Let’s Try Something New
It isn’t strange for a marketing campaign to plateau after a while. The reasons are multifold, from the media to message and everything in between can lose sheen or relevance. It is this hard truth about marketing that actually makes the Marketing gurus draw the big bucks. The simple act of creating new stories around the same product/service.
Statistically speaking a TVC blitzkrieg could result in a 5% sales uptake, however this would last only a month or two. Carpet bombing print media could get an additional 4%. The question is, how does one build a sustainable engagement model??
How can a marketeer provide that critical stimuli for every purchase cycle? Can we measure the response or do we generally live in the belief that sales are on an upswing?
In the marketing and consumer world, deep pockets can go seriously far in capturing consumer mindshare as well as wallet share, arguably there are still no guarantees. What does, come close to answering the above questions (without putting a hole in the advertiser’s pockets) are – UTILITY BILLS.
The use of utility (your everyday stuff like electricity, water gas, telephone etc) bills, as a medium of advertising has been around in our country since 2010, but it’s only in the past 2 years that it’s really taken off and grabbed attention of some industry segments. None the less, it is safe to say that the medium is what you should look at when someone says.. “let’s try something new”!
After all, how would you go from being good to Better and then become the BEST if you don’t TRY.
Let’s then take a look at what makes electricity or gas bills a worthy medium for sustainable consumer engagement. Our Top 5 reasons below.
1. The brands message is going on a medium as serious as it gets, therefore taken seriously. An electricity or gas bill is a statutory document for address proof, a notice which WILL definitely be read by the buying/paying authority of the household.
2. Predictable periodicity and repeatability. When you want to hammer it home, hammer it on a bill. Since you consume, you will pay – since most of your utilities are postpaid, an invoice will be generated at a pre-defined interval as long as you continue to use the service.
3. Guarantee of Delivery. Rest assured the utility service provider will take all steps necessary to deliver a bill. It is the law (at least as of now), being governed and monitored by the regulator of the utility business. The brand’s message therefore will get delivered each time every time and be seen.
4. High Shelf Life. Nobody pays a utility bill the minute they see it. Most service providers mandate a 15 day period for payment. There is, therefore, near certainty that the bill will be seen again in the subsequent 2 weeks, by the same person, if not more. The bill is usually seen by more people in the house. A brand’s message that requires reference later, or has instructions or guidance of some nature can be on a bill like a “pin up notice”. Imagine thrusting a pin up notice month after month on the consumer’s face!!! While, your usual print medium gets thrown away each day or each week as the case may be, this medium is always saved and filed for posterity or records making it an always available medium.
5. Versatility. The ability to target geographies state wise is obvious. What’s even more interesting is the ability of the medium to take your consumer from off line engagement to online engagement. In most cases utility service providers have some other paraphernalia to compliment a bill campaign, including classic BTL activations.
With this said, let’s put in another perspective. What’s the next most important person/object/service in your house after the domestic help?? If your answer is any of the four – Electricity/Water/Gas/Telephone, then you would know the seriousness of maintaining the service. This should tell you how important the bill is! If, however you are part of the 2% Elite Indian who is tempted to say “ all that is okay, but who in today’s date and time sees an electricity bill ?”, consider clicking on this link:
Kaun Dekhta Hai Bijli Ka Bill
Until then, Let’sTry Something New with a campaign on utility bills!!