The Brief

Google offers a range of proven online advertising solutions for businesses, from search advertising with Google AdWords, to the Google Display Network, to YouTube. But many marketers were either still unaware of Google’s online advertising offering or, more significantly, had the opinion that it wasn’t relevant to their business sector. Our target audience was new high-value customers drawn from a prospect list of businesses of a certain size that didn’t have a relationship with Google. Our strategy was to demonstrate to the sceptics that the Internet had fundamentally changed consumer behaviour, making advertising with Google more important than ever.

Creative Execution

We needed to demonstrate two simple truths: No matter what your customers are searching for, they’re searching for it on Google. And they’re finding it faster than ever. So how could we communicate those two things at the same time, in a way that they'd remember? A thick, lavishly illustrated adventure book is definitely a surprising thing to receive in the mail. And the second surprise – the fact that this huge story ends so suddenly with a Google search – creates a great “aha” moment that’s definitely in keeping with Google’s key brand attributes: simplicity, humanity, and discovery.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

Our goal was to increase our consultation booking rate from 15% to 40% -- an ambitious target. We engaged our audience with a multi-touch DM campaign. We first delivered an intriguing ‘pre-mailer’ – an illustrated bookmark that hinted at what was to come. We then sent a 250-page adventure book: The Search for the Invisible Diamond of Mystery. But upon opening the book, the story ended immediately – with a simple Google search. Only blank pages followed. A letter inside began, “No matter what your customers are searching for, they’re using Google to find it.” Customized statistics reinforced our message.

Results

It was a good sign when, within 48 hours, we received an email from a prospect requesting an appointment, with the simple subject line: “Love your DM campaign.” The appointments kept coming. Out of the first 57 outbound calls, the sales team was able to secure a near 300% increase in the number of consultations booked – raising their completion rate from just 15% to 56%. As a result, warmed prospects from this DM have already filled 100% of pipeline for the team, replacing the need for the team to conduct hours of cold calling.