Results Matter: Case Studies

Varga’s Methodology Outperforms Top Competitor, Wins Verizon Business

Evie Escano’s (of GlobalHue) client, Verizon Fios, utilizes door hangers to gain exposure and drive sales among Hispanic consumers. When they first started using door hangers, the medium helped them to reach their call volume goal and seemed to generate satisfactory results. As the campaigns continued over several months, the response began to dissipate. They were perplexed and far from meeting their cost per call goal. Door hangers had seemed so promising at the start, what could be causing the decline? Not ready to give up on the medium, they came to Varga Media Solutions.

Now, Verizon Fios is exceeding their cost per call goal by 15%. This case study details the methodology Varga used that made huge improvements in the execution and result of the Verizon Fios door hanger campaigns.

“After several months of diminishing response rates, we were ready to call it quits,” said Evie Escano, Senior Media Planner at GlobalHue for the Verizon Fios account. “The initial response we saw from the first door hangers we dropped was good, but after that we weren’t getting enough back.”

Escano was unsure that the jobs were being completed as promised by their current vendor. Her client had set a cost per call goal with an expected return, but over time the responses were not supporting the financial viability of the campaigns. Performance had become so poor that they were almost ready to give up on door hangers as a medium. The planning team decided to switch vendors and test Varga’s services for their last door hanger effort.

“Internally, the first campaign we did with Varga was a huge initiative,” said Escano. “We were considering excluding door hangers from the Fios media mix and this campaign was the proverbial last straw. It was under the microscope—we paid very close attention to every detail in order to discover whether the weaknesses were with the medium itself or the vendor we had been using.” Varga immediately recognized two major components that had not been adequately handled by the previous vendor.

First, the message on the door hanger was uniquely tailored for a Hispanic target audience. It was imperative that only the right households within each service area receive the advertisement.

“Varga was very thorough and willing to go back and forth with us to fine tune the targeting,” explained Escano. “Our previous vendor was using outdated data that was inflating the household counts and it was not as precise and detailed as what Varga provided. Working with Varga Media is great! They are extremely efficient and plan each task to the final detail. Their level of customer and client service is above and beyond!”

-Evie Escano Senior Media Planner

When it came to targeting the right households, Varga consumer behavior specialists identified economically-active consumers with actionable Hispanic demographics within each market. And since the data Varga uses is updated every 90 days, the target households were as current and accurate as possible.

Second, Verizon Fios is one of the nation’s largest fiber-optic networks offered to consumers but it has limited avail- ability. Service areas, referred to as footprints, also serve as advertising borders. Advertising outside of a footprint would not only result in a waste of resources but also misrepresentation to households where Fios doesn’t reach. In order for the campaign to remain cost effective and to maintain the Fios brand image, all media must remain inside of the footprints.

Varga’s superior targeting and thorough distribution methodology resulted in major success for GlobalHue and their client Verizon Fios.

“With Varga we saw a huge spike in call volume and reached our goal, in fact, we did at least 15% better than the original goal that the client set and the conversion rate went up noticeably,” explained Escano.

“We attribute the success to these main differences: Varga’s targeting is more accurate and they really have auditors in the field monitoring the distribution to make sure you are getting what you ask for.”

The successful door hanger campaign led to additional campaigns with Varga and proved door hangers to be a strategic, viable marketing medium for Verizon Fios.

“The door hangers were valuable to the consumers who took advantage of the offer, but more importantly to my client Verizon. They were able to track the response since the call to action was a simple phone call for more information. This also provided a direct sales opportunity and a way to gain follow-up information from prospective customers which is why we also saw an increase in our conversion rate.”

-Evie Escano Senior Media Planner

Results Matter: Case Studies