The Challenge
In the highly competitive car market, print marketing campaigns achieve an average of 4.9% response rate.
The Internet of Things (IoT) opened a new innovative and affordable communication channel to digitise print media and inspire potential buyers to book a test drive.
The Solution
An IoT-enabled direct mail pack featuring vehicle graphics and specifications included a replica of the car’s “start/stop” button. Pressing the button sent an instant test drive request message over the 0G Network, to the nearest Land Rover dealership.
The Results
Unprecedented in direct marketing: Land Rover’s direct mail response rate jumps 10-fold to 48% compared to traditional print direct marketing campaigns and delivers a 24x return on investment with Ebi’s IoT-enabled Digital Direct Marketing (DDM) campaign.
0G Network Operator
WND UK is the Sigfox 0G Network Operator in England, and end-to-end ioT solution provider delivering local service with global scale.
Solution Partner
Since 1977, UK-based Ebi has been a full-service creative print house servicing a range of European industries.
Customer
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, that is owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover.
When Land Rover wanted a unique campaign to cut through the noise in the high competitive car market and inspire its customers to book ask for a test drive of its Land Rover Evoque model, they hired Ebi.
With industry leading experience and capabilities, the team at Ebi developed an innovative digital direct marketing (DDM) concept for Land Rover. The vision was to enable instant live communication with potential customers from their homes, over an IoT network, by engaging audiences with a direct mail pack. By pressing a replica of the car’s “start/stop” button, recipients would automatically send a test drive request to the nearest dealership. To maximise response rates Ebi knew it was critical to give recipients a way to easily respond to the offer and enable instant, frictionless communication with Land Rover without needing to download an app or scan anything.
“To carry off this concept, we had to satisfy ourselves that whatever technology we used would be affordable, robust, give us great coverage and work in people’s homes. We initially developed prototypes using mobile devices and SIM cards, but it quickly became apparent that a mobile network was not within budget or technically feasible for our application."
WND UK’s 0G Network: reliable connectivity over a low-cost, low-power, long-range wireless network
When traditional mobile networks proved too complex and expensive, Ebi turned to WND UK’s 0G Network, powered by Sigfox, a low-cost, low-power wireless network (LPWAN) designed to connect IoT devices over long distances. Harnessing ultra-narrow band technology, the 0G Network provides connectivity services suited for devices that do not need high data throughput and demand long battery life.
Ebi had a team of 15 people test the 0G Network over six weeks and ran over 2,000 tests in different buildings including apartment blocks, windowless rooms, public buildings and residential homes. WND’s 0G Network and device partners provided the service, coverage and support that were critical to make the business case stack up, and the solution to work reliably. The test results returned a 98 percent success rate.
Thomas says, “The results of our testing left us in no doubt that the technology would work for the Land Rover campaign.”
WND UK’s Sigfox IoT network looked like the ideal solution on paper. We were immediately impressed by the maturity of their ecosystem supporting the Sigfox 0G Network. There’s a fully operational network in place, a support community and a range of device manufacturers that we could call on, but we had to ensure it was fool-proof before we submitted a proposal to our client.
Outcomes for Land Rover speak for themselves
Ebi developed a sophisticated digital direct mail (DDM) cloud platform, built to adapt and fully integrate with a range of push notification capabilities and broad APIs. DDM Cloud can deliver direct multichannel communications or trigger alerts and notifications into existing client marketing information systems and other marketing solutions.
The teamwork between Ebi and WND UK on the DDM campaign for the Land Rover Evoque model delivered personalised IoT-enabled packs to the home addresses of 5,000 potential customers. The campaign achieved an unparalleled results and resulted in a 24x return-on-investment. The campaign has picked up awards from the Direct Marketing Association.
The future potential for DDM is broad and the results are compelling. “We are working to make it cost-effective for a wider range of products – not just high-end cars. Combining digital with physical channels is a marketing game changer and this technology does it beautifully,” concludes Thomas.
Ebi’s application of our Sigfox 0G Network and partner solutions demonstrates superbly the way that our low-cost, highly reliable IoT network opens the door to novel applications.
