2016 Gold Best brand building campaign

Agency Engine

Client Department for International Trade

Campaign summary

Real overseas business opportunities broadcast live

Campaign overview

To safeguard the future of the Economy, HM Government wants to increase the number of UK SME businesses exporting by 100,000 by 2020.

The task was to change the perceptions of businesses not currently open to exporting, to encourage them to consider trading overseas and move towards doing so.

Strategy

237,900 businesses identified by UKTI say there are ‘not open to exporting’.

This outlook demanded a mindset change.

The businesses didn’t lack ambition, they simply did not consider exporting a viable growth option. But why?

Because 70% believed there was no market for their product or service overseas. They had decided exporting was never to be.

These misconceptions needed to be confronted and SMEs shown there is an international demand for UK businesses.

Awareness wasn’t enough - they had to be prompted too. Most SMEs start exporting as a direct result of opportunity so SMEs needed to be shown a specific demand for their business.

The notion of exporting became about seizing immediate opportunities rather than a future possibility.

Creativity

UKTI had an online database of business tenders from overseas – proof of the demand for UK business, with specific opportunities - but it was under-developed and under-used.

Broadcasting high-frequency, live opportunities from a newly rebuilt site drew vistiors back to it. The site revamp made opportunities easy to find as they surfaced in-line with the media rotation.

The ‘World of Opportunities’ was born: a media takeover putting exporting high on the public agenda. Live export opportunities became ads, broadcast around the clock. Bulletin-style updates were broadcast on radio and DOOH on commuter routes with fresh opportunities every hour. Digital display and mobile followed, pulling live opportunities and enabling businesses to link directly to the featured opportunity on the website.

This ever-changing content showed the myriad opportunities on offer. Meanwhile, 23 films were shot around the world and broadcast on TV and online, each one bringing to life a live opportunity.

Results

The daunting prospect and logistics meant changes in behaviour wouldn’t happen overnight.

However, attitudes are shifting. A 32% increase in the number of businesses who think their products are suitable for export, for example. And a 22% increase in businesses claiming they intend to export in the future.

Since launch the Exporting is GREAT website has received more than 800,000 visits - a monthly average of 76,741. 88% of these are unique visits.

Putting live export opportunities at the heart of the campaign has driven considerable interest. 69% of search traffic to the site is from variants of the call to action ‘Search ‘Exporting is GREAT’.

People are also taking positive steps towards exporting. The campaign has generated 42,530 applications for individual export opportunities so far, 45% of whom are the core target audiences of first time exporters.

Team

Annie Gallimore (Managing Partner) • Jules Chalkley (Creative Director) • Orlando Warner (Creative) • Joe Miller (Creaitve) • Jo Griffin (Creative) • Tom Dixon (Creative) • Ryan Nell (Senior Account Director) • Richard Williams (Account Manager) • Sam Paiolo (Account Manager) • Francesca Sale (Account Manager) • Francesca Danczak (Account Manager) • John Crowther (Strategy Director) • Ross Frame (Integrated Project Director) • Aaron Pacey (Designer) • Rose Percy (Integrated Project Director) • Bruno Goncalves Dos Santos (Designer) • Howard de Smart (Designer) • Samantha Fox (Designer) • Gerry Levens (Designer) • Daniel Atkinson (Designer)

Contributors

Final Cut (Offline Editing) ENVY (Post Production) RSA (Production) Soho Music (Music Search) DXW (Website Build) Carat (Media Buying)