We know that the proof is in the pudding so we have included some examples of how we have helped our clients achieve exceptional results. These are intended to represent a cross-section of areas we have worked on but are by no means exhaustive and we would be delighted to discuss how we could help you with your particular needs.
Different P&L divisions having different aims within a single client:
Current accounts
Loans
Cards
Current accounts
Our first challenge was to manage the design and build of an online application capability. We successfully delivered, incorporating advanced tracking capabilities, in just 4 weeks.
We delivered a media plan spanning all online media channels and managed the launch and growth of banner advertising, affiliates, PPC search, listings and contextual ads.
Loans
Set up a new tracking system to pull offline conversion metrics (application success, size of loan drawn down, RPI taken out) and correlate to online activity.
Integrated this data into our campaign management system, allowing campaign managers to optimise media performance to the underlying value to the client.
Cards
Developed a value management infrastructure allowing us to track an individual monthly P&L and NPV for every customer acquired.
Integrated this data with our online marketing tracking architecture to report on any profit driver against any dimension of marketing data, enabling us to understand the bottom-line contribution, as well as just the conversion-rates, achieved from different media activity.
Current account
Within 3 months, online activity was driving 90% of the new current accounts sourced by marketing - from just 10% of the budget.
Loans
We significantly re-aligned budgets and improved performance, increasing RPI penetration and making online the cheapest acquisition channel for Loans.
Cards
By thorough analysis of the profile and value of customers and by tying this back to specific marketing acitivity we generated an 18% increase in income and a 48% rise in NPV.
We realigned budgets - often away from the lowest cost channels - and with optimised values per customer grew the number of accounts sourced from online marketing to a run-rate of hundreds-of-thousands of cards per year.
We have included just a sample of our creative work, ranging from website and landing page design to banners and email creative.
Project name: iGoogle - Paperwork
Creative type: Digital Display Ad
Promote the usage of London focused iGoogle gadgets.
The key message was to communicate that iGoogle can organise the vastness of both London and the Internet into one simple page so that users can access all the information they need quickly and conveniently. Therefore the banner begins with a visual representation of bustling pages of paper which tidy themselves into a pile and neatly transform into handy London gadgets on an iGoogle page.
Project name: Car Insurance - Traffic Chat
Creative type: Digital Display Ad
uSwitch was looking to clearly differentiate itself from the rest with its Car Insurance switching service. Analysing this specific target segment we identified a series of insights that vary significantly from those of the general public and that would help determine the way we communicated.
Traffic Chat helped appeal to the younger audience with the draw of a social network look and feel whilst keeping a visual link with motoring. This combination was used to maintain consistency of the uSwitch brand at the same time as playing to a medium that is relevant to the target audience.
Project name: “Affiliate Stars” Microsite
Creative type: Web Design and Build
Generate a stronger relationship between TalkTalk and its affiliate network and provide additional incentives for affiliates to promote TalkTalk products.
Considered to be among the first of its kind, the TalkTalk Affiliate Stars website was fully designed and built by Essence, to help TalkTalk empower its extensive affiliate program and strengthen its relationship with its affiliates. Therefore the site was built to act as an online hub where affiliates can regularly check their performance relative to the group of other affiliates and to offer incentives and helpful tools to improve their performance.
Project name: EA Store Countdown - Sims version
Creative type: Digital Display Ad
Give the impression of an online store, showing the immediate benefit of a PC game: 'download to play now'.
Utilizing the same technology developed for the Need for Speed campaign banners, we developed a Shoplike banner environment to showcase specific games on promotion during the Christmas to New Years season.
Project name: Unified Product Search
Creative type: Web Design and Build
Develop a user-friendly search technology that makes it easy for Carphone Warehouse's online customers to quickly find the products and packages that are most relevant to them.
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Project name: Project Red Google Maps Mashup Application
Creative type: Web Application
(RED) was created to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund. This integrated application shows where participating stores can be found. Functionality includes:
Gadgets or Widgets, are simply two names for the same thing: mini web applications that enable brands to extend their reach on the internet by interacting with users outside of their website. Rather than having to attract users to their website, now any brand ranging from Consumer Goods to Financial Institutions can engage users on a daily basis with tools that are relevant to them and at the same time directly associated to the brand. This offers a powerful new marketing tool that users are happy to interact with because it adds value to their online experience.
Essence has become one of the premier specialists in Gadget/Widget development. Here you will find some examples of our gadget work. All of these have been created for iGoogle, but can easily be tailored to other specifications and gadget/widget environments.
Be sure to check out in the gallery below our YouTube gadget which was designed to be completely skinnable. Since its release, it has been skinned and put into use by brands such as X-Factor, CNN and European Basketball League.
Project name: Cancer Research UK Alcohol Awareness
Creative type: Gadget
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) wanted to raise awareness of the health implications associated with alcohol. This gadget is designed to track drinking habits of its users in a simple way. Functionality includes:
In a very fast moving competitive and industry product landscape changes in cost, margin, stock and competitor activity mean that constant product pricing changes are essential to maintain a competitive advantage. This is especially true online where consumers frequently compare products between retailers and price-matching promises are increasingly common. Prices may even move several times a day and there can be hundreds of products.
Creative updates are expensive and time consuming; with many concepts across many formats and under multiple brands, they are not a practical option.
Previously, by using generic creative without timely pricing, media effectiveness fell by 15-20% compared to an equivalent ad carrying specific product information.
We designed and built a database to hold product details, automatically synchronising it with clients' existing product management systems.
We developed a suite of database-driven creative in HTML and Flash® which would be automatically updated when any offer within the advertised subset changed.
Finally, we automated the propagation of this creative across advertising media - splash pages, popups and popunders, banners and data feeds for 3rd parties.
Dynamic ad system
As well as yielding more effective ads, this process reduced creative costs by £2,400 per month for a single client.
This solution has recently been nominated for a Netimperative Digital Award for Best Use of Technology for Essence and Mediaplex, our strategic adserving partner.
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X-Factor Gadget skinned using Youtube Template
Euroleague Gadget skinned using Youtube Template
Euroleague Gadget skinned using Youtube Template