You wouldn’t think it, but batteries are essential to major businesses across the USA. In hotels for example, batteries power door locks and safes, TV remotes, soap dispensers and more.
But if a battery fails, guests can be stuck in their room, leave negative reviews and demand freebies. So, businesses change batteries before they’ve run out. The downside of doing this is wasted battery power, which is bad for business efficiency and bad for the environment.
The truth is, despite companies thinking they are rigorous and efficient, they don’t know when batteries will run out. So they operate on guesswork, changing whenever service teams have time in the day or as part of a wider schedule.
To solve this issue, specialist battery brand Procell created Procell InSite, a new type of device that connects batteries to a dashboard telling companies when power is low and when to change.
Whilst the service was revolutionary, the way we needed to engage specifiers and operators needed to be tangible and immediate. Batteries are a low interest category and specialist batteries are especially uninteresting. We avoided the B2B rational approach by personifying the embodiment of guesswork in two hapless company Battery Changers, whoseantics warned our audience to ‘stop guessing, start saving’.
To make the launch a success, we had the following objectives:
To meet our objectives we developed a fully integrated communications plan in 3 phases:
Agitate: launch cut-through creative in connected TV, programmatic video, social and tradeshows, designed to expose the costly guesswork businesses are using, positioning InSite as the solution.
Arm: once awareness of the inefficient business practices was raised, drive understanding of how wide-spread the issue was in a series of consideration content using social assets and digital banners.
Act: Finally, give the audience easy ways to convert interest into action either online at the Procell website, or at tradeshows, using the cost calculator to show immediate savings.
Agitate
Programmatic online video Connected TV
We developed a suite of 6 30” to 6” comedic films, built to highlight the key pressure points for decisionmakers, including operational inefficiencies through failing devices, sustainability through wasted materials and customer dissatisfaction through negative guest experiences.
To drive targeting efficiency, films ran across online trade publications, e.g. hospitality, as well as a broader range of targeted media platforms.
Social: Meta and Linkedin
We created a series of 10 native content memes and short reaction videos using the Distinctive Brand Assets Battery Changers from the initial hero films. To repeat the messaging from the Agitate phase, we also ran cutdowns of the TV edits on social platforms.
Tradeshows
To engage our audience when actively considering new services for their businesses, we replicated our Distinctive Brand Assets by creating an activation ‘battery changer in a box’. This put our character in an installation on a 30minute loop capable of interacting with the as they passed, explaining the inefficient processes they follow and what could be done about it by using Procell InSite.
In addition to the main stand, we created additional assets which borrowed the codes of business, such as wet floor signs, or door do not disturb hangers, subverting them to highlight battery failures in the facility.
Arm
Social
To give further detail of the inefficient practices in organisations, we created a series of 6 assets that picked up on the types of thought leadership articles on Linkedin, but subverting them to highlight the guesswork companies use and the benefits of Procell InSite for businesses.
Digital Banners
To continue to remind our audience of the campaign and drive traffic to the Procell website, we launched a series of 15 banners highlighting the ongoing operational efficiency, using our Distinctive Brand Characters and props from the online video to carry recognition throughout the campaign.
ACT
Search
To drive traffic to the Procell website, we activated around search terms by industry, e.g. hospitality, by benefit, e.g. sustainability and by product, e.g. batteries and power.
DM
To disrupt expected B2B communications, we created action figure toys of the Battery Changers to bring to life the waste and inefficienct practices used through businesses today.
Website
To reduce friction and demonstrate the immediate benefits of Procell Insite, Procell website featured the Cost Calculator which quickly gave an indication of potential savings and drove leads for the Sales team to pick up.
Tracking the effectiveness in B2B is not like tracking B2C, where larger scale more established databases exist with norms. However, we have drawn on a variety of data to demonstrate the effects of our campaign.
REACH
Given Procell was a new to market launch, key to success was reaching as wide a range of the potential market as possible. The campaign successfully reached over 1000 employees per month during key activity periods.
TARGETING
Whilst reaching all potential buyers was important, knowing that we had reached the key roles which would create the right influences and make the decisions was crucial. Our targeting successfully reached key identified company roles, including CXO, VP, Director, Manager.
ENGAGEMENT
At the campaign peak, comms was Engaged by 370+ Employees per month, demonstrating the quality of creative and relevance of messaging. By using ABM targeting, we were able to increase Engagement rates to 67%.
AD RECALL
Our audiences not only engaged with the content, but tracking demonstrated a 228% uplift vs 74% NA benchmark in adrecall, showing our creative was capable of standing out and being memorable to our audience.
LEADS
The ultimate short-term success of our campaign lay in its ability to drive leads and deals.
Our activity on LinkedIn successfully drove 396 leads for Procell Insite and influenced 100% of closed deals in 2024.