The Messenger Group

Case Studies

A lead generator

To produce a book as a lead generator for attracting potential clients, Messenger collaborated with an author to produce a high-quality yet relatively inexpensive book for use as both a professional, information-packed ‘business card’ and a giveaway for potential clients.

For this project, our marketing and distribution strategy was to target events such as charity dinners and offer all attendees the book as a gift either on their seat or in their ‘goodie bag’. By the end of the night, up to 1000 ‘high net worth’ individuals had received the book.

The strategy was extremely effective because the recipients perceived the book to be of high value and the client to be generous in giving it away; however, once it had had multiple print runs, the ‘per unit’ cost was very minimal because the author was paying for the print component only and could financially justify the giveaway. The distribution strategy was so successful that more than 90 per cent of new enquiries to the author’s business were from people who’d encountered the book.

Having marketed himself in this way, the author went on to host two TV shows, secure many media interviews, elevate his profile and position himself as the expert in his field. Messenger believes that a book can be a platform from which to leverage many other opportunities: the sky’s the limit!

A door opener

To produce a book for a recruitment agency to use as a door opener so they could build relationships and rapport with their dream clients, Messenger worked with them to improve their chances of acquiring new business during the current financial downturn in light of companies’ unwillingness to meet with new recruitment agencies at this time.

We developed a fresh re-positioning strategy so the agency could gain access to their dream clients without facing instant rejection. We changed the angle of approach so that rather than cold call their blue-chip potential clients, the agency became an author who wanted to interview the companies’ HR director in order to undertake a case study of the organisation’s HR practices. Because the companies had a mindset of ‘high profile’, they liked the attention, and within a fortnight the author had set up a meeting with every one of the HR directors.

By the time the author had completed the interview process, she’d built rapport and opened the door to many new opportunities as the companies’ recruitment agency of choice. Once the organisations had taken delivery of the books, they even purchased extra copies to give away to their staff.

A premium gift with purchase

CASE STUDY 1
To create a beautiful coffee-table book for use as a premium gift with purchase and as a mutually beneficial marketing tool for strategic alliances, Messenger broke with convention and tested the market by creating a beautiful coffee-table book and co-marketing it with other brands.

We knew that companies tend to buy inanimate objects such as a coffee mug, a stress ball, a mouse mat or an umbrella, as a premium, an incentive, a gift or an event ‘freebie’. Recipients might have a fleeting first impression of the object but then ignore it and eventually throw it away as junk. However, people don’t throw away a beautiful book, because it has lasting appeal, and for both potential and existing clients, it’s an ongoing, positive presence.

Four examples of strategic partnerships for this project
By sharing the following four approaches, we show it’s possible to find the right strategic fit for a brand, regardless of the angle.

1. We partnered with a perfume company that had a name, ethos and target market similar to the book’s. In buying copies of the book at a reduced rate as a sales incentive, the perfume company generated major free advertising for it. They published the book’s cover on the bottom of their full-page ads in national newspapers and magazines and placed the book on the counters of major chain stores throughout Australia.
2. A stationery store ordered 8000 copies of the book to use as a gift whenever a customer ordered stationery worth more than $200. The book’s RRP was $34.95, so the stationery customers perceived it to be something of real value. The company didn’t want us to customise the book, so we customised 8000 bookmarks instead!
3. A prestigious car dealership bought copies of the book and left one on the front passenger seat as a gift to every client who hired a vehicle from them. We customised copies of the book by emblazoning the dealership’s logo on the front cover and publishing a foreword by the CEO. This personalisation was an effective way to both make the customers feel valued and give them a piece of the brand to take home after they’d used the car.
4. A major bank ordered thousands of customised copies of the book for their staff as a Christmas gift.

CASE STUDY 2
To create a book for a well-known real-estate agent to use as a premium gift with purchase and as a mutually beneficial marketing tool for strategic alliances, Messenger collaborated with the agent to produce a high-quality historical profile of the agency.

The book could be used in four ways: as a gift with purchase, whereby all the buyers who’d used the agent in buying the property received a copy of the book on their kitchen bench when they took possession; as a gift to vendors when they signed up with the agency; as part of the agency’s vendor-acquisition strategy; and as a book sold through the trade in order to increase brand awareness among the broader population.

We also undertook a cross-pollination ‘bundling’ deal with a luxury-car manufacturer that had a brand of similar value, whereby when customers had their car serviced at one of the manufacturer’s outlets, they were given a copy of the book, and when they hired the real-estate agency to buy a property, they were loaned a luxury car for the weekend.

A corporate milestone

To create a book in order to celebrate a corporate milestone – the 70-year anniversary of a prestigious architectural firm – for use as a gift to all the firm’s employees and stakeholders as a thankyou for their contribution over the years, Messenger wrote and produced a visually stunning hardcover, full-colour book to illustrate and commemorate the firm’s history, development, culture and success. Readers gained an insight into the people who’ve made the company one of Australia’s leading architectural firms.

Being time poor, the firm realised that the most effect way to produce the book would be to engage a third party – Messenger – to pull the content and production together.

The book wasn’t only a morale booster for the employees and stakeholders; the firm used it to both retain and acquire clients. New clients were impressed by not only the firm’s work but the staff culture that’s showcased in the book. We were also able to distribute the book in bookstores, to help to underwrite the production costs.

The firm plans to publish an updated edition of the book every five years and continue using it as both a gift and a component of their marketing mix.

Brand building and creation of an additional source of revenue

To help a well-known coffee brand with its brand building and creation of an additional source of revenue, Messenger produced a beautiful coffee-table book that had a high perceived value, and distributed it throughout the brand’s many retail outlets. Before even one word was written, we’d pre-sold enough copies of the book into the retail outlets to not only cover production costs but make a profit. All we did was send pre-order forms along with the coffee to the retail outlets. We were inundated with orders!

The retail outlets sold the book and also had a coupon-redemption offer running whereby the customer bought a specific amount of coffee products and received a free book. To enhance the brand awareness even more, the outlets created prominent in-store displays of the book.

Also, in conjunction with the manufacturers of established coffee-making supplies, we devised a promotional product-bundling offer. The book’s RRP was $59.95, so when we sold it in as a giveaway with a coffee plunger that retailed for $200, customers perceived it to have high value. We also generated some major PR for it by publishing its cover in multiple national ads across print and other media.

By interweaving fair-trade and sustainability messages throughout the content, we capitalised on them and increased both awareness and exposure of the book. The brand’s CEO is now frequently being asked to speak at industry-related events, and because of his visibility, he’s not only boosted the brand’s profile; he’s been able to interact and engage with the public about the brand’s organic operations in relation to social, ethical and environmental concerns.

To help a charity with its fundraising and awareness boosting, Messenger created a beautiful photographic book to tell the story of their orphanage by using incredible photos and minimal words. By sending a photographer to the orphanage to photograph and interview the children, we made the book very raw and real and fulfilled its dual purpose: to raise additional revenue directly from the sale proceeds and to increase awareness of the orphanage as seen through the eyes of the children, by using an uplifting and optimistic tone.

We completely pre-sold the first print run of the hardcover, full-colour book to companies that each purchased up to 3000 copies for use as a giveaway to their staff and stakeholders. We customised most of the copies we sold by adding the company’s logo and a message from the CEO. The company was therefore able to aid a worthwhile cause and communicate their contribution to many people who might never have known that the organisation was actively supporting the charity.

Also, the companies were able to use the book’s images as part of their marketing mix and could therefore communicate their charitable affiliation to a whole new network of people who might never have known about the effort. Although some companies like to remain anonymous when they donate to a cause, most big companies have to evaluate any charitable donation from a marketing perspective before they decide to align themselves. Producing a book was the perfect way for those companies to offer a tangible product as a showcase for their support.

The charity’s founder is one of Australia’s top speakers, and now, whenever he does a speaking engagement, at least 90 per cent of the audience want to purchase multiple copies of the book to either keep or give away to a loved one. As a result, we’ve also created or raised awareness of how people are bombarded with depressing ads and letters in which the aim is to ‘guilt’ them in. By producing this beautiful book, we showed the hope and the outcomes in relation to what an organisation can achieve through donations.

A premium gift with purchase, to drive sales and introduce new consumers to a brand

To drive sales and introduce new consumers to a brand, Messenger worked with a leading health-food brand to create a series of child-friendly mini-cookbooks that were based on healthy eating and could be inserted in the products.

To avoid creating new content, we pulled appropriate chapters from a book we’d already produced for the brand and designed new covers for the mini-series. Each mini-book included recipes that required the ingredient the customer was buying, so there was a flow-on effect whereby the customer purchased more of the ingredients in order to test all of the new and amazing recipes.

We took the ‘collect all’ approach to the mini-books so we made them must-have items for any parent’s supermarket trolley. Through this campaign, we helped encourage children to want to get in the kitchen with their family and cook good, healthy food. We succeeded in both driving new sales for the brand and introducing new consumers – the children – to it.