Concur
Project Management | Technical Consultation | Digital Strategy Consultation | Social Channel Strategy & Campaigning (Organic / Paid) | Marketing Consultation | Traditional Media Consultation
The Challenges
Concur, the leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions, with a user base of 30+ million users, felt the time was right to begin re-igniting marketing efforts within the Canadian marketplace.
Those marketing efforts had unique challenges that required expertise specific to the B2B landscape in Canada. A deep understanding of how to reach out to influencers / decision makers in the Canadian B2B marketplace would require a multi-channel marketing approach that not only created brand awareness but also drove those potential decision makers to enter Concur’s sales funnel.
Consultation with the internal Concur marketing team unearthed four key challenges:
1. Email marketing within Canada directed at Canadian prospects had been halted upon implementation of the Canadian government’s stringent email solicitation law (CASL). What steps could be taken to comply with the laws or were there other means to disseminate via email that would see Concur remain compliant?
2. Canadians, both influencers and decision makers, are frequent users of social channels – which channels would be best suited to drive the Concur message to those groups?
3. Introducing the product offering and its benefits would require long-form content initiatives that provided insight on ROI to decision makers. Which publications would be best suited to touch those most apt to have direct decision-making power?
4. Based on Canada’s population, one channel could not deliver the depth of prospects or the rate of conversion required by Concur. Which traditional marketing channels – digital, radio, television, or print – would be best suited to drive brand awareness?
The Solutions
Email Marketing
Due to stringent email solicitation regulations within Canada, direct email marketing was removed from the marketing mix. Legal liabilities out-weighed all other factors with regard to email solicitation within Canada proper.
However, there were other alternatives that would fill the gap that was left without email marketing in the fold – partnerships were sought in the marketplace that would provide an indirect path for email solicitation and that were compliant with the boundaries of CASL. Partnering with both Air Canada and Business In Vancouver (BIV) to take advantage of their extensive email lists provided a path to email solicitation that delivered strong returns, well beyond any data Concur had in hand and provided extensive brand awareness.
Social Channels
Canadians, both influencers and decision makers are frequent users of social channels – a large percentage accessing multiple platforms daily.
Combing over data on the Canadian work force concluded that target audiences would reside both on LinkedIn and Facebook. Each platform’s paid placement nuances were taken into account to drive both brand awareness and to drive prospects to landing pages for data collection purposes. Paid placement within both Facebook and LinkedIn were locked to specific geographic locations to ensure advertising was seen within Canada’s largest population concentrations – Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto including areas that would be within commuting distance of each city’s downtown core.
Content Marketing
Introduction to the product offering and its benefits required long-form content initiatives that provided insight on ROI to decision makers. Publications were chosen based on their subscriber base to ensure the right message was being disseminated to the correct audience, decision makers whose key concerns are based not only on ease of use but also on the perceived returns on their bottom line costs.
Advertorial content was placed within a select group of publications, including Canadian Business Journal, CPA Magazine, Techvibes (Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto), and Business In Vancouver.
These platforms delivered exceptional return when weighed against the cost and provided key insights. Prospects introduced to the product in this manner were apt to take action and click thru ratios delivered exceptional results.
Radio Advertising
Not to be overlooked, radio provides a unique opportunity to touch decision makers and influencers on their morning commute. Canadians are traditionally still a population of drive-in commuters and with that commute are inclined to listen to local, contextual news stations when driving. Rogers Radio, the largest radio news broadcaster in Canada, was the logical choice to drive the widest reach to the largest audience possible.
To establish brand awareness of Concur’s product offering, the decision was made to run morning drive news offerings in three key markets – Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto.
In addition, digital banner campaigns were implemented on each radio station online property to further push brand awareness and establish Concur as the top choice for expense reporting.
Digital Advertising
News organizations within the Canadian marketplace are a popular online destination and are visited daily by the majority of Canadians. Paid advertising on high traffic news sites in Canada provide exceptional value both for brand awareness and as a means to garner click thru traffic to a data collection point.
The two largest providers of advertising opportunities within Canada – Rogers Digital and Post Media were chosen to provide the path to reach as many eyes as possible – while taking into consideration the defined target markets.
Online properties included:
Canadian Business
Macleans
MoneySense
Time
The New Yorker
SportsNet
DecisionPlus
Conde Nast
Chatelaine Travel
The National Post
The Financial Post
PostMedia Trading Desk
Print – Newspaper
With a national weekday readership of 396,000 Canadians over the age of 18, Post Media Group’s National Post and Financial Post continue to hold substantial readership. It was a natural fit for Concur and saw strong brand awareness opportunities specifically in ad placement in The Financial Post. To ensure high visibility, full-page advertising was placed in conjunction with digital advertising providing Concur with multi-channel exposure at every touch point the prospect may encounter.
The Final Result
CASL compliance issues with data collected in previous campaigning required alternate approaches to reach out to prospective customers. All campaigns combined exposed Concur to 33% of Canada’s working population between the age of 25 and 59 – providing Concur with deep data insight into the Canadian marketplace – legally compliant data that can now be used to reach out to prospects through multiple touchpoints.