Thinkbox
Key Points
Despite being around since 2008, Xero were still facing low awareness levels. But the move to make tax digital presented an opportunity. Activity over the next three years would need to grow the subscriber base, improve brand appeal and trust metrics, while building strong consideration levels for the brand.
By taking learnings from past campaigns, December19 and Xero shucked industry norms and treated customers as people first rather than businesses. Betting on the emotional power of TV to connect with customers and put them in the consideration set before the need for the product arises.
Hit against subscriber targets 7 months ahead of target. Saw increases in consideration, jumps in metrics around trust grew by double digits.
The Challenge
Xero entered the UK market in 2008. Since the brand has seen steady but modest growth with more tech savvy business owners. By 2019, Xero’s footprint remained small. Only 2% of UK’s 5.7 million small businesses used the platform. Awareness lagged behind key competitors like QuickBooks and Sage; these low awareness levels followed into low consideration vs the market.
With the governments move to Make Tax Digital in 2019, Xero had ventured into TV with little success and as a result faced a pivotal moment in 2021. They needed to go on a transformative journey and tasked media agency December19 with a clear set of three year objectives. They need to grow unaided awareness, increase consideration, improve brand appeal and trust metrics and ultimately increase the subscriber base.
The TV Solution
Armed with a clear set of objectives, December19 got to work in understanding the problem at hand. Using learnings from past campaign activity, December19 were able to pull some learnings that would help them hit against their objectives. Firstly, the knew that timing was everything. Buyers don’t make decisions overnight, they needed to primed. The brand needed to stand out, highlighting product features wasn’t enough. Xero needed a brand identity. And finally the brand needed to build trust. Customers needed to feel secure in the choice they were making with Xero.
Showing up the right time was key to success and research from LinkedIn had highlighted that only 5% of businesses were in market for accounting software any given time. This meant that Xero’s goal to December19 shouldn’t be to convert there and then; it was about making a lasting impression on the other 95%. This lead to change in approach, with December19 treating customers as people first rather than businesses. Along with this, December19 wanted to reframe book keeping, with research showing that the majority of business owners found it draining. This led to a change in approach that would see Xero treating their target audience as people first rather than a faceless business.
There was only one channel that would allow Xero to show up in this authentic and playful way with a fun and enjoyable creative featuring Rhys Derby. It was TV. It would allow the brand to generate emotional connections though humour that would place Xero in the consideration set for booking keeping software.
The Plan
Armed with an approach that would place emotion and people front and centre, December19 got to work in putting the strategy into action. The B2C approach for a B2B brand was built on six key principles to deliver success. The first of these pillars was all around emotion. With the view that TV was the perfect channel for building emotional connections. Xero needed to speak to consumers first and business owners second, earning their trust along the way. The second pillar focused on the use of long and short formats, deploying 60” for impact and 30”, 20” and 10” for efficiency. The third pillar saw the brand optimism across the media mix with TV leading the charge, supported by BVOD, YouTube, Social, Radio and Digital Audio. Pillar 4, saw Xero and December19 targeting based on media consumption not just against demographics. The 5th Pillar saw Xero planning the spend with a focus on brand (60%) and activation (40%). And finally the brand would use proprietary tools to measure the impact of the campaign and optimise accordingly.
The campaign kicked off in earnest in May 2021, with December19 launching with impact, deploying the 60” creative across the highest reaching programming to drive strong emotional engagement. Launch activity was supported with the deployment of 20” spots designed to ensure that the campaign maintained a balance between reach and frequency. After a successful launch of the campaign, Xero and December19 maintained a near always on presence across TV implementing a week-on, week-off laydown, maintaining a high weekly weights to build reach throughout the year. This approach was refined as the campaign advanced; reducing the weights. This allowed for a continuous presence on TV while introducing 30” ad 10” formats designed to maximise emotional impact and continue to optimise against both reach and frequency. Learnings from past sales activity highlighted that December showed the lowest demand, so December19 excluded the month to redirect the spend into more profitable quarters. VOD was deployed to aid incremental reach with the optimal budget refined over time with an 80:20 split into TV to deliver the best additional reach. Radio and Digital Audio were added in to the mix to offer extension of reach, all while reinforcing Xero’s core messaging in an engaging and familiar tone. And finally Out Of Home was added to the mix to ensure that Xero remained top of mind. This planning approach ensured that Xero reached potential customers in every possible setting with TV leading the brand building charge; creating an emotional bond with those ready to make the move.
To take the campaign one step further, December19 worked with Xero to build bespoke agency tools that would allow for greater in campaign optimisation and measurement. The first of these tools was an awareness forecasting model. This tool would map Xero’s spend against awareness shifts in order to ensure optimal investment levels across the media mix. Econometric modelling was deployed to show the impact of the brand building efforts and the impact of TV on the new campaign vs the pervious activity. And finally, December 19 looked at awareness regression to inform the most effective channel mix to deliver shifts in unaided awareness. This approach to data ensured that December19 were able to maximise every penny of Xero’s spend to ensure that it delivered against the objectives.
Results
The three year brand building mission was a huge success for Xero. With an aim of growing there subscriber base to 1 million, the campaign succeed by hitting the target 7 months before the planned date. Unaided brand awareness jumped massively, taking Xero from barely a whisper to a player in the space. Sitting low in the consideration charts was no longer a problem, moving up the charts and closing the gap on market leaders. Being an bookkeeping software provider, Trust was a key metric to be shifted, and Xero again succeed in there goal, seeing double digit improvements in scores relating to consumers seeing Xero ‘as a trustworthy brand’. These brand metrics translated into business success for Xero. The brand saw their market share sore, nipping at the heels of market leader Sage. New Customers Sales increased and ROI jumped as TV delivered a long term multiplier effect came into play and delivered results for the accounting software provider.
Databank
Sector: Financial
Brand: Xero Accounting Software
Campaign objectives: Increase awareness and consideration.
Target Audience: ABC1 Adults
Budget: £40 million (Nielsen AdIntel Linear 202)
Campaign Dates: 2021- 2024
TV Usage: Linear
Creative Agency: House 337
Media Agency: December19