Helping Georgia Power Take Charge of Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles (EVs) are great for power companies, especially since their batteries charge at night, when demand on power plants is minimal. So it’s no wonder that Georgia Power (GPC) decided to attach its brand to, and put its support behind, the EV category.
In doing so, however, Georgia Power had to engage an audience whose general perception of EVs were somewhat outdated …. certainly not current in terms of the advancements that had been made in the areas of battery life, driving range, style and price.
Under the banner of “Get Current. Drive Electric,” the strategy and campaign was able to communicate the advancements made in the category, and attach the Georgia Power brand to the benefits of owning an electric vehicle. The effort exceeded goals in everything from digital ad engagement to business and residential rebates; it also won the 2016 Best of Show from Utility Communicators International based on strategic approach and results.
Helping Beautyrest Put More Mattress Sales to Bed
Despite growth in direct-to-consumer online bedding sales, Beautyrest relies on its brick-and-mortar retail partners and retail sales associates (RSAs) to make the final sale on the showroom floor. The bedding brand that can make the RSA successful at retail wins!
The most expensive, but all too common, method for a bedding manufacturer to accelerate sales is through SPIFFS — the practice of paying a small, immediate bonus to an RSA to push one brand over another. But through the development of such Beautyrest sales tools as:
- a custom website to educate RSAs with blog-based content,
- online videos that simplify mattress technologies (used for RSA education as well as customer presentation),
- and the industry’s first virtual reality mattress application that allows a consumer to see “inside” the mattress,
…the strategy and campaign was able to help break the SPIFF cycle and provide RSAs with tools for long term success rather than short-term gain.
Elevating Beautyrest to a Luxury Lifestyle Brand
Trading market share points in the bedding category isn’t nearly as exciting as expanding the category itself, so Beautyrest set out to capitalize on such trends as:
- A “mass affluent” market that extends the luxury lifestyle into the middle class
- Aging Baby Boomers looking for comfort and quality of life — and with money to spend
- A mattress customer increasingly open to prices over $1,000
- Major sleep shops putting in luxury lines
- Major media stories on mattresses with prices as high as $20,000
Beautyrest aimed high when it expanded its line to include a mattress based on exclusivity, branded Beautyrest Black — elevating the brand above typical retailer presentations and sales strategies. In the process, the strategy and campaign helped create a brand that went from $0 to over $100 million in sales by year two.
Helping Children’s Healthcare Define its Pediatric Difference
With more than 2,000 pediatric physicians across 60 specialties and programs, 3 hospitals and over 600 licensed beds, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is the go-to pediatric healthcare resource for Atlanta and the region.
But while Children’s is the top choice for parents and caregivers dealing with a serious illness or injury, it’s not always the first choice for minor pediatric healthcare needs – fracture care, sports medicine, minor surgery, etc. Caregivers enjoy many options for their pediatric healthcare needs including those offered by drugstore and urgent care clinics, adult facilities with pediatric wings, and more. So it’s important for Children’s to aggressively promote its capabilities for services that address less serious problems.
Children’s strategic task was to drive awareness of its full range of services while defining its pediatric differential – what makes Children’s worth the drive when an illness or injury isn’t as serious (care versus convenience).
The strategy and campaign helped to drive an understanding that not all pediatric health care is created equal, and that Children’s specialized care, expertise, equipment and diagnostic capabilities is unique in helping the organization deal with the physiological and developmental differences between children and adults.
Helping Atlanta Gas Light Show Off An Invisible Product
The benefits of natural gas were becoming as invisible as the product itself, so Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) launched a unique campaign to influence its most at-risk customers. Considering low interest and involvement in the category, AGL had the challenge of engaging these customers in a meaningful and relevant way.
Research showed that virtually all homeowners understood that natural gas is the preferred way to cook, especially when it comes to stovetop cooking. In fact, focus group exploration revealed that homeowners were somewhat embarrassed at the notion of cooking with anything but natural gas.
The strategic task was to tap into this preference for natural gas cooking as well as the shame of cooking on electric. In doing so, the strategy and campaign helped ignite renewed interest in the product and help the gas company strengthen customer relationships.
Helping Zep Brands Clean Up at Retail
Zep’s product portfolio includes anti-bacterial and industrial hand care products, cleaners, degreasers, deodorizers and disinfectants, among other products. The brand was Home Depot’s default “house” brand of cleaning products for years, and enjoyed the benefit of end-aisle displays and good shelf presence in the process. But in order to grow, Zep could no longer remain a secret, and Zep Commercial was born.
Zep enjoyed strong brand equity and had built a small but solid base of loyal customers — the majority of whom were professional cleaners. These professionals considered Zep to be their secret weapon (efficacy at a low price).
Seizing on the brand’s “secret” relationship with professional cleaners, the campaign helped to engage a wider consumer audience and help usher the brand into new retail relationships including Lowe’s and Menards.
Taking the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to New Heights
Our strategic task was to treat the Canopy Walk as an iconic destination, rather than a mere feature…to give the walk more significance by crafting communications with a historic look and feel. Membership has doubled since the expansion and campaign.
Putting a New Face on an Old Relationship for Georgia Natural Gas
The Georgia Natural Gas Competition and Deregulation Act opened up access and unbundled gas service to residential markets and small businesses in Georgia. In a nutshell, it transitioned natural gas service in Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) territories from a low-interest & low involvement category to a low-interest & high involvement category; that is, homeowners had no choice but to choose or to be assigned to a new natural gas marketing company.
Although happy to save money on their natural gas bills, most residential customers were not particularly interested in researching competitive rates and offers, and many feared they would sacrifice the reliability they had alway known through AGL.
Georgia Natural Gas (GNG), a sister company to Atlanta Gas Light, built its value proposition around the notion that customers would continue to receive the same no-hassle reliable service they had always known, in a new price competitive format. A company spokes-flame, the Gas Guy, was introduced as a symbol of AGL heritage and promise of reliability, and served to ignite interest in the category during the marketer selection process.
The strategy and campaign helped GNG to attract over half a million new retail customers to form the nation’s largest deregulated utility – an effort that received national recognition from the American Marketing Association for marketing effectiveness.
Helping Visa Win the ATM Network Wars
PLUS is an ATM network that provides cash to Visa cardholders. The system connects all Visa credit, debit and prepaid cards, as well as ATM cards issued by various banks worldwide bearing the Visa logo. Arch rival MasterCard uses the Cirrus network. In the race to sign up banks, Visa was charged with the task of selling in the benefits of PLUS to financial institutions, and extolling the conveniences of PLUS to Visa cardholders.