Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrew Mitchell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Andrew, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?
One of our earliest customers was Dairy Queen (DQ). When we first began working together, DQ wanted to expand and grow their digital presence through their fan club. They had approximately 200,000 members when we started. To excite and delight DQ customers, we created a compelling promotion whereby every consumer had the opportunity to win a major prize. We built an electronic scratchcard that contained numerous panels. Every card contained a winning combination if customers scratched the matching winning panels. At the end of each gameplay, the winning panel’s layout was revealed, which confirmed that every gameplay included a potential win. The success of the promotion increased the membership of the club to over 4,000,000. DQ now owned an earned media channel that would allow it to communicate exclusive offers, new product offerings and rewards for its most loyal customers. This substantially reduced the cost of reaching customers as DQ no longer needed to pay publishers to reach these members.
Andrew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
A U.K.-based toy company recruited me to expand their operations into the U.S. and this is what brought me here. The journey began from a prior trade mission organized by our local Chamber of Commerce promoting exporters to the southeast U.S. market. The U.S. market was very attractive due to its size, scale and opportunities compared to the U.K. The challenge we faced was the time difference. At that time, international calls cost $1.40 a minute or more. So, it was expensive to communicate with prospective customers. One of our customers suggested if we wanted to succeed we needed an office and representation in the U.S. This was a big decision. My wife and two young sons were persuaded that this could be a great adventure for our small family. We moved to Atlanta and started to grow the U.S. market. One of our main competitors in the U.K. noticed we had opened a U.S. office and was concerned this might propel our growth and make us a stronger competitor. We had been in the U.S. for just over a year and the competitor made us an offer to buy the company, so we took it and invested the proceeds into our new U.S. venture.
Before the Dot-Com bust in the late 1990s, I was running a sales promotion company that specialized in on-pack offers for Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturers (CPG). For example, consumers who purchased, say, three boxes of cereal could mail in for a free DVD (with a value worth more than the cost of the cereal purchases). We would charge a CPG brand typically a few cents per pack based on the number of packs the promotion was advertised, which was usually in the millions of packs. We would underwrite the risk of over-redemptions. This enabled marketers to run a compelling promotion on a fixed budget. Most consumers have good intentions to redeem these types of offers at the point of purchase. However, when it comes to redemption time, they often lose receipts or don’t have a stamp to mail in and claim the offer. This is what we based our redemption forecasts on. It allowed us to offer brands exciting promotional offers they could afford. The only challenge with this business model was when a promotion was over redeemed and we made a loss. Every morning when the mail arrived, we were hoping it was light. The stress of this emotional roller coaster made me explore other business opportunities without the same huge risks.
I was fortunate to discover and purchase a digital agency in Atlanta that had been the victim of the Dot Com crash. Quickly, we became immersed in the new digital world, initially, we adapted our existing sales promotion offerings to a new online audience. We then started to develop games, experiences and digital promotions. This was further expanded over time into social media and mobile channels, as well as loyalty programs. Gradually moving on from risky promotional underwriting, we were now building a model based on technology, which was essential to recurring revenue. I have thoroughly enjoyed my more than 25 years of digital marketing and engagement experience. We have worked with a diverse portfolio of global clients that include Mastercard, Disney, Pepsi-Cola, Wrigley’s, Marriott, Hilton Hotels & Resorts and L’Oreal. Our expertise spans multiple industries, including consumer goods, entertainment, retail, travel and financial services.
Brandmovers was founded in my garage and graduated to an incubator by 2003. Since then, it has become a global leader in digital engagement, helping brands connect with their most valuable customers through digital strategy. In 2014, one of our main customers asked if we would be interested in buying a book of business that served the employee recognition industry. They were currently overserving these customers and losing mone,y but understood our capabilities and recognized our technology could service these customers and make a profit (as we had served them). Terms were agreed, and we built a new digital platform. Rewardian, an employee recognition and rewards platform that provides organizations of all sizes with simple, customizable solutions to engage and inspire employees to perform their best was successfully launched. This aligns the interest of management with employees and they both want measurable results that can be rewarded.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
As a business grows, it needs to adapt and change. During the early days of the modern digital revolution (early 2000s), marketers were exploring different ways to connect and interact with consumers and customers. Online communities were sprouting everywhere, and content publishers were racing to capture the market share of this new low-cost communication channel. In order to attract and retain users, publishers needed to produce compelling content and insights. A digital agency we acquired in the early 2000s owned a community platform targeting the hipsters and trendy consumers of the day. We decided to invest in this platform and create content based on the trendiest bars, clubs, restaurants and events in major U.S. cities. This involved constant input and research, and forums allowed users to interact and discuss topics. Many entrepreneurs talk about their successes and wins. I want to share how we failed to identify what drives success in social media platforms. After spending around $500,000+ with miniscule revenue and returns, we decided to pull the plug and abandon future investment in this opportunity. The lesson we learned was that social media content was dependent on user contribution and not the publisher’s opinion or bias on what is cool and trendy. As an entrepreneur, I believe we sometimes have to accept defeat in a battle in order to live another day and win the war overall. The odds were stacked against us, we took our chance and lost on this occasion, but used the lesson to grow stronger.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Most software development companies either build custom platforms and solutions or sell their Software as a service (SaaS). The first approach can take longer depending on the complexity of the project. It can also cost significantly more than using an existing SaaS platform. The upside is that it can be built exclusively to the customer’s needs.
SaaS platforms were developed to reduce the cost and deployment time to launch a program. Standardized functions and features were sufficient for numerous customers, however, this restricted unique features and integrations that some customers needed for their specific business requirements. Rather than force a customer to fit into a predetermined solution, which is often sufficient but not optimal, we decided to take a hybrid approach whereby numerous standardized modules and functions could be combined with custom features. This gave the customer the optimal product, a cost-efficient platform that utilizes certain prebuilt modules while simultaneously building specific custom features that are integrated with the platform. In effect, the best of both solutions.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.brandmovers.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-andrew-mitchell-99a7346/
