In 2005, Novocortex was asked by Rabobank Netherlands to launch its new product line – Financial Logistics – to 300 local bank offices. Normally, the bank management would send a newsletter to employees linking to an intranet page with product information. We decided to take bankers by surprise and to let them learn about the new product line by playing an online game.
01 Campaign strategy – advergaming
The main challenge was to grab attention of bank employees who receive hundreds of e-mails daily. The campaign began with teasers on the intranet telling that “It’s 31ºC in Egypt!” and asking to “Solve the mystery of pyramids on 16 October”. The pyramid was a symbol of the Financial Logistics proposition, with payments at the bottom and risk advisory services at the top. On 16 October, 850 bank employees got an e-mail with “It’s 31ºC in Egypt!” in the subject line and a hyperlink to the online game. They could win a trip to Egypt, the origin of all pyramids, by completing the game and submitting ideas how to promote Financial Logistics to Rabobank clients. By the way, the jumping guy in the ads is not a model, he is Product Manager Financial Logistics at Rabobank.
02 Results
We were not sure if bankers would play our advertising game. But within 2,5 weeks, the game was played 3.635 times by 1.817 employees. The response rate of our e-mail teaser was 213%: 1.817 players divided by 850 e-mails. This means that people liked the game and invited their colleagues to play. But more important was that bank employees remembered information about the new product line, given in the game. And that Rabobank received dozens of useful ideas from them how to market the Financial Logistics products. The best reward for us was feedback of the players: “You introduced a new addiction”, “My colleague played the game both at the office and at home, but he couldn’t beat my score of 58 seconds!”
Read how we engaged readers of marketing blogs in our guerrilla marketing campaign Scratches On Your Car. Play other advertising games created by us for banks and insurance companies. Read how we used an iPhone game to sell car insurances.
