Product launch campaign: swag purchasing & distribution
Creating an internal excite campaign for a global product launch.
Synopsis
Fortune 50 company launching a new product required a campaign to drive excitement across customer service representatives. This warranted a defined approach for acquiring and distributing branded swag into multiple countries while facing known budget and timeline constraints.
Problem Statement
An evangelical campaign to build awareness and excitement across customer service representatives was identified as an additional workstream requirement after the broader all-up product launch campaign had kicked off. As a result, timeline and budget constraints were high, causing a requirement to successfully mail 4,000+ excitement kits and 15,000+ individual swag packages to employees located at 90+ different sites across 20+ countries, within 3 months.
A merchandising vendor needed to be sourced and hired to create product-branded swag for the 4,000+ kits and 15,000+ individual excitement packages in a fraction of the typical timeline and at a reduced cost. Once the swag was identified and production had begun, a vendor to manage pick, pack and ship capabilities needed to be hired and identified. Contacts to accept and distribute the products at each of the 90+ locations had to be notified and accept the task. Trade, Tax, and Legal teams needed to review and approve swag and advise on import and export laws. Shipment addresses, labels, logistics and packaging all needed to be addressed as well.
Approach
The work began by sending a communication broadly to all other workstream owners within the same project, announcing the new team leading the Excitement campaign. Existing workstream teams, stakeholders and Executives with questions were re-routed to the new team for questions. Project managers of other workstreams were interviewed to learn about what they were doing and how, and to help avoid any pitfalls or potential duplication of work. Internal company teams who had previously hired merchandising contractors were contacted for referrals. 10 recommendations were received and those group were contacted to gauge interest in submitting a proposal. They were informed of the expectation, and 5 agreed to meet with us and propose a solution for designing and producing 75,000+ pieces of branded swag (e.g., a branded mouse pad, laptop sticker, stress ball, call center decorations, etc.).
A request for proposal was drafted and sent to those merchandising vendors the next day, and two days later they presented their marketing and product ideas. The workstream team sat in an all-day meeting, listened to the proposals, and debriefed in between. A merchandise vendor was selected, actual pieces for each kit (swag) were identified and signed off on via virtual mock-ups before production began. A similar approach was then used to quickly hire and onboard a packaging and distribution vendor.
Project managers of other workstreams were re-engaged and 30 minute meetings set-up to debrief them and ensure excitement campaign workstream alignment to the broader initiative. Executives of the Customer Service segment of the business were asked to have a delegate run a report to share addresses, locations, and supervisors of all customer service call centers. Data was compared and analyzed to come up with a master list of addresses and contacts. Each contact was then notified of the workstream via email and asked to serve as the point-of-contact for cascading relevant communication to their teams and accepting, signing for, and distributing excitement kits to team members once ready. Contacts sitting in an international office, were also asked to provide their Trade and Legal advisors for export and import laws. The team of advisors joined meetings and provided review and approval of swag per country. Adjustments were made and 3 different types of kits emerged to accommodate import and export constraints and laws.
To save on budget, the team acquired envelope packaging, printed shipping labels, and requested discounted prices up-front and offered to recommend merchandising and shipping services to other business segments. Timeline was accelerated and accounted for by contracting out pieces of the work and standing up those services within the first couple weeks of team formation. An agile approach was taken to make quick progress and identify adjustments and required iterative improvements as the work unfolded.
Results
Successfully landed excitement campaign, all teams received their kits on time, with no major risks or issues in import/ export and logistics.
Received praise and positive feedback from Executive sponsors for launching high-quality work under budget and on-time. Lessons learned session conducted, and feedback used as input into all future product release excitement campaigns.
Gained visibility and acknowledgement from other workstreams and over-arching project team for proactively setting up meetings to learn about the existing book of work and align our approach and communications accordingly.
Contacted regularly by the client and key stakeholders over the course of the next decade for advisement, availability, work requests, and recommended approaches to successfully navigate business problems.