - running their business.

Idea

Managing directors of new companies have one other vital function to perform and consider – recruitment. At this formative time they may be too small to employ permanent staff but are seriously thinking of their future personnel needs. Because of this, OgilvyOne chose to adopt the imagery of a recruitment page in the IT/Communications section of a newspaper. However, the messages in the ads were turned on their heads, to show BT Business applying for three vacancies in their company. By consolidating a communications expert, an IT Manager and a Network IT Solutions Manager (the BT Business One and IT Manager package providing all three), the ad offered to remove the burden of searching for separate employees.

Results

The campaign achieved a response rate 200% higher than the imposed target and 55.9% under projected cost per response - four times more effective than previous campaigns.

Target Audience

Managers of start-up companies that are under six months old.

Size

24,000 mailings

Our Thoughts

I love the 'envelope' line: "We'd like to apply for three vacancies in your company". Such clarity and immediacy are rare. One thing: if you're going to send a page from a newspaper, then, in the name of verisimilitude, print on the back, too. You'll find it's a great place for running case studies in the guise of editorial. SH