Putting the fun in marketing

An award-winning marketing campaign, which used direct mail and interactive online activities to engage clients and prospects, at Scotland-based firm Shepherd and Wedderburn. By Kate Clifton

Scotland-based firm Shepherd and Wedderburn recently won a prestigious industry
award for its marketing campaign, Don’t Stand Still. The campaign featured an interactive
element designed to draw in its audience. The firm based it on the belief that this target audience – senior business professionals – are people first, who are accustomed to being targeted by consumer brands in their private lives, in a direct but relevant way, to engage and even delight. For that reason, the firm moved away from the more functional marketing approach taken in the business-to-business arena, and particularly in the legal sector.

In response to relevant law reforms being pushed through at the time, the campaign had multiple branding, marketing and business development objectives, and used integrated direct
mail and online elements to engage clients and prospects.

While communicating the impact of law reform – what it means for business – the main message that the firm sought to convey to its audience was that standing still during times of change could be dangerous.

Project aims
The campaign was designed to act both as a cost-effective business development tool and a brand building and communications initiative.

The marketing team set out to achieve a number of strategic aims
with Don't Stand Still:

To cross market all of the firm’s services to its entire database, instead of marketing each separately;
To position the firm’s lawyers as proactive experts across a range of carefully chosen topics relevant to a broad range of businesses;
To engage with existing clients and prospects, as well as encouraging referrals and knowledge sharing between colleagues and departments around the firm, thereby acting as
a database builder;
To demonstrate the firm’s market awareness. To achieve this, each communication was timed to coincide with breaking news in the area of law reform – for example, issues surrounding the proposed smoking ban and aspects of planning law;
To challenge preconceived ideas of the legal sector. The firm wanted clients to move away from the traditional view of law firms – where they are often seen as being old-fashioned, exclusive and aloof – and perceive the Shepherd and Wedderburn brand as being modern, contemporary and approachable;
To engage the audience in a sustained two-way process through interactive technology, animation, use of humour, engaging copy and colour schemes;
To create a talking point among the primary audience (clients), the legal sector and the press.

Development
In keeping with the aim of abandoning the more stuffy approach associated with the legal profession, Don’t Stand Still was developed in a non-traditional way from the outset. To ensure that the most relevant and timely topics were targeted, the marketing team set out to collaborate closely with lawyers. This was achieved by working with the head of knowledge management to select six key areas of relevant legislative change and then with an enthusiastic expert, usually a professional support lawyer, in each of these areas to develop the copy for the campaign postcards as well as more detailed legal briefings for clients who wanted them. This same group was also used as a sounding board/test group for the concept and the draft materials. In addition, a version of the online campaign was run internally for staff at the same time as the external campaign, both to educate and engage the lawyers. This not only ensured that the communication itself was as sharp as it could be; it also built a sense of wider participation and enthusiasm inside the firm.

With a limited budget, the marketing team wanted to keep the creative process as tight and relevant as possible. This was achieved by using several hand picked, external strategic, creative and technical individuals, rather than simply handing the project over to an agency. Strategy formulation and project management was handled internally, while the firm’s web-development team worked hand-in-hand with two external individuals on the online creative elements.

The entire technical back-end was built and run in-house, encompassing out-bound e-mail through to data collection.

The campaign in action
In response to the strategic aims mentioned earlier, the campaign implementation was split into stages.

First, seven direct-mail pieces were developed. These were used to establish the idea of the campaign and were sent out to more than 8,000 senior executives over a period of seven weeks. The final mailshot introduced the online continuation of the theme and invited respondees to register to participate in the online stage of the campaign

Following the direct mails, the firm sent out daily e-mails, which brought to life the characters introduced in the direct mail pieces. This included a link through to a dedicated area of the Shepherd and Wedderburn website. This featured five interactive, animated games, which were designed to illustrate the pitfalls of standing still in the wake of law reform. Players were also invited to read a short legal briefing. An added incentive to encourage participation was a prize draw, which offered the chance to win a range of high-tech prizes, including an iPod, a Playstation PSP and a digital camera.

A consistent approach was taken to content on all the direct mail pieces, with the same paragraph introducing each postcard. Legal change was then outlined, followed by headline changes and an explanation of their implications for business, all in straightforward language. A reminder of the theme of the campaign – when the law is changing, Shepherd and Wedderburn can help make sure you don’t stand still – ended each piece, along with the firm’s URL.

Participation and feedback
The paper-based direct mail was sent to more than 8,000 individuals every week, throughout November and early December last year. All of these people were invited to join the online campaign. Almost 1,200 registered to receive the daily e-mails and 58 per cent clicked through to the website – versus the industry standard of 7.2 per cent. The interactive games were played and 83 per cent of the target audience read the legal briefing. Subscriptions to the firm’s e-bulletin service rose by three per cent during December alone.

Along with being well received by its audience, the campaign also enabled lawyers to follow up with clients, and was picked up by the national trade and business press.

Some of the responses to the campaign included:

“Very good, highlighted relevant issues, made Shepherd and Wedderburn stand out and demonstrated capability.” Senior attorney, Convergys EMEA;
“The Don’t Stand Still campaign was fun to do and gave useful bite-size bits of information so, as a reader, I gained awareness of current issues.”Corporate finance manager, Grant Thornton UK LLP;
“This was a fun and interesting piece of viral marketing. Effective for you, because I have remembered your name and now know what services are available from the firm.” Manager, Princes Scottish Youth Business Trust.

Campaign outcome
The integrated direct mail and interactive online campaign has made a serious impact on the firm and its market in terms of its strategic approach, added value and creativity. The response was exactly what the firm had hoped for – as intended, the humour combined with the serious messages has enabled partners to begin engaging with clients and contacts, opening up new work opportunities. The increased subscriptions to the firm’s e-bulletin service, which have in turn built its opt-in database, have also become a key building block in the firm’s client-acquisition strategy.