The winning formula: How to build lasting and valuable customer relationships via a paid, owned and earned strategy

How can a brand go from being the most recognised in its category to winning consumers’ hearts? That was the challenge faced by AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest superannuation (pension) fund. While the Fund was clearly outperforming the market, its ‘voice of customer insights’ revealed Emotional connection to the brand was not increasing at the same rate as rational drivers. For Ubiquity Lab, this posed an opportunity, particularly in light of Binet and Field’s (Binet, L., and Field, P. (2013, June 11) ‘The Long and the Short of it: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies’, IPA, London) findings that emotional campaigns yield stronger long-term effects. Paramount to the project’s success was a focus on consumer intent and market orientation that would leverage AustralianSuper’s existing work and meld current and new inputs. This meant designing a customer-led paid, owned and earned (POE) strategy that would monetise emotion to reach more people within the target market, while differentiating, building salience and, ultimately, increasing sales and profit. A ‘brand experience map’ methodology was used to correlate data against the digital consumer journey and sales funnel, ultimately unlocking insights to optimise POE tactics. The goal was to arrive at a set of emotional territories that AustralianSuper could begin to ‘own’, winning hearts and minds and deepening the relationship between accumulating super and its purpose — to enable people to live their best retirement.