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The power of two IQ Interactive, an interactive agency, globally recognized as a leader in the use of rich media brand marketing for the broadband Internet, continues to garner accolades for its digital marketing across the financial, travel & hospitality, high-tech, entertainment, communications and healthcare industries. IQ’s rich media solutions are designed to leverage the unique ability of the broadband internet to present more compelling, more comprehensive brand stories than any other medium. “When companies like UPS begin to acknowledge the importance of creating meaningful, engaging online customer experiences, it shows how exciting this medium will be in the coming years. IQ is helping major brands to the see the possibilities of the broadband web and how it can accelerate the growth of their businesses, “said Tony Quin, CEO, IQ Interactive. “UPS Whiteboard is a great example of how the combination of the web and traditional advertising is dramatically more powerful and effective than traditional alone.”
The “UPS Whiteboard” advertising campaign, originally created by UPS’s advertising agency, The Martin Agency, is the first major creative shift for UPS since the introduction of “What Brown Can Do for You?” in 2002. The UPS Whiteboard website, created and produced by IQ Interactive, acts as the hub to which all other media drives audience. The website walks visitors through an easy to navigate overview of the complex products, services, and solutions that UPS offers. Seamlessly integrating with the TV campaign, visitors to the site are greeted by the actor from the “Whiteboard” commercials, who interacts with visitors throughout the experience, helping to match their business challenges with business solutions. The site includes 3-D animated, 45-second “web-shows” that highlight UPS products, and a “Create Your Own Whiteboard” viral component. Visitors can send a message to a friend written out by the “whiteboard guy”. View the site at www.ups.com/whiteboard.
To effectively reach target audiences, the UPS Whiteboard campaign addressed specific challenges. Because the campaign targeted several audiences including executives, small business people, office managers, shipping managers, and consumers with shipping needs, it was essential to determine user discovery patterns to intuitively guide users through the site by business challenge or product need, aligning the appropriate products to the shipping/business challenge.
“We are very excited about the opportunities the online channel offers UPS to reach and engage key audiences on a one-to-one level – that is what service at UPS is all about,” said Susan Fletcher, director online communications, UPS. “With its ability to personalize, to an extent, the visitor experience, ‘Whiteboard’ has been our most successful interactive campaign to date. The challenge and opportunity now is to take that even further.” “The challenge is to integrate the marketing and functional missions for UPS. UPS has recognized the importance of the web channel in their marketing, and invested in the internal change necessary to create a flexible, responsive organization equipped to handle a marketing mission as well as the traditional functional mission,” comments Quin. “We couldn’t be more proud to see our clients’ work recognized as best of show in the business to business category. The awards are a testament to their commitment to lead their industry in innovative online marketing.” IQ opened its doors in 1995 as an agency specializing in television commercials. In late 1999 the broadband Internet was on the horizon and IQ saw how important the understanding of television could be in a broadband world. For the next six years in preparation for would become a seismic shift in the way brands approach the marketplace, IQ developed a world-leading interactive group, built on the three competencies of strategy, technology and creativity. Today, with the broadband media revolution in full swing, IQ has become a leading independent interactive agency on the national stage and a model for what the advertising agency of the future will look like.
IQ Interactive approaches the Web from a different perspective. Very early on, IQ had a vision for how broadband enabled rich media (video, audio and animation) that could engage and immerse users online with all the emotional power of TV, and how it would reshape the way companies approach marketing. IQ integrated an understanding of how to create emotionally engaging film and video with the unlimited dimension of interactivity. IQ’s driving principles are built on a vision of the Web engaging branding experience that can achieve measurable business goals, rather than a mere presentation of information that was Web 1.0. In 2005, the vision came to life. The Web—and perhaps marketing in general—hit a tipping point. Market penetration for broadband Internet use in homes reached 50%. Today that mark already stands at over 80% [Nielsen/Net ratings – June 2006]. As a result, brands are recalibrating the way they use the Internet for marketing and business. This tipping point signaled a rapid growth in awareness for the marketing potential of the broadband-powered Internet. With the addition of speed and bandwidth the medium is now equipped with video, sound and animation and the same emotional impact previously only available on television. The web is rapidly moving to the center of people’s lives and the media universe. Today average users spend the same amount of time online as with TV (about 14 hrs. wk [Jupiter Research 2006]). And with conventional media under attack for lack of accountability and failing performance, companies are reexamining their basic media strategies and closely evaluating the potential of the Internet.
Corporate and consumer brands now entering into the broadband marketing world are finding that consumer expectations for interactive communications are already high. Where the medium was once not seen as an experience medium, there is now an obligation on the part of brands to deliver engaging and relevant experiences. And with the measurability of the Internet we can clearly see that engaging, relevant Web experiences more easily convert people who are ready to act, persuade a higher percentage of those not yet ready to act, and move a larger percentage of the remaining participants to sign up for CRM communications. Armed with seven years of experience creating experiential branding experiences, IQ Interactive has won more than 85 awards since 2006, including recently a Best of Show Runner Up and Best Business to Business Website for the UPS Whiteboard site in the 2007 WebAwards.
For more
information on
IQ Interactive contact Julie Cropp,
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