globalWORKS

Avaya: Taming the Beast of Global Marketing

Situation

Avaya, a global leader in communications systems, does business in 23 languages and 44 countries, offering thousands of complex products and services. Avaya needed an agency partner to help it make sense of its online and offline marketing communications.

Challenges

The problem was that Avaya had two dozen major Web sites in as many languages. Over 500 content creators around the world. Multiple vendors and technology platforms. Expensive and time-consuming updates. Avaya’s online branding, marketing and product data lacked consistency and efficient oversight, making daily site management a constant headache.

Avaya was also producing massive amounts of print collateral in over a dozen languages. All of it was based on U.S.-centric brand strategies and lacked consistency and cultural relevance across the globe.

Solutions

We conducted a country-by-country analysis of Avaya’s existing language and translation processes, and implemented new systems for managing, creating and distributing multilingual marketing and collateral material. Our solutions were fully integrated with Avaya’s IT infrastructure and investments.

On the Web, we consolidated Avaya’s many global marketing sites under a single, GlobalWorks-hosted content management solution called Orchestrate™. Avaya can now run all public, regional and in-language sites from one unified platform, while allowing content managers around the world to review, edit and publish localized content including copy, graphics and video.

We launched 27 sites in 15 languages, on the same platform. Translation workflow happens within the content management system — in any language, any character set. Legacy content management systems are easily integrated, as well as new Web technology like Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, mobile sites, and more.

Results

Avaya can now manage global content seamlessly, consistently and efficiently, while maintaining the highest standards of security. The company’s ROI has been outstanding:

• A 20% increase in unique global visitors to Avaya.com.
• A 34% increase in content satisfaction ratings.
• A 75% reduction in time-to-market for creating and publishing content.
• And a 75% savings on external publishing costs.

With the help of GlobalWorks, Avaya has finally been able to tame the wild beast of global marketing, both on the Web and off. Renee Rogers, EVP of Avaya Interactive, says, “GlobalWorks’ solution provides us with the agility to manage our brand content in many languages with speed and simplicity, while lowering our overall costs of deployment and maintenance.”

Hughes: Building (and Re-Building) a Powerhouse Technology Brand

Situation

Hughes Network Systems is one of the world’s largest providers of network solutions, and the last remaining company to carry the name of its original founder, Howard Hughes. With deep roots in the satellite communications field, Hughes has evolved to provide a wide range of technology solutions for the consumer, small business, enterprise and government segments. The company does business in over 100 countries, with 2010 revenue of over $1 billion.

Challenges

During the past decade, Hughes has gone through a number of major corporate rebranding initiatives and product launches. As the global branding and advertising agency-of-record for Hughes, we have been there each step of the way, providing everything from brand identity solutions to global advertising and marketing campaigns to Web design services.

Solutions

• In 2000, we relaunched Hughes Electronics, the former parent company of Hughes Network Systems and its sister DIRECTV, with a major corporate branding campaign spanning TV, print and online. The repositioning of Hughes Electronics was so successful that a bidding war for the company erupted on Wall Street.
• In 2003 we created a new brand for Hughes’ main service offering, a two-way satellite networking platform. Leveraging the connection to its popular sister company, we relaunched the service under the DIRECWAY name.
• In 2006, due to restructuring at Hughes and a change of ownership, we again relaunched the service as HughesNet, building on the long and esteemed heritage of the Hughes name.
• Since 2006, we have continued to build the Hughes and HughesNet brands through online and offline advertising, comprehensive Web design and development, and much more.

Results

Throughout this long partnership, GlobalWorks has provided innumerable tools and solutions that have helped to build Hughes into the powerhouse global brand it is today. Hughes was ranked No. 1 Fastest Growing Company in North America in Deloitte’s 2010 Technology Fast 500™ list, and in 2011 it was acquired by Echostar in a deal valued at $1.3 billion dollars. Pradman Kaul, CEO of Hughes, says, “By any measure, GlobalWorks has done a remarkable job of helping us shape, define and communicate our corporate and service brands.”

Cablevision: Creating a Brand With Latino Cool

Low penetration, few sales

When we began working with Cablevision, their penetration in multicultural markets was low.

Cultural insights provide understanding and motivation

We needed to find a way to make the Optimum brand stand out, and appeal to a younger, more urban audience. These are savvy consumers, people who won’t be convinced by a stereotypical appeal to cultural icons. Hispanic and African American consumers also had a profoundly negative view of the “cable company” that we needed to overcome.

Musical breakthrough—with cultural cool

Music is a huge part of Hispanic and African American culture. And by 2007, Latino culture and music was starting to crossover into mainstream. Reggaeton artists like Daddy Yankee were scoring hits with urban audiences, Shakira and Salma Hayek were everywhere. Being Latino was suddenly cool.

Hip, funny, and entertaining

With our Reggaeton Beach commercials, Optimum scored a direct hit with audiences across the NY tri-state area. We wrote a Reggaeton song in both English and Spanish, weaving in the classic direct response tactics of repetition and memorability. By working the toll-free number into the music itself, we found that it sticks in the mind like glue.

But the combination of humor, a memorable song, and that intangible “cool” quality of Latino culture, proved to be a major success. Suddenly the Optimum brand was hip and funny, without being exclusionary.

Johnson & Johnson: Integrated Online Marketing for a Healthcare Giant

Situation

Johnson & Johnson is one of the world’s most recognized brands and a leader in health and personal care. When the company acquired the Babycenter.com property to expand its presence in the baby care products category, it needed to develop a dramatic site redesign and an innovative online relationship marketing program, launched under the new Yourbaby.com online umbrella.

Challenges

The old site was focused predominantly on articles and educational resources for new parents. The new site needed to leverage this rich content to deepen relationships, while adopting a more product-centric, sales-driven communications approach.

Solutions

We began by developing an intuitive user experience map and a dramatically improved site design that focused more on product promotion, awareness and education, while maintaining the warm and helpful tone of the original site. All content in the site was reorganized to be dynamically clustered around relevant products, while incorporating interactive tools and streaming video to deepen engagement.

We developed a series of interactive quizzes to drive user interaction. The Baby Readiness Test helped users gauge how well prepared they are for parenthood, while the Safety Test revealed the world from a child’s perspective, revealing the many hidden hazards around the home. The quizzes elicited personal preferences that drove market segmentation and subsequent messaging and offers.

Finally, we created and implemented a massive online relationship marketing program, Your Baby Matters. Through monthly email newsletters, the program addressed the unique and changing needs of new and expecting mothers, throughout each step of a baby’s first two years. The campaign consisted of 34 unique email newsletters built around tailored content, promotions and products. The program was later extended to include the New Arrivals newsletter, containing information about new products.

Results

This highly successful, integrated online marketing program enabled Johnson & Johnson to extend the impact of its Web site and strengthen its personal relationships with consumers. Newsletter volume increased 1000% in Year 1, and an additional 200% in Year 2. The Your Baby Matters newsletter even won DoubleClick’s prestigious Insight Award for Best Email Campaign. In the end, this multi-year program proved how powerfully effective online marketing can be in the hands of the right agency partner.

Bringing Adventure to Life — in Cutting-Edge 3-D

Situation

The Telecom category features a cavalcade of brands perpetually seeking to trump each other with high-quality offerings—the most TV channels, the fastest Internet speeds, and the best phone service—at the lowest price. For several years, we have helped Cablevision distinguish its Optimum Triple Play package, delivering both branding and product benefits via direct response TV spots in various campaign styles, including music video formats.

Challenges

Building on the success of our previous work, Cablevision asked us to develop a new campaign to convey the excitement of Optimum’s bundled technology and entertainment services in a unique and contemporary way. The goal was to grow market share by connecting with 18- to 34-year-old General Market and Latino consumers in the Tri-State area. According to Simmons research, 50% of these consumers are “technology wizards,” so we needed to find a way to incorporate cutting-edge tech trends to appeal to those “hunting” for the best deal on the newest thing.

Solutions

Our creative team depicted this “hunt” in lifelike 3-D fashion. The Optimum Adventure campaign tells the story of four treasure hunters searching the Amazon jungle for hidden jewels. After facing carnivorous plants, death-defying heights and dancing skeletons, the explorers find themselves back at home, enjoying their treasure: the Optimum Triple Play.

The TV spots, produced in English and Spanish, leveraged the same successful formula from our other Cablevision campaigns: fun, humorous stories, catchy music, and repetition of an 800 number, making the TV spots hard to forget.

For Optimum, a campaign in 3-D made perfect sense, as 3-D was exploding in popularity and Optimum was making headlines for its new 3-D programming. To immerse consumers in this experience, we aired the spots both on TV and in movie theaters with 3-D glasses, and we directed them to an engaging 3-D Web site.

Results

Optimum Adventure 3-D has been an all-around success for Cablevision, generating robust response rates, positive brand awareness, and interaction across its traditional and digital consumer touch points by over 100,000 people.

Making Ernst & Young the #1 Place to Work

Situation

Every year, Ernst & Young must recruit 30,000 new hires, competing with the other Big Four accounting firms for exactly the same prospects. Having the right tools to identify, contact and persuade the very best candidates is crucial to Ernst & Young’s continued success.

Challenges

Our challenge was twofold. First, Ernst & Young needed to continue building its brand reputation among prospects and their peers, since peer approval of one’s career choice is an important reinforcement. Second, the company needed better ways to cultivate ongoing relationships throughout the recruiting process.

Solutions

We were Ernst & Young’s global interactive agency-of-record for eight years, developing a wide range of groundbreaking solutions. Our integrated campus and online recruiting campaign included personalized online advertising, a Facebook page for potential hires and interns, customized Flash eCards delivered via email, text messages to targets’ mobile phones, and much more.

Results

Our cumulative efforts led to Ernst & Young being ranked as the #1 Most Desirable Employer in America in a survey of 43,000 undergrads at 195 schools – ahead of the other Big Four accounting firms, and even ahead of Microsoft, Apple, Coca-Cola and Disney.

Our online advertising drove over 250,000 unique visitors to the Ernst & Young career Web site, and the Facebook page was joined by over 17,000 members. Ernst & Young’s acceptance rate for job offers increased from 65% to 75%.

These striking results proved how powerful and innovative digital marketing can be in the hands of an agency that knows how to use it.

Creating a Global Online Destination for Children

Situation

Panwapa is a word in Tshiluba that means “here on this earth.” It’s also the chosen name of Sesame Street’s educational, interactive Web site to teach children around the world about cultural awareness and global citizenship. Sesame Street asked us to redesign and rebuild Panwapa from the ground up, creating a completely new look and feel and an immersive, multicultural user experience.

Challenges

The content that had been previously created for Panwapa was written from the perspective of just one culture, in one language. But Sesame Street’s universal themes and situations appeal to an international audience. The site’s content needed to be adapted into popular languages around the world, without losing the essence of Panwapa.

Solutions

Our team of specialists — translators, teachers and education experts from multiple countries — studied the content and provided in-language, in-culture adaptations suitable to the various audiences.

We designed an interactive, audiovisual environment for Panwapa that features animated Sesame Street characters who welcome and guide children through the site’s content-rich features — which include online games, streaming and downloadable video, and more. All site content is available in English, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin and Arabic.

Results

In the first two years after the site’s relaunch, global membership swelled by over 50%, including hundreds of thousands of members in North America, Central and South America and Asia — making Panwapa one of the Web’s most popular destinations for children everywhere.

Driving US Bank’s CD Deposits Through the Roof

Situation

US Bank wanted to grow its share of CD deposits in Southern California. But the sunshine state’s diverse residents don’t always have savings top-of-mind, and the faltering economy had also put a crimp in people’s savings plans.

Challenges

Our challenge was to persuade the General Market – as well as eight distinct cultural markets – to opt for US Bank’s CDs as a savings tool. We also needed to communicate about the CDs in a medium that would allow for frequent updates due to constantly shifting CD rates.

Solutions

We developed a General Market campaign that played upon unique and recognizable elements of the culture of Southern California: cars, road signs and vanity license plates. The campaign broke down generational and cultural barriers by capturing a universal aspect of California life.

And since Californians tend to be early adopters of new technologies, our campaign leveraged QR codes that directed consumers to unique landing pages featuring the weekly rates for various CD options. This enabled rapid and up-to-date communication and saved on printing costs.

Results

US Bank far exceeded its goal of growing its share of CD deposits in California; in fact, the bank quickly reached its federally mandated cap on CD deposits, and had to stop soliciting new CD customers. So we subsequently retooled this smashingly successful campaign to focus on loan & credit products.

Tectoy: Creating a New Global Gaming Brand

Situation

Tectoy, the leading Brazilian manufacturer of videogame consoles and accessories, was preparing to introduce a new, cutting-edge game console: the world’s first 3G-connected digital entertainment and education platform. The device needed a brand name and identity that would appeal to teens around the globe, especially in the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Challenges

Our biggest challenge was to create a unified global positioning and brand identity that would resonate with young consumers in such wildly different markets. We needed to develop a name and brand positioning that would work across languages and cultures.

Solutions

Drawing on our worldwide network of consultants, GlobalWorks conducted extensive target audience research and cultural audits. Our research identified the rational and emotional needs of Tectoy’s core targets in each country, and revealed a powerful, distinctive youth culture that unites young adults around the world through their shared values, needs and wishes. We dubbed this culture the Republic of Play.

We created and tested hundreds of brand names, finally settling on the winning name: Zeebo, which captured the brand’s playful personality.

Results

The Zeebo game console became an instant hit in its target markets, winning second place in the Fifth GameWorld Awards. Today, with its new brand identity from GlobalWorks, Zeebo is fulfilling its mission: “Helping the next billion play, learn and connect.”

Ernst & Young: Online Gaming and Interactive Learning for Kids

Situation

Ernst & Young is a leading global brand and one of the Big Four accounting firms. As part of its corporate responsibility program, the company developed Moneyopolis, an online destination for school-age children to improve financial planning and problem-solving skills through gaming and interactive learning.

Challenges

The old Moneyopolis site had grown stale and needed a complete redesign and relaunch. Ernst & Young turned to GlobalWorks, its online agency-of-record.

Solutions

We reconceived the Moneyopolis game and website from the ground up, developing the game in an exciting new Flash environment with full-screen animation and a completely original narrative.

The new site welcomed kids into an immersive and interactive online “town” where they could zoom in to check out various homes and businesses, and gain rewards by solving financial problems.

We also developed a lively, animated mascot for Moneyopolis – a friendly robot nicknamed Ernie – who leads users through the game on a flying surfboard.

Results

The new Moneyopolis was a smashing success, utilized by teachers and students in classrooms across the U.S. as part of their financial literacy curriculum. It also positioned Ernst & Young as an innovative thought leader and corporate citizen.

Coca-Cola: Globalizing the Most American Brand
There Is

Situation

Brands don’t get any more quintessentially American than Coca-Cola. Yet Coke has also been a trailblazer for globalization, becoming one of the most widely coveted – and hotly debated – brands in countries and cultures around the world.

Challenges

China is a particularly difficult cultural market for brands to enter, partly because of the linguistic challenges of adapting a Western brand name into Chinese characters. When Coke first entered China, the company selected a set of Chinese characters that sounded like “Coca-Cola.” What the company didn’t realize is that the characters chosen could be translated loosely as “Bite the wax tadpole.”

Solutions

When we brought this to the attention of Coca-Cola management in the late 1970s, we were immediately hired to rebrand Coke in China. Utilizing our network of in-house and in-country cultural consultants, we selected a new set of Chinese characters that translated loosely as “Tasty to your mouth and makes you happy.”

But China is not the only market where cultural and linguistic issues can become barriers for brands. To help remove these barriers, we developed a comprehensive set of culturally correct brand identifiers and typefaces for non-English languages, which served as the template for Coca-Cola’s growing global marketing efforts.

Results

With our help, Coca-Cola not only avoided a cultural gaffe in the Chinese market; the company also became poised to achieve brand relevance and success in emerging markets around the world. And our work for Coca-Cola became a textbook case study in global branding and marketing.

U.S. Bank: One Message, Many Markets

Situation

While U.S. Bank had done some multicultural advertising in the past, they were expanding into new markets where multicultural audiences were even more critical to their success. They needed to consolidate their multicultural marketing efforts with one agency that could deliver all the markets they wanted to reach with great expertise in each of them.

Strategy

GlobalWorks undertook extensive research, mapping U.S. Bank's entire business, looking for opportunities that were not just opportunities in the market at large, but specific to U.S. Bank. We created a plan that delivered against U.S. Bank's marketing objectives and made the most of every marketing dollar.

Solution

Drawing on our in-house talent and expertise, we developed a holistic approach to U.S. Bank's marketing, creating a campaign across media that delivers a consistent message culturally adapted for 7 markets: Hispanic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, African-American, and LGBT.

Results

U.S. Bank is now reaching a number of new markets for the first time and delivering a consistent message to all their multicultural audiences. With in-language collateral in their branches, the bank is able to attract and serve customers more effectively than ever.

Allstate: Helping an American Brand Enter China

Situation

Allstate is one of the leading insurance brands in America, and has become a recognized brand in markets around the world. But when the company initially entered China, it found that Chinese consumers were having trouble accepting the brand.

Challenges

Part of the problem was that Allstate’s familiar visual identifiers, depicting the “Good Hands” concept, showed a typical, two-child American nuclear family and a car parked in front of a typical American house. Consumers in China couldn’t relate to these visual identifiers because they didn’t reflect the Chinese cultural experience. There were also cultural and linguistic issues with the company’s American tagline, “You’re in good hands with Allstate.”

Solutions

Our first solution was to reconceive Allstate’s “Good Hands” visual identifiers to suit the Chinese market. The identifier for life insurance was changed to depict a one-child family, in keeping with China’s national one-child policy for population control. And the identifier for property insurance was changed to depict a car parked in front of a block of apartment buildings, in keeping with the way most people in urban China actually live.

We also created a new corporate identity for Allstate in China that included Chinese characters to adapt the Allstate name, and a new culturally appropriate tagline: “Good things come from Allstate.”

Results

With the new Chinese identity system we provided, Allstate became a more authentic and relevant brand for consumers in China. This experience demonstrated that multicultural and global marketing requires much more than mere translation. It requires an agency partner who understands how people actually live and think, and how brands and marketing communications can be adapted to meet their needs.

Guardian: Using the Web to Drive Sales and Lead Generation

Situation

Guardian is one of the leading life insurance providers in America. The company relies on a network of independent agents to sell its policies. Guardian needed an improved system for getting sales leads out to the right agents and for monitoring how the leads are handled.

Challenges

Given the independence of Guardian’s agent network, the new lead distribution system needed to be a revenue-driver while maintaining the agencies’ autonomy. It also needed to fit seamlessly with existing operating procedures while improving each agency’s approach to lead distribution and monitoring.

Solutions

We developed a cutting-edge lead generation system embedded within a portal that enabled each independent agent to create its own website, customized with its own logo, offerings, locations, agents and relevant information.

The system includes a feedback loop enabling the attribution of leads generated by online advertising back to the right agency, apportioning sales and recruitment leads from any Guardian source.

Results

The lead generation system created for the agents’ network is now embedded in all aspects of Guardian’s Web presence, giving administrators and agents greater accountability and better oversight of the sales cycle. It even gives Guardian the ability to assess best practices, top performers and most successful sales channels. From development of the Agency Portal, our relationship with Guardian grew to include a comprehensive redesign and relaunch of the company’s entire Web presence.

Hughes: Relaunching a Global Brand on the Web

In 2010 we launched a completely re-designed online presence for Hughes in the U.S.to serve four different markets -- business, enterprise, government, and defense.

User Centric Design

Competitive precedents and target audience research drove our development of a more user-centric information architecture to more efficiently serve user needs and business goals.

Modern User Experience

A simple and clean design. 1-2 primary calls-to-action on every page. A content rich pulldown menu gives users an intuitive overview of the sites. Large images, slideshows, sliders, and videos for a rich multimedia experience. Relevant service information and related resources on every page. An elegant and easy-to-find contact form for collecting those new leads.

Increased traffic and results

Thanks to well planned and executed SEO campaign we saw dramatic improvements in search engine performance for key content. In only two months we pushed Hughes onto the first two pages on both Google and Yahoo for six business-critical keywords.

Ernst & Young: Targeting the C-Suite Online

Situation

Ernst & Young is a leading global brand and one of the Big Four accounting firms. But the company’s continued growth requires expanding its business beyond auditing to provide high-level consulting in a number of lucrative sectors such as energy, automotive, banking and pharmaceuticals.

Challenges

To grow its business in these sectors, Ernst & Young needed to stand out from competitors and position itself as a thought leader. It also needed to raise visibility and brand awareness among notoriously difficult-to-reach C-suite executives.

Solutions

Working with industry specialists, we repositioned the Ernst & Young brand as a trusted business advisor and a premier thought leader in five key industries. Our research revealed online to be the number-one channel for reaching C-suite executives, so we developed a multi-faceted online campaign targeting these prospects. The campaign broke through the clutter and achieved memorability with innovative online games and video webcasts that reinforced Ernst & Young’s thought leadership.

Results

In its first months, our campaign drove a 165% increase in traffic to ey.com, generated over 1,000 downloads of recommended articles and research, and led to over 100 in-person sales meetings with C-suite executives. With GlobalWorks’ help, Ernst & Young was able to develop new business segments and reposition its brand for the 21st century.