Accor Services demonstrates what can happen when a successful BTB company with little public awareness adopts a creative new marketing strategy to accelerate growth. As a global leader in employee benefits with 490,000 clients in 40 countries, Accor plays an active part in the daily lives of millions of people. When they asked us to rethink the way they inform employers about the value of commuter benefits, we decided to take their message to the streets.
www.commuternation.com
We created an integrated consumer campaign in New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C. We used street teams, transit advertising and a viral marketing tour to educate people about commuter benefits, and tied all the media together with a high-impact sweepstakes on a fully branded companion website. We touched commuters when they were most receptive, and gave them a fun and easy way to tell employers that commuter benefits are a win/win. It’s been a great ride!
We simplified Accor Services’ corporate brand structure to support direct sales to employer targets, and at the same time created Commuter Nation, a totally independent consumer-facing brand for all “bottom-up” marketing efforts. New sales collateral helps the sales force explain complicated product features and benefits, while the new brand architecture helps prospects self-select the right products through the corporate website.
We focused our efforts on social media, public relations, viral marketing and local newspaper ads to spread the word using low-cost, high-impact techniques – and increased qualified leads by 25%. Every message leads back to a simple call-to-action and online forms that route relevant contact information directly to SalesForce.com. We’ve built a highly efficient, targeted program that expands from friend-to-friend, commuter-to-commuter and city-to-city.
We’re helping Accor use intelligent web design to manage multiple sales channels including direct to corporate, direct to employee and third-party administrators. And consumers who don’t usually spend a lot of time thinking about pre-tax savings are captivated by Commuter Nation’s surprising design and clever video.
