Evolving from check provider to champion of the American dream.
Campaign Goal: Transform an out-of-touch brand to become broadly recognized as a prominent player in the fintech industry and a passionate supporter of small business owners across North America.
Background: At Deluxe, I was part of the marketing and creative team charged with transforming a 100-year-old check manufacturer into an organization recognized for helping small businesses succeed. With the decline in the usage of manual checks, Deluxe was expanding its product suite to serve a broader set of small business needs. All are accessible digitally, and the products and services come with exceptional customer service and expert guidance to help small business owners manage their marketing and business growth more easily. Through testing and optimization, our team introduced and refined bold brand positions for Deluxe that strengthened awareness of Deluxe and its expanded capabilities. Demand generation campaigns drove sales of products and services and kept customers coming back for more.
CREATIVE CREDITS: Laurie Bedwell, ECD/Copy; Beth Sjobeck, John Moody, Peter Anderson, ACDs; John Radack, Art Direction; Jason Troiden, copy; Laura Radewald and Amanda Brinkman, Chief Brand Officers. External agencies: Fallon and Little & Company +
Work Happy – demand generation CAMPAIGNS
Lead nurture campaigns included stand-alone direct mail, package inserts, and email/landing pages featuring gated content to enable lead capture. The creative leverage real customers and testimonials and the consistent refrain: With Deluxe, your business won’t run you.
Direct mail to current check customers and prospects allowed room for longer storytelling in order to introduce new products and services in detail. Concepts leveraged engagement devices such as a Business Owner’s Survival Guide, a keepsake magnet with the headline “I Own A Business, It Doesn’t Own Me” and featuring the Deluxe Customer Service 800 number and website, and arresting self-mailers featuring offers for lucrative discounts on product trials.
Starting a small revolution on Main Street America.
In 2015, we transitioned from the Work Happy brand position to one that focused more explicitly on the small business audience, starting with the tagline, For the love of small business. The campaign strategy featured The Small Business Revolution, the Emmy Award nominated TV Series that, for six seasons, awarded one small American town a $500,000 revival, including marketing makeovers for a number of local small businesses. My team developed the demand gen campaigns that aligned with the series. The creative featured real-world stories and imagery of actual small business owners, many who participated in the Small Business Revolution.
For the love of small business demand generation campaigns
You’ve Got This. You’ve Got Deluxe.
The growing popularity of the SBR-Mainstreet TV series among small business owners reinforced the strategy to leverage its content in our demand gen campaigns. The “You’ve Got This. You’ve Got Deluxe” campaign featured participants from the series and reinforced the tremendous value that Deluxe delivers.
