Absolutely Blooming Marvellous: Top examples of ABM
The more it’s used, the more brands are realising: ABM is the real deal. As its highly-targeted, strategic methodology pays dividends again and again (and again), the results are speaking for themselves.
But what does marvellous ABM actually look like?
Such is its flexibility, it can often be difficult to pin down an answer to that question, and due to its nature, great creative ABM examples rarely get the limelight. Then there’s the issue of brains vs beauty. Many ABM campaigns rely solely on data and insight (the brains) to do the job, and though they often generate positive results, they’re not as effective as they could be. When a campaign uses these insights to inform emotive, inspiring work, it hits twice as hard.
That’s the kind of ABM campaigns we’ll be focusing on in this guide. Those with brains and beauty. We’ve pulled together a collection of ABM examples to truly inspire your next programme. Some of them are campaigns of ours that we’re really proud of. Others are from brands and even rival agencies that we’ve admired from afar. We’re not afraid to recognise great work when we see it!
So, let the creativity flow!
1. Karhoo – Passports to success
By: Digital Radish
Who they are:
Karhoo is the global ride-hailing network with its customers’ name on it – a white-label mobility exchange platform that connects online travel customers with millions of rides worldwide.
The task:
Charged with creating an awareness campaign that could position Karhoo as industry innovators, Digital Radish produced Karhoo’s ‘Passports to success’. A highly personalised one-to-one ABM campaign that successfully reached key decision-makers, and which centred around our passport-style DMs. These were not only bespoke and highly creative by design, but with their messaging, too, adopting a customer-facing tone to offer three key pieces of thought-leading advice, specific to the target’s business. Other tailored digital content – including bespoke landing pages – was served across touchpoints, keeping the conversation going digitally and furthering the sales conversation. With this combination of razor-sharp insight and rousing creative, Karhoo’s message was clear: we know where you want to go, and we can take you there.
What’s great about it:
- Instantly recognisable creative content that connects with the business message
- Beautiful, bespoke design and creative touches
- A strong, personalised business message for each account
2. XEROX: You Missed A Bit
Who they are:
A print and digital document product company who is world-famous for the former, but not so much the latter.
The task:
They wanted to reach CTOs in the financial sector to show them that they may be overlooking an important part of their digital transformation: document analytics. They came up with this one-to-few ABM concept.
What’s great about it:
- A key insight (you’re overlooking something) represented in an original way
- A smart concept and execution that plays with the receiver’s instincts – providing an ‘incomplete’ visual that compels them to interact
- A strong backup message that demonstrates Xerox’s capabilities
3. GumGum – For McDonald’s
By: GumGum
Who they are:
GumGum is an artificial intelligence company with a focus on computer vision. They pride themselves in solving challenging technical problems across different industries.
The task:
GumGum wanted an ‘in’ with McDonald’s, which is easier said than done. They felt their technological insight and analysis could be a real boost to them, and they needed a way to show it. So, to try and turn the Fortune 500 brand’s head, they created this intricate piece of one-to-one ABM which included sending top prospects a burger kit which showed them how GumGum’s technology represented the famous ingredients of a Big Mac.
What’s great about it:
- Using the prospect ’s own product to tell a compelling story
- Demonstrating complex capabilities – GumGum’s statistic-led offering – in a creative way
- Encouraging the receiver to unpack, unravel and interact
4. Digital Radish: An ABM Adventure
By: Digital Radish
Who they are:
An award-winning marketing agency, based in London, specialising in complex technology brands. We’re also ABM specialists and the writers of this blog!
The task:
We believe in the magic of ABM, and we wanted to show it, engaging CMOs from some of the leading tech brands in the process. We needed an inspiring, show-stopping piece of content that practically showed our targets the benefits of our ABM programmes in a way that also showcased our creativity. The result was this: a highly personalised, one-to-one campaign that sparked a giant response.
What’s great about it:
- Hyper-personalisation for each book that made our target the hero of their own story
- A highly engaging way of telling a complex story – taking the subject through their very own adventure which also explained how our ABM programmes work
- Taking deep-rooted insight and technographic data – and making it fun!
5. Avios
By: Purple Agency
Who they are:
Avios, originally founded in 1988 as Air Miles, is a leading international travel rewards company, turning everyday spending into travel and leisure rewards. Avios has over 7.7 million members worldwide.
The task:
Avios wanted to generate new leads for its partner programme by highlighting the benefits of its new card linking feature. This enables Avios users to collect Avios points on a credit card of their choice – to senior marketing and loyalty directors at a number of targeted organisations. So, they created a one-to-many ABM campaign to get the job done.
What’s great about it:
- Creating a familiar but original concept with their key message – ‘pick a card, any card’
- A bespoke magic trick design – built by a real magician – that highly challenged receivers to interact
- Bringing a genuinely new offering to life
6. Applaud – For Sainsbury’s
By: Digital Radish
Who they are:
Applaud is a HR platform that unites a given organisation’s complex HR systems into one employee-friendly, consumer-grade experience.
The task:
Applaud was looking for one-to-one ABM accounts, and we identified the top 40 UK B2C employers for them to target. Through deep-rooted analysis and technographic research that combed personal LinkedIn profiles and public domain technology systems, Digital Radish identified accounts such as Sainsbury’s, who operated more than 25 different systems across their employee network. We then calculated the kind of monetary loss the cracks between these systems might create, and served each account with a highly personalised report emphasising the benefits Applaud could bring.
To these brains, we added beauty, turning the organisation’s average employee HR landscape into a concise, striking visual to show the complexity being thrust upon their workers.
What’s great about it:
- The balancing of truly deeply rooted personal insight with a creative visual that the target hadn’t seen before
- Demonstrating true understanding of the target account – and proving how Applaud can help
- A customised and thought-leading report that summarised the target’s challenges
- A personalised DM which both visually and statistically showed the target their own HR landscape
7. Unity: From Gaming to Architecture
By: Digital Radish
Who they are:
Unity is the world’s most popular Gaming Development Platform, whose real-time visualisation software is considered the most advanced 3D software around.
The task:
Unity wanted to move into new markets, and Digital Radish identified the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector as a natural fit. By interviewing prospective buyers and influencers, and analysing personas and market trends, we interpreted the thoughts of 1,000 architects across 135 countries to develop our whitepaper, ‘The Future of Visualisation’.
We then developed an ABM campaign with multiple touchpoints. Our whitepaper was the first of three DMs within this targeted one-to-many ABM campaign. The second two – a notebook which contained an augmented reality map to demonstrate the software’s capabilities, as well as a stylus pen with an offer of Unity 3D’s demo – provided creative flair while keeping the target engaged over time.
What’s great about it:
- The innovative use of augmented reality technology to physically demonstrate the product
- Multiple DMs sent at specific touchpoints kept the prospects engaged for longer
- A true blend of technological insight and creative flair that embodied Unity’s brand values
8. GumGum – For T-Mobile
By: GumGum
Who they are:
GumGum is an artificial intelligence company with a focus on computer vision. They pride themselves in solving difficult technical problems across different industries.
The task:
T-Mobile was rolling out its unlimited data plan, and GumGum felt their computer vision technology could help. They decided to take their strategy straight to the top, analysing the T-Mobile CEO’s social media activity to discover a long-standing love of comic books – a love they utilised perfectly with this highly-personalised one-to-one ABM piece. The work was praised publicly by the CEO, and led to a meeting between the teams.
What’s great about it:
- Inspired use of social listening
- Hitting their target’s heart as well as their head
- Creative storytelling with a business purpose
9. Veeam – Backup. Move forward
By: Digital Radish
Who they are:
Veeam is the leader in backup solutions with Cloud Data Management, securing business continuity for 375,000+ businesses worldwide.
The task:
Veeam wanted to crack open the UK enterprise market, securing its stake as a leader in data protection. And Digital Radish were all set, with carefully-created content and a bulletproof strategy to impress 10-15 key contacts in chosen accounts. Then Covid hit. An in-depth analysis of the market, a reimagined strategy, some freshly-created comms and newly-researched content later, we launched the programme mid-pandemic. The human touch of a DM was replaced with personal videos from the Sales Team introducing themselves and speaking to contacts’ new pain points, as we combined constant strategic re-evaluation with a cautiously inspiring message: Backup, Move Forward.
What’s great about it:
- Innovative interactive touchpoints delivered via tailored landing pages
- Personalised sales videos for that personal touch
- Highly personalised messaging at every touchpoint
10. Masternaut: Discover the Power of Both
By: Digital Radish
Who they are:
One of Europe’s largest fleet telematics providers, Masternaut aims to provide sustainable mobility through connectivity.
The task:
They wanted to cut through to key buyers with the benefits of their cold chain telematics product. To do so, they tasked Digital Radish with creating a one-to-many ABM campaign strategy. The resulting campaign, ‘Discover The Power of Both’, certainly didn’t disappoint.
What’s great about it:
- A strong, clear differentiating message
- A creative, head-turning concept at its core
- A highly conceptual direct mail which used heat-sensitive paper to highlight how its delivery had been maintained at 3°C, alongside a personal note about the journey the driver took to deliver it. In doing so, it emphasised the benefits of Masternaut’s offering
Inspired?
As you can see, there isn’t exactly one single way to make ABM work. And that’s what’s great – it can be whatever you want it to be, so long as you’re backed by solid research and the right people. But if in doubt, we advise you give it the brains and beauty test: does it have both? If it does, you’re probably onto a winner!
For a little more ABM inspiration, why not take a look at more of our case studies here?
Or, if you think you’re ready to step into the big wide world of ABM, then we say go for it (and good luck)! Hopefully, we’ll be writing about your work in future.