Luke Martin Cartoons

Case Study: How the Custom Comic #SalesFails Helped Mediafly Engage a New Target Market

 

 

CHALLENGE OVERVIEW

Create awareness among individual salespeople about SalesKit a new, mobile sales enablement solution for consumers.

 

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

#SalesFails, a custom comic strip, and accompanying social media campaign, based on actual sales nightmares. Each strip featured a tagline hinting that SalesKit is the answer to avoiding such painful mishaps. 

 

SITUATION

In September of 2013, Mediafly Inc. prepared for the launch of a consumer version of their sales mobility solution, SalesKit. Unlike the enterprise version of SalesKit, this new offering was designed for individuals—forward-thinking sales professionals looking to break away from traditional, coil-bound catalogs and glossy pitch books, and sell more efficiently and elegantly, using tablets.

Keeping its target demographic top of mind, the Mediafly team brainstormed ways to drive awareness of SalesKit. Given that salespeople spend a lot of time prospecting and researching leads online (specifically Linkedin), the team agreed that social media was a natural fit.

 

CHALLENGE

However, success in social media often comes down to sharing relevant, frequent, and entertaining information. In order for Mediafly to market SalesKit effectively, they would need to use a content tactic that would allow them to stand out in the cluttered, information fire hose of social networks.

“Content marketing works especially well on visual social networks with updating feeds, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Instagram. Headlines and text-based content works well on social platforms like Twitter and Reddit as well as news readers and Google Adwords,” according to Melissa Andrews, Mediafly’s VP of Marketing. “We needed something that would not only help us stand out but also work well utilizing all of these platforms.” 

 

SOLUTION

Given this, Andrews turned to Luke Martin to help design a uniquely tailored campaign to promote SalesKit. Martin, who brought a wealth of experience in creating relevant, niche content with great traction on social media, suggested the team try comic strips. The team agreed that comics were the perfect medium, as they stand out visually, can be consumed quickly, and are versatile enough to say exactly what you want, without a lot of overhead. One brainstorming session later, and the #SalesFails comic strip was born.

 

CAMPAIGN PLAN

Martin would interview salespeople about their most embarrassing sales mishaps, then create a series of six, single-panel comics based on the bungles. Each comic would have a tagline, "don't be a joke." followed by a call to action to try SalesKit today.

The team would release one comic per week on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, leveraging both paid and organic posts and adopting the hashtag, "#SalesFails". Complimentary blog posts were developed to fish for SEO traffic and feed Google AdWords buys, netting SEM clicks. A contest rounded out the campaign, enticing readers to “submit your #SalesFails for a chance to win a Chromecast and have your sales fail published as a comic.”

 

RESULT

Mediafly’s #SalesFails comic strip increased website traffic substantially throughout the course of the three month campaign, adding nearly 3000 hits via click-throughs. “With all of the content being pushed out via social media these days, it’s harder to stand out. We knew we had to break away from the traditional content tactics in order to grab people’s attention. #SalesFails allows us to reach busy salespeople and connect with them in a comedic light,” said Andrews. 

 

 

"A picture is worth a thousand words.  [MediaFly's] SalesFails comics combine humor with visual story-telling to illustrate the common #salesfails every rep has been found guilty of."     Walter K - Digital Media Sales Professional