Migros: one M better in customer dialog
DIALOG MARKETING The new flagship company in dialog marketing is the Federation of Migros Cooperatives. Five campaigns were honored at the SDV Awards.
At the SDV Awards, Migros' innovative dialog marketing campaigns won no fewer than eight prizes. This article is published in the current issue 6/7 2015 of "Marketing & Communication" Star talers fit the motto of the Swiss Dialog Marketing Award. However, the gold and silver talers do not fall into the lap of the poor, compassionate girl. They have to be "fetched from heaven". Although the story cannot explain the miraculous rise of direct marketing, the Brothers Grimm offer a suitable alternative: Cinderella, a fairy tale that has lost none of its relevance. Its symbolism also provides a particularly good illustration of how the direct marketing team at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB) managed to reach for - and obtain - eight stars at once.
SDV Award Gold + Silver: Advertising for Migros' "I am" dialog campaign with a 20-minute envelope.A place of your own in advertising heavenThe story begins joylessly, the road to the goal is long, the work arduous. This is precisely why the fairy-tale transformation from Cinderella to crown princess is well suited to describe the development from direct to dialog marketing: For over three decades, measures with which potential customers could be addressed directly played a similarly inconspicuous role in the communications mix as that of the maid sleeping in the ashes next to the stove. Next to their pampered sisters, the imposing advertising campaigns, their possibilities of gaining respect paled into insignificance.advertising letters, direct mailings with a response option, or even the much maligned telemarketing owed their existence only to their service character. It was not until the Internet and the new media that true (real-time) dialog became possible, contact options were expanded and new types of content were created. They are comparable to the hazel branch that Cinderella wishes for from her father and from which the forces for new things arise. The doves she summons to help her pick the lentils out of the ashes sit on the hazel branch, true to the motto "The good in the pot, the bad in the jar. Symbolically, they correspond to the increasingly digitalized and individualized content that makes tailored interaction with customers possible in the first place. But they also give it the gold- and silver-embroidered clothes that, just like the rapid development of ever new technologies, channels and devices, turn out to be important equipment for the royal road to the goal: one's own place in advertising heaven.
SDV Award 2 x silver: participatory campaign for Migipedia.The dialogue grows in secretWith two gold, five silver and one bronze, the direct marketing team at MGB has come a decisive step closer to this goal with the help of the creative wizards from the circle of selected agencies. If the helpful "doves" had not submitted their work to the SDV, the strategies and measures Migros uses to get in touch with customers would continue to grow in secrecy. The successful team, which is supported in the background by other helpers such as data analysts with individualized customer information and printing technology experts with a new process mix, is now in the public spotlight. As far as the success of the measures is concerned, the high response rates in particular contributed to their efficiency. But the creative solutions also impressed the SDV Award jury with their brilliance. While the advertising icon "Chocolate" will not be left out in the future, it could be that the famous chicken will have to compete with Cinderella's doves in the sibling competition for fame and glory - and the budget.
SDV Award Silver + Bronze: Self-mailer concept for the Personal Care customer program 2014.Golden rain for the responseGold in the Integrated Dialog Campaigns category and silver for the Social/Viral Effect in the Digital category went to the "Compliments for Switzerland" advertising campaign created by Advico Y&R for the Migros "I am" care line.The charming magnification of a small truth, as actor Johannes Heesters called the compliment, had an immense effect: The call to delight people with compliments, launched at the beginning of March last year with TV commercials, posters, print and digital, shines not only because of the creative idea, the unusual path from online to offline and the successful mix of activities around beauty care. The huge response that the heartfelt mission generated in a very short time also convinced the SDV judges (see interview).Not aimed at end customers, but at advertising clients, "The 3 Million Mailing" featured collected print advertising and the concise message: "With us, you would only have needed one ad to reach three million readers." The more traditional but unusual campaign was created by Leo Burnett Schweiz AG for Migros magazine. This "door opener for field staff" deserved SDV gold, if only because the personalized mailing with the extraordinary ad collection led to the desired appointment with 50 percent of the recipients.
SDV Award Silver: Customized Cumulus mailing with over 80,000 variants.Silver thaler for transparencyWith the "Migipedia overall campaign", MGB ventures into the slippery terrain of crowdsourcing. On the newly designed online platform as well as in the communicative appearance, for which Advico Y&R is responsible, customers are asked to "make Migros better by their opinion". The step towards more transparency is courageous if only because, in addition to good ideas, it also takes critical suggestions as an opportunity to improve the Migros universe. However, this campaign also receives silver in no less than two categories - integrated dialog marketing and customer loyalty programs - for the innovative solution with which it overcomes the magic 5-second barrier for spots in digital channels.MGB also earned a silver SDV award in the latter category with its "Personal Care 2014 customer program." LD Media developed a creative and practical self-mailer concept for the seasonal, multi-stage customer care program, which is intended to establish direct marketing as a fixed market cultivation tool for Migros and to promote category development. The implementation of this concept proved to be particularly challenging, as 3 seasonal mailings with up to 4 coupons individualized according to shopping behavior and up to 81 different coupon offers add up to more than 26,000 mailing variants. The fact that those responsible manage to address 250,000 customers in a highly individualized way is worth an additional bronze medal to the SDV jury in the category Mailing B2C (2D) over 100,000 copies.From vision to realityIn principle, this achievement of the direct marketing team should remain confidential, but like the doves in a fairy tale, another award lifts a bit of the veil around the secret: Because last but not least - and in the same category - the project "On the Way to the 1:1 Approach" made it onto the silver winner's podium.The highly individualized advertising vessel, with which Migros swims against the flood of information, was developed by Publicis Communications Switzerland. The mailing, which is tailored to the preferences of Cumulus customers and comprises 2.2 million copies, is sent out six times a year.With over 80,000 different variants last year, it is not only the technology that stands out. For it is only on the basis of the creative solution, namely to separate inspirational from profitable, because discounted, offers, that the maximum performance of full-color digital printing can also be exploited to the full. The high communicative and creative demands convinced the SDV judges just as much as the overcoming of the technical and logistical hurdles. And Migros itself is coming much closer to its vision of a 1:1 approach.The zeitgeist will not degrade Cinderella's competing sisters. But by shifting the recognition of the target group, it plays right into the hands of dialog marketing. Since great ideas are quickly copied these days, there remains only a vague hope that the excellent dialog marketing activities of the MGB will not fall victim to media duplication like all fairy tales. Nevertheless, at least during the Award Night, the invitation to dance should be reserved for the crown prince SDV and his princess MGB-Direktmarketing.Author: Doris Gottstein
