The back story
Elavon had recently acquired Sage Pay, the payments provider specializing in the UK SME market. With the Sage Pay brand being retired, Elavon needed urgently to increase its own brand recognition in the payment solutions market.
The quest
The online and cashless payments market is huge, and growing rapidly. It’s also highly competitive, with new fintech firms battling for the micro end of the market while more established players service large SMEs.
We identified an opportunity to position Elavon’s offering to small businesses which are outgrowing entry-level solutions and want more features, flexibility and better customer support.
on YouTube
search visitors
opportunities
Audience
We targeted a specific subsector of UK SMEs, whom we believed would be most receptive to Elavon’s proposition. These small businesses which – crucially – had a strong desire to grow.
Insights
Our upfront research and analysis highlighted Elavon’s strength in customer service. Customers praised its empathetic approach and the fact they could get hold of ‘a real human being’. The breadth of its offering was also important: small firms could grow with Elavon rather than having to switch providers to access more sophisticated services. By focusing on these elements, Elavon could avoid trading tech features with digital-first competitors and instead compete on its own, valuable differentiators.
Strategy
- To use humour to stand out
- To express Elavon’s empathetic approach through tone of voice
- To create a brand association with ‘growth’, moments; for instance, when small business owners are shifting from a purely online company to adding a retail outlet
‘Growing up with Elavon’ campaign videos – eCommerce and Hospitality
‘Growing up with Elavon’ campaign videos – eCommerce and Hospitality
Activation
We built a concept around the line ‘Grow into the business you want to be’. The growth of the business was conveyed through its owner transforming from child to adult supported by the Elavon payments solution.
Ignoring the advice to ‘never work with children and animals’, we filmed a series of adverts with children, which had to be fitted around the 2021 lockdowns.
We designed and rolled out a comprehensive three-month media plan covering:
- 80 different assets, aligned to top, middle and bottom of the funnel
- Video, audio, paid social, radio, programmatic display and remarketing
- Channels including YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, LinkedIn, email and premium publishers
Elavon Audio Ad completion rate beat Spotify’s benchmark by 5.6%
LinkedIn adverts ran in news feeds as part of the middle-of-the-funnel activity
Campaign results
This campaign has landed Elavon’s brand with humour and clarity into a market where it was practically unknown in early 2021.
The programme achieved:
- 89% uplift in brand recognition on YouTube
- 12% increase in organic search visitors
- 138% lift in generic search keywords
- Audio ad completion rate beat Spotify’s benchmark by 5.6%
- 224% increase in opportunities compared to the same period the previous year
“Knowing you should take a risk to stand out, and actually going through with it are two different things. As a marketing team, we were excited to partner with Rooster Punk to develop and launch a campaign that was creatively exciting and appealing to meet our objectives of driving brand awareness and cut thorough in a crowded space.
I’m so glad we took the leap with Rooster Punk and heroed Elavon’s standout customer service and flexible portfolio with this fun, memorable and well-executed campaign. The results speak for themselves and has moved us to a higher level in how we market Elavon.”