Creative Approach

The problem software developer Adobe Systems Inc. faced in rolling out its InDesign product was one marketers dealt with long before anyone ever knew a mouse could — or even should — be clicked. ▪ Most people are resistant to change. When they find something they're comfortable with, they'll stick with it — even if there's another option that might better suit their needs. Saddled with a well-established competitor in QuarkXPress, Adobe knew its InDesign desktop publishing product would have an uphill battle. That's why an integrated DM campaign to get creatives to consider the software was crucial.

“People have been using Quark for quite some time, and they get entrenched in the products they're used to,” said Debra Basaldua, director of worldwide relationship marketing for the San Jose, CA company. “The biggest challenge is getting people to realize that InDesign is just as robust, and that the risk of switching over is not as significant as they might perceive.”

This spring, Adobe began a grassroots campaign in New York to target its core audience for the product — creative professionals at advertising agencies and design firms.

The effort was kicked off with an ad campaign created by Adobe's new agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco. The creative — which included print ads in magazines like MacWorld, Print, and eDesign; billboards; subway and bus ads; and a huge ad in Times Square — was then leveraged into the ongoing direct marketing initiatives.

The first phase of the “Tools of the New Work” campaign was to generate awareness for the product in areas heavily populated with creatives. Then, a more targeted approach — including more than 500,000 direct mail pieces — invited prospects to seminars and events where they could actually try the product.

The educational component was key, said Basaldua, because in addition to basic resistance to change on the part of creatives, there was concern as to whether service providers would accept files created with InDesign, initially launched in spring 1999. The events included a general seminar that showed participants the basics of the product's functionality. Hands-on workshops, which gave people basic training on how to use the software and let them actually try it out, were also conducted. “Those turned out to be the most successful,” she says.

Mac McIntosh, a North Kingston, RI B-to-B consultant who worked with Adobe on the campaign, notes that if an agency represented a big opportunity for Adobe, the company would send someone in for a day to work with the firm, offering to help create a design side-by-side on Quark and InDesign to give the prospect a comparison. “They'd really hold their hands through the process,” he says.

A variety of creative approaches in the direct mail effort were used, including self-mailers and postcards. About 200,000 names culled from Adobe's more than 5 million-name house file were used, as were rented names from 20 files such as Electronic Publishing, New Media Pro and PC Graphics & Video.

Throughout the campaign, Adobe looked at the prospect audience and assessed where they were in the decision-making process to decide what mailings to send — were they in a trial with InDesign, were they evaluating it, was this a new concept to them or were they encountering obstacles. “Based on where we understood them to be in that process we used different approaches and messages,” says Basaldua.

Using data collected throughout the process, Adobe then used DM — including a special Web site (www.adobeindesign.com) — to lead prospects to the next step, such as attending an event, or encouraging them to begin a broad-based trial of the product.

E-mail and telemarketing follow-ups also were used, depending on what stage of the sales cycle the prospect was in. After a seminar, e-mails were sent to attendees thanking them and inviting them to a hands-on training event. Non-attendees were sent a “missed you” e-mail. Telemarketing is also being tried to follow up on some leads. “Moving forward, we will use telemarketing for those leads with larger opportunities and e-mail for smaller opportunities as that would be more cost-effective,” says Basaldua.

Adobe measured the response rate for the campaign by direct sales as well as opportunities forecasted. Over a third of the people receiving a mailing piece attended a seminar. Approximately 35% of leads from the overall campaign have been distributed to various sales channels for action.

Basaldua notes that businesspeople — i.e., those traditionally thought to make the buying decisions — weren't targeted in the campaign. “We've found that the creatives are the ones who decide what tools they use,” she says.

At this point, Adobe has toned down the awareness effort for InDesign and is working on leading the prospects generated through the sales cycle. The direct mail component is ongoing, because it is tied to decision-making, says Basaldua, who notes Adobe is planning to take the campaign beyond the New York market. “We really don't consider the job done yet.”

One of the steps beyond New York is a direct mail campaign recently sent to “open the doors” of the top 200 ad agencies in the United States. Then Adobe field territory area managers schedule appointments with senior management at the agencies. The Adobe reps bring a metal “tool kit” to the meeting, which includes a free copy of InDesign 2.0 and background info on the product.

Basaldua, who has been with Adobe for two years and in the software industry for about 17 years with firms like Oracle and Sybase, says about 10% to 12% of Adobe's overall marketing budget goes toward DM. “It's a very important vehicle for communicating to our customers about promotions and about other critical information.”

The company is also targeting the enterprise market, going after national and global companies with multiple locations that need to deploy content throughout their various offices. “It's the next step in our evolution,” she says. McIntosh, who has worked with Adobe since late 2001 to develop a lead-management process for the enterprise market, notes that probably about 80% of Adobe's business is still single-product sales. One option the company is considering is going back to old leads in its database, looking at people in large corporations who have purchased single-user versions of a product such as Adobe Acrobat, says McIntosh.