The prize in the category «Packing for an orange» of the contest «PromoApelsin 2007».

Customer: «Dva tovarishcha» Company on behalf of the client «CJSC «VUSO» Insurance Company»

Developer: “OS-Direct” Marketing Group

Contractor: “OS-Direct” Marketing Group

Purpose of the project: To invite VIP-audience for the birthday of the company

Target audience: Chairman of boards of the banks and insurance companies of Kiev

Project period: September 2006

«The plot of assistants or you and I are of the same breed» is one of those projects which are willingly described by direct marketing gurus at their seminars. Its identifying characteristics are the creative component, tight schedule for implementation and rather low cost. Such projects bring excellent results to the customers and contest victories – to the developers. Do you want to know more about “the plot of assistants”? Liliya Gorelaya, the Head of “OS-Direct” Agency and one of the main “plotters”, kindly agreed to reveal this plot.

We and «Dva tovarishcha»

The start of our joint work was very interesting in itself. We have a female staff and all girls are emotional, beautiful and cheerful. And when the representative of «Dva tovarishcha» Company, Gleb Timoshenko, came to visit us, all our dear girls figuratively met him with streamers. All girls came out to have a look at him and then almost all thirty girls saw him off.

To tell you the truth, at that time we were swamped with orders. The Head of Complex Projects Department pulled herself together and resolutely forced me to take this order, because she wanted to work with this customer very much. Here I have to take off my hat to «Dva tovarishcha» Company, because one should be able to work in such a way that others want to cooperate with him even if they have few resources for this cooperation. In this case we changed our priorities and took this very order, despite the fact that it was of little interest for us from the financial point of view. My applause goes to «Dva tovarishcha» Company!

They had the following task. There is a «CJSC «VUSO» Insurance Company in Donetsk. It is all-Ukrainian. It is developing. It is rated among top 30 largest insurance companies of Ukraine. It is going to be five years old. The Company’s Director is eager to organize a celebration of the fifth anniversary in Donetsk and in Kiev, but the Company is not known in Kiev business hangout. The invitations for this event had to be forwarded to the directors of other Kiev insurance companies and the Chairmen of the banks. It had to be done in such a manner that all guests selected by the Customer would come to the celebration.

A small and not lyrical digression

At that period we had just returned from the conference in Moscow which was devoted to B2B marketing. That conference had a special direction dealing with events. All speakers told about an event as an effective method of promotion. They surely talked mostly about advantages of events. And only one speaker developed the following idea publicly and then behind the scenes: «Dear colleagues, why don’t we talk about the fact that our VIP audience, which you are eager to pull in these events, are fed up with them, to put it mildly. Why don’t we mention the fact that these directors actually can choose where to go.

And they will go there, where:

1. There are people of the same status.

2. They are interested in being present. That is, the event has to be important for VIP audience.

But the main problem is that mostly you compete for the time of a person necessary for you not with other events but with his family. In reality a lot of them would prefer to spend their time with the family, but not to go to the next party, where they do not see anything new for them. Here is the point you actually compete with». We set out our thought to our customer and he agreed with us.

We knew that for the purpose of solving this task, it was possible to send something unique and bright to our addressee, that is, something appealing so that he couldn’t but pay his attention. This “something” will cost very expensive and a secretary will bring it to the Chairman of the bank for sure.

Nevertheless we understood perfectly well that such approach gave possibility to solve the task partially and it allowed avoiding a secretary. But then another problem arose: a person who is invited is not known personally; therefore the chances that the addressees will come to the event are very weak. Nevertheless, the task set by the Customer lay in the “avoiding” of a secretary.

It’s worth mentioning that in this project the Customer himself developed mailing materials, therefore we wouldn’t talk about how it looked like. «The plot of assistants» is a typical project with creativeness used in the communication sphere. Here is the main point is that how we build relations, how we motivated the audience and only then what we sent to this audience.

Our Lyubov called …

So, we developed the following legend. We invented a Lyubov Shchedraya (Love Generous) – a girl with a rememberable and beautiful name. When she calls, it is difficult not to remember her. Besides, Lyubov’s voice was very charming. Actually there were five Lyubovs – they were operators of our call-center.

When operators called to the banks, they introduced themselves as assistants of the Chairman of our client – «VUSO» Insurance Company. But they did not want to talk to the Chairmen of the banks on the phone. No way! The called to people whose responsibilities were the processing of incoming calls and correspondence – that is, to their assistants. It was very easy for us to find out the assistant’s name and contact her.

Then we tried to achieve empathetic rapport with these assistants, and we managed to do it in the long run, therefore further on this project was called «The plot of assistants or you and I are of the same breed».

Lyubov Shchedraya told approximately the following: «You know, Masha, I’ve got such a problem … Perhaps, you understand me like nobody else will. My boss is organizing a wonderful, exquisite event in honor of the company’s fifth anniversary here in Kiev. He’s going to invite the chief executives of the largest companies of Kiev and my boss wants to see your director among his guests. You know, there is one problem – they are not personally acquainted. And I even do not know what to do. The fact is that I have recently joined this company and it is really very important for me to carry out this task perfectly well. What can you advise me?»

Then the following took place. The assistants understood us and started giving their advice. For example, an assistant told us: «OK, then send us your invitation. I’ll give it to my boss and tell him about it». When we asked them to switch us over to a Chairman, they didn’t refuse us and even advises when it would be better to call in order to get their bosses at their working places: «You know, he’s having a meeting now, please call us after midday, he will have to be at his working place». Who ever heard of such attitude of assistants?

… then wrote …

At the following stage we sent all invitations. I’d like to attract your attention that we sent invitations which were addressed not for a Chairman but for an assistant – a person who’ll get her correspondence for sure. So, we sent a big envelope on behalf of Lyubov Shchedraya. Inside this envelope there was a letter for an assistant, as well as the letter with invitation for her boss – the Chairman.

We kindly thanked an assistant for her understanding, assistance and asked her to hand over the envelope with the invitation to her director. And a letter for an assistant also ran that we were very pleased by her attention and sent her a little gift as a sign of our gratitude – a mobile pendant decorated with stones.

In fact the gift itself didn’t matter. It was really important for this gift not to be expensive. It shouldn’t be considered as a bribe. It had to be a small pleasant and universal trinket. At first we planned to send the assistants small exquisite silver mirrors not longer than a thumb. But due to tough schedule we didn’t have time to purchase a necessary quantity of mirrors. Therefore, we purchased mobile pendants and inserted them into envelopes.

… and called again!

After dispatch of envelopes we called back again in order to get to know if assistants had handed over our letters or not and if their bosses would come or not? And from this very moment there was something unexpected. All assistants thanked us very much for such attention. Just imagine this, but we didn’t do anything special! We just addressed a person and treated her like a human. We didn’t try to avoid an assistant; we didn’t try to be rude with her or to break through to her boss using a serious or imposing tone of voice. We treated an assistant as a human and got their melted hearts.

We were flooded with much gratitude for such ingenuous sign of attention. The assistant of one of the directors even told: «Oh, Lyubov, you know, I wrote you a letter too, and I also sent you something. I hope you will like it!»…

Other assistants told: «Dear Lyuba, thank you so much! I called you, but your assistants are so … I don’t know! Listen, nobody can’t find you!». Surely we warned our client about the existence of Lyubov Shchedraya. The staff of the insurance company had written instructions that Lyubov was a personal assistant of the Chairman and she could go out to have a lunch or have a meeting or be in a business trip, but in any case she was a real person. By the way, if the Customer’s staff does not support their part of the legend, the project can easily fail. Thank goodness, it didn’t happen! At last the assistant called to our Lyubov!

Then we asked: «So, have you handed over our envelope?». All assistants, whom we called, had given those envelopes to their directors and told us: «You know, Lyuba, he read everything, but he hasn’t given any orders concerning his schedule to me. But you’d better call me back tomorrow; I’ll ask him once again».

At the least, we fulfilled the Customer’s task – an envelope reached a Chairman. And we didn’t send any awfully expensive things. Mailing was in a business-like style complying with the level of our customer and addressees.

The lavish feast!

As you understand, nobody registered VIP audience at the entrance. So we have only the following outcomes:

• A necessary number of people came to the event, and it was important. Because it made no sense at all to have such celebration without VIP guests.

• Our customer got necessary visitors and conducted pre-arranged negotiations during this event.

It’s also worth adding that we had only about three weeks for implementing this project. The cost of the project was ridiculous too. Nevertheless, the 5th anniversary celebration was a success, and we showed again that there were no unsolvable tasks. It is impossible to break through to chief executives of the banks! Who told you that?!

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