Tag: ROI

Want to boost sales? How about double or even triple them? A new analysis of 600 case studies of marketing campaigns, including 43 in the United States, has a suggestion: add out-of-home advertising to the media mix.

The reason, it turns out, is pretty straightforward. People spend many of their waking hours away from home, and if influencing them when they are making their final purchasing decisions is an important goal, it only makes sense to move the point-of-presence of an ad or marketing message closer to point-of-presence of their wallets.

Sounds good in theory, but what about real dollars and cents? Turns out the research firm shed some light on the economic impact of out-of-home advertising as well. For each dollar spent on out-of-home advertising, an average of $2.80 is received in product sales, according to the research.

Keep in mind the research was sponsored by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Still, the findings make sense -particularly to someone like me who has written copiously on the power of reaching people at the point of sale with digital signage messaging as they are making their final purchasing decisions.

Not only can out-of-home advertising reach shoppers at or very near the point of sale, but this form of advertising also can reinforce ad messages delivered via TV and other media, effectively extending the duration the ad campaign is remembered by the public. The research found that when a high proportion of out-of-home media is used as part of media mix, the effectiveness of an ad campaign increases.

According to the study, sales tripled when spending on out-of-home ads moved from a low amount to a medium amount. Additionally, the study found sales more than doubled when a high amount was spent on out-of-home ads.

The research also offered some advice about how to allocate ad budgets to maximize return on investment. The best ROI is achieved when overall ad spending is low and the proportion of out-of-home media used in the mix is high.

Rather than get caught up in the minutia of the research, it may be wiser to consider the bigger picture. That is even as evidence mounts that out-of-home advertising is an important part of an ad mix, critical pieces of the puzzle professional ad buyers need to evaluate digital signage advertising networks and a variety of audience metrics measuring technologies are falling into place.

Technology is helping to quantify digital signage audiences and even qualify them in terms that make sense to ad agencies that are accustomed to reading reliable circulation statements and examining Nielsen ratings to make logical decisions about ad placements for their clients.

These tools help to make clearer for the professional ad community just how important it is to add out-of-home media, like digital signage, to the media mix.

Sometimes everything just falls into place.

That’s how it has felt working with our current client, a large government agency with a multi-faceted workforce spread out across three states and five different locations.

But the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from a wildly successful partnership doesn’t just happen by chance – it takes hard work, dedication, and the willingness of both parties to embrace innovation.

Here is how we worked together to exceed set goals, increase ROI, and revamp their employee wellness programs across the board.

THE CHALLENGE

Our challenge with this client was to help them streamline and synthesize their wellness program in order to increase employee attendance and make a significant impact on their employee’s physical, emotional, and mental health.

When we first began working with them, our client had implemented a wide variety of wellness offerings for their employees, including The Biggest Loser-type wellness competitions, boot camps, and an ever-changing array of classes and instructors.

The problem was that our client was not seeing a strong ROI for their efforts. Employee engagement was inconsistent. When a new, exciting program was offered during one month, attendance would top 200 people. However, when that program was replaced by something different the following month, attendance would drop to 50 people or less.

What our client needed was consistency: a turnkey approach that could be applied to every wellness program in every location.

OUR PROCESS

Here were the steps we took to ensure a stronger, more predictable ROI and more consistent employee engagement across multiple locations:

We created a yearly scheduling system that specified all of the wellness programs to be rolled out monthly, quarterly, and semi-annually. The schedule was the same for every location. In this way, employees could see ahead of time the various work/life balance and fitness-oriented programs that interested them most, and make plans to attend.
We developed programming that addressed every area of employee wellness, including mental health, emotional health, physical health, seasonal health, and safety components, paying particular attention to the importance of seasonally-based programs (the way we stay well in winter is different from how we stay well in summer).
We created marketing materials for each individual program featuring highlights and benefits to the employee.
We developed and implemented a reporting system for every program, ensuring absolute transparency and clarity in terms of attendance, employee engagement, benefits, and ROI.
We developed and implemented “feel good” value-adds above and beyond the scope of our contract, including an Healthy Living Journal that made it easy for employees to see which wellness offerings were on the horizon. This particular offering has since become so popular that we get requests for the calendar-journal months before it comes out!
THE IMPACT

Three years into our five-year contract with this client, we have seen a significant increase in consistent attendance across all of their wellness programs.

These programs serve some 7500 employees in 5 different locations. As of today we have seen a 69% increase in wellness program attendance since implementing these changes!

The key to such a stark rise in attendance has been the creation of consistent, congruous programs planned well in advance. Another crucial part to our success is making sure employees are aware of each program and have ample time to incorporate these programs into their schedules.

But everything doesn’t just fall into place by magic – one of the most important elements of our success during this project has been the freedom to innovate that’s been given us by our client.

In Part 2 of this series I’ll reveal the key attitudes and core values held by this client; values that directly contributed to the success and ease with which these changes were implemented.

Until then, why not do a strategic assessment of your wellness program and see how your company can increase attendance by 69% or more?