Title	NNIT PLAYMAKER
Brand	NNIT
Product/Service	UTILITY MARKETING TACTICAL GAMEBOARD
Category	B02. Dimensional Mailing
Entrant	HJALTELIN STAHL Copenhagen, DENMARK
Idea Creation	HJALTELIN STAHL Copenhagen, DENMARK

Name	Company	Position
Jesper Jørgensen	Hjaltelin Stahl Direct	Client Service Director & Partner
Camilla Dragsted	Hjaltelin Stahl Direct	Senior Creative
Marianne Hjaltelin	Hjaltelin Stahl	Senior Strategic Planner
Anders Donde	Hjaltelin Stahl	Assistant Art Director
Stina Buchhave	Hjaltelin Stahl Direct	Copywriter

The Campaign

The idea was to motivate CIOs to meet with NNIT by setting a scene inspired by the target’s favorite sport, football. Our goal was to create a setting with the tactical meetings that would lower everyone’s guard and stimulate an honest, welcoming and engaging conversation between participants, a conversation that would make a difference by facilitating deeper understanding, stronger relationships and creating opportunities to sell outsourcing. The CIO plays the role of Playmaker in a NNIT PLAYMAKER tactical meeting. This actively engages the CIO. Like a trainer, he has to give serious thought to, and talk about, his field position, team players, challenges, and opportunities for scoring. NNIT’s role is to act as one of the team players. We listen, challenge, and come up with ideas for tactics or using reinforcements to improve the CIOs odds of scoring strategically important goals.

Creative Execution

The invitation to the first tactical meeting was a personalized Direct Mail Video sent to every recipient. Click on PLAY to hear NNIT's director Per Kogut describe the challenges faced by the CIO and personally invite him to analyze his current position on the field, to test various scenarios and optimize tactics in the future during a tactical meeting with NNIT PLAYMAKER. The reminder to those who did not book a tactical meeting was a personalized tactical gameboard with a new invitation—hand delivered. The CIO defines his goals on the scoreboard and places the pieces, which represent his resources, on the field during the NNIT PLAYMAKER tactical meeting. This gives us a clear picture of IT’s priorities and focus areas. The sales force can be involved by inviting them to kick-off events and seminars where they can familiarize themselves with how to conduct tactical meetings.

Results

97 IT directors received video invitation All were given a follow-up phone call by NNIT's Key Account Managers 32 of 97 booked meetings with NNIT After a reminder. Eight more booked meetings The combined conversion rate: over 41% The goal was 30% of the target audience (The average for the industry about 23 %) The turnover from the meetings is DKK 200 million over the next 3-5 years. This equals a return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) of 165. NNIT has recouped their original investment 165 times again. New meetings are being booked and held. NNIT PLAYMAKER has made a clear consulting imprint with customers and differentiated NNIT from competitors. Gives recipients a real sense of being a playmaker in a constructive and invaluable 1:1 process where NNIT is a relevant and value-adding team player. Aarhus University has decided to use the Playmaker concept in their IT education program.

NNIT PLAYMAKERTM™ is a Utility Marketing tactical gameboard designed for Denmark’s most influential CIOs. As a physical, tactical board, it establishes the basis for relationship building meetings that bring outsourcing into play and create extraordinary results for NNIT. NNIT PLAYMAKER is a game that includes a tactical gameboard, scoreboard, balls and yellow card, all of which have been borrowed from the world of football (soccer). It has shown itself to be an exceptionally effective Utility Marketing tool that engages a hard-to-reach audience and gives NNIT new insights into potential customers' challenges, wants, pains and goals.

The first goal was to create awareness among hard-to-reach executives. To get the CIO's attention, but also respect his time. The second goal was to develop a tool/approach that would appeal to the target audience and make a meeting more appealing. If NNIT is to succeed at creating an impactful sales meeting, it would need to create a great sales tool that would excite the sales force, make the transformational objectives clear, and boost their confidence when working with the new approach. It would require the support of the organization, visibility, and serious training. Our third goal was to engage and motivate the sales force and get them excited about taking on a new role. Based on insights from IT directors' current challenges NNIT PLAYMAKER makes the CIO’s role tangible, and gives him a field of play to take decisive action, and to think out of the box.