hibu launches “Made for business”
First marketing campaign promotes hibu digital solutions: websites, search and display advertising
Reading, UK – October 7th, 2013. hibu, a leading provider of digital marketing services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), today announces the launch of its first outbound marketing campaign since it rebranded in May 2012.
The ten week multi-channel campaign, called “hibu. Made for business™”, is aimed at helping SMEs compete with big business in the battle for mobile and online customers by providing solutions built for SMEs by hibu designers and digital experts. The campaign supports three key digital solutions – websites, search and display advertising – and purposefully has dual meaning. On the one hand, it speaks directly to SMEs and on the other it highlights that hibu websites, search campaigns and display ads are purposefully crafted by its team of designers and digital experts. hibu customers can also opt for ‘do it yourself’ solutions at hibu.co.uk.
The campaign uses warm, everyday language and an original approach to the design to create standout in the marketplace and a distinctive personality for the brand. Six executions were created by top illustrators from around the world to give the campaign a bespoke and ownable look and feel.
The campaign will include a six week outdoor media run in major conurbations, as well as digital, social and national press, local and national radio. hibu will also be making the most of the company’s internal media inventory in magazines, directories and internet Yellow Pages (Yell.com).
“Our target customer is the business owner who may already be running some digital marketing activity,” says hibu’s Chief Marketing Officer, Laura Broderick. “When you look at the market as a whole, research shows that small and medium enterprises are struggling to capitalise on the online growth in retail and services and even those businesses that are doing something think they could be doing better.
“Research has found that 37 per cent of small and medium enterprises do not have a website. Satisfaction levels with current websites are also low: only 35 per cent of SMEs with a website reported they are satisfied with it. And when it comes to mobile the picture is similar. 88 per cent of SMEs with a website say it is not optimised for viewing on mobiles or tablets. This is despite the fact that 53 per cent of adults in Great Britain access the internet via mobile , 87 per cent of UK smartphone users have searched for local information and 76 per cent of these took action as a result.
“The statistics all say the same thing: small and medium enterprises are not really competing in this space. Our new campaign says to SMEs that this doesn’t have to be the case anymore. It says that our team of designers and digital experts has created the necessary technological firepower combined with a personal touch to help them compete.”
Raising brand awareness, according to Broderick, is also a key consideration. “We are transforming hibu from a leading provider of print and online advertising to being the leader of multi-channel marketing and advertising solutions for SMEs. As our first outbound campaign since we changed our name to hibu, raising awareness of who we are and what we do is important.”
Rolling out first in the UK and US, hibu is currently developing plans for the brand launch in Spain, Latin America and for US Hispanic markets.
To download images of examples of the new UK creatives, please go to: http://corporate.hibu.com/en/news/news-releases/2013/07-10-2013
Related links:
Twitter: @hibuUK – https://twitter.com/hibuUK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hibu
Google+: https://plus.google.com/103198682934225660427/about
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/3008972
hibu business store: hibu.co.uk
About hibu:
hibu helps communities thrive by facilitating millions of connections each year between consumers who want to find products and services locally and the merchants who provide them.
hibu helps merchants compete in the digital world with a broad range of marketing and commerce solutions delivered online and through hibu’s direct sales teams. Building on its heritage as a premier directories provider, hibu continues to offer a full range of print- and distribution-based marketing services.
hibu operates in the UK, US, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Peru and US Hispanic markets. In the twelve months to 31 March 2013, hibu had one million SME customers and total revenues of £1.3 billion.
For further information about hibu, visit: corporate.hibu.com.
