What we do

At the blue group we specialise in helping clients with large databases develop and maintain long-term profitable relationships with their customers through acquisition, upselling and retention strategies.

We’re all about creating productive and profitable relationships. Between you and your customers. Your brand and its value. Your spend and your return.

To achieve this, we provide an end-to-end service from strategic planning, through creative development to analysing results and everything in between. We use a mix of media from digital, print, mail, radio, outdoor or experiential to achieve the best results.

We offer a personal direct service approach, where the blue group principals take your brief and work directly with specialist teams to create the outcome you’re looking for.

Above all, we make sure everything we do is clever for a reason, not just for clever’s sake.
It’s really just common sense. Unfortunately, it’s not that common.

The question remains, what can we do for you?

Who we work for

We work with clients who want to create high-quality communications to develop their brand and long-term customer relationships. We are ethical, community-minded, down-to-earth and importantly, enjoyable to work with.

As your key contacts, principals Ruby Lampard and Robin Sinclair will be involved in your job from day dot.
To get the ball rolling, contact one of them today.

So here’s who we work for, and better still, what some of them have to say about working with us.

“We have found the blue group’s input, enthusiasm and commitment to be excellent. They have had some great creative ideas and helped us be more consistent in our branding. They are both professional and easy to work with.”

Christine Tomaras, Manager Brand and Communications, AGL

“We rely heavily on marketing and advertising to ensure we are successful in our sales, and the blue group have been instrumental in helping us achieve that success. The first ad campaign the blue group did for us saw a 25% increase in sales.”

Steve Persson, CEO, The Big Issue

Work we’ve done

Close Project

Cbus – language for the long term

problem

Construction and building workers witness short-term successes every time they build something new. However it’s hard to convince them that throwing more into super now could equal a better retirement payout a lot further down the track.

For certain members, they could even score up to $1,000 FREE super from the government. All they had to do was throw in $1,000 themselves. But how to make them believe it?

solution

We put the offer in a distinct Aussie style, better known as pub etiquette. Using wine glasses and pints as gender appropriate representations of how full their retirement could be, we demonstrated exactly the difference a Co-contribution could make to their future.

To further personalise for members, tailored letters and eDMs were sent that were not only gender based but further focused on whether members had contributed before.

results

4.4% of members responded with an initial contribution
26.9% of previous contributors made another contribution (20.1% among the control group)
and 2.1% from non-contributors (0.8% from the control group).

Close Project

Bunnings PowerPass

Problem

When you already have prices lower than your competitors, even after any ‘trade discounts’ are applied, there’s not much room to move.

For Bunnings Trade, despite being seen as the biggest hardware retailer, Bunnings had no specific ‘trade discount’ to offer customers other than an outdated ‘Trade Card’ that offered a small percentage off a selection of items. And with the impending launch of Bunnings’ new rival, Masters, the industry was set for a showdown.

Solution

Starting in April and spread over 6 weeks, we mailed previous cardholders a mock-tool case, die cut and complete with imprinted dimples on the paper stock for authenticity. Hand tipped inside was their new personalised power tool, the Powerpass, and a simple letter with instructions on how and where to make the most of it.

Following the launch, customers were channeled into an ongoing CRM program that continues to allow for targeted mail and email communications with ongoing specific and reactive offers for their skill set.

Results

Two months after mailing 39% of Powerpass holders had rekindled their relationship with Bunnings Trade through the use of their new power tool.

Close Project

Plum – using customer insight

Problem

With the introduction of Federal ‘Choice in Super’ legislation, Plum was put on the back foot. Existing members could now roll their super out of Plum and into another fund, possibly diminishing Plum’s funds under management and financial standing.

Obviously, Plum wanted the opposite, and asked us how to reach their members and encourage them to roll any other super they may have into Plum, and not out of it.

Solution

Even though the media at the time was talking up the new legislation, it was all becoming lost in the usual hum-drum of superannuation. We did the opposite.

We used humour judiciously to bring a dull subject like super consolidation to life. With an image of someone dressed as a giant chicken, we reminded members of their very own ‘worst job story’ and supported this with a rational case study.

Results

We doubled the target response rate and created a 21.67% uplift in funds under management generated by this campaign – this was a staggering 250% above target.

Close Project

The Big Issue – research reveals results

problem

The Big Issue vendors are a tough bunch. Even though they wear a fluorescent vest, potential customers see right through them.

Research has shown this is simply because people don’t understand how their purchase helps vendors.
To make matters worse, the magazine industry is suffering from sluggish sales and declining readership across the board.

solution

To understand the product, we donned the Big Issue ‘uniform’ for research. After a day trying to make sales, we knew we could be seen – if only we could tell people how Big Issue vendors benefit from the transaction.

To achieve this, we created an outdoor campaign using the stand-out fluoro of the vendor’s uniform. This gave us maximum visibility – which we then leveraged to highlight how a simple sale can benefit vendors directly.

results

Sales increased by 25% – compared to same time in non campaign years.
Across 337 vendors nationally, this equated to an extra $96,630 into the pockets of vendors.
The Big Issue readership has grown to 242,000 readers per issue – a 52% increase since 2010 and the highest for any Australian magazine.

Close Project

Australian Unity – retention through a rate rise

Problem

Each year in April most Health Insurance Providers raise their rates. This results in a time of high attrition as members take the opportunity to switch funds.
In the past, Australian Unity have participated in this acquisition frenzy running offers ATL for prospects, which has aggravated existing members who felt their loyalty was taken for granted.

Solution

We saw an opportunity to test a boldly different approach and focus our efforts on existing members to stem attrition.

We created a digital print ‘thank you card’ with a quirky take on the health and wellbeing proposition to deliver a personalised message and reward to each member. We also created a similarly themed email which we sent to a small test cell to see which medium was most responsive.
Respondents were sent to a purpose built microsite where they had to enter their email address to redeem their reward.

Results

54.80% response rate – a whopping 29.8% over target.
93% of members who went to the microsite provided their emails.

Close Project

AGL – migrating customers online

Problem

AGL saw an opportunity to be first to market with a totally new online account management system for customers. This new portal would allow customers to view usage, change address, receive and pay paperless bills, choose discounted online only plans and more.

We needed to create a big bang launch idea that would educate and motivate customers to migrate to this unprecedented era of energy retailing.

Solution

Rather than a typical holiday or cash prize, we came up with an original incentive – “Have your energy bills paid for 3 years”. This had a perceived value much greater than its actual dollar value of $15,000. It also reinforced AGL’s role as the energy retailer of choice.

We carefully selected a mix of media using key customer touch points of bill envelopes and on-bill messages, supported by splash pages and banner ads on the AGL website. We also structured the incentive so that customers could achieve multiple entries, the more they explored the site and experienced the benefits.

Results

Migration of existing customers: Target exceeded by 171%.
Acquisition of second fuel sign-ups: Target exceeded by 228%.

After surpassing initial goals, the campaign continues to migrate customers in growing numbers.

Close Project

the blue group – tune into your clients

problem

Our clients had given us lovely briefs all year, we wanted to give something back at Christmas. But our gift had to do so much more.

Not only did we have to show we care, we wanted to remind clients they can always expect superior communications from us and demonstrate our creative abilities in print and digital – combined with a Christmas message that reflects our brand personality.

solution

We created and hand delivered personalised blue gift boxes – each containing an engraved blue iPod to help drown out the annoying sounds of the holidays and keep our clients calm for the following year.

Every element of the piece was personalised – the cover message, the inside brochure, even the engraved ‘bluePod’ itself. Recipients were also directed to a personalised website where they could download (legally!) a selection of our favourite blue tunes.

results

77% of senior client contacts came back to us with a sincere thanks
68% of recipients accessed their special PURL
90% downloaded the tracks
and 5 new business leads were fostered and moved to the next stage.