Crosslink
Direct Marketing & Sales-Lead Generation
Overview
Based in St. Louis, Mo., Crosslink develops and manufactures technology based on conductive polymer coatings. One of Crosslink’s areas of research and commercialization is the capacitor manufacturing industry. Capacitors are essential to the functionality of electronic products. Crosslink developed a new conductive polymer coating for capacitors, called EMPAC™, that provides significant reductions in production time and costs compared to what is currently in the market.
Challenge
For the past decade, Crosslink focused on the research and development phase of its technology. The company has not talked publicly about its products. Specifically, gaining the attention of several top capacitor manufacturers located in Asia proved challenging.
In January 2007, Crosslink’s new CEO tasked Morningstar Communications with generating genuine sales leads with five target capacitor manufacturers and positioning Crosslink EMPAC as the coating of choice.
Strategies and Tactics
We developed a direct marketing campaign as part of a broader integrated marketing program, centered around an Apple iPod Shuffle. The iPod was engraved with the Crosslink logo and loaded with a podcast (in English and Japanese) that promoted EMPAC. We worked with voice talent to record the podcasts, which focused on the benefits of EMPAC. The podcasts also encouraged research and development teams to test the product and directed recipients to the Crosslink Web site where they could register for premium content. The iPod box became the direct marketing piece, complete with an EMPAC brochure and Crosslink branded packaging. We mailed the iPod Shuffle marketing pieces to 13 recipients at Crosslink’s targeted companies.
Results
- Of the 13 iPod Shuffles mailed, five resulted in phone calls directly to Crosslink sales representatives, resulting in a direct response rate of 38 percent.
- Three new capacitor manufacturing companies are testing EMPAC. These are companies that Crosslink had never been able to personally contact.