Behind the awards

Fifth Ring has been honoured twice by the Business Marketing Association of America (BMA) this year. Our tagline for Proserv was awarded a Best of Category, but also received a Group Category Winner award, a privilege only bestowed on nine of near 800 entries.

But showing off a marketing award can be like waving an Oscar at someone that hasn’t seen the film. It may look nice, but unless you’ve seen the flick, it doesn’t mean much to you. Winning something like best tagline isn’t just about the line. It’s about everything from the strategy work that preceded it to the results that followed post launch. So in this case, Fifth Ring is going to lay itself bare give and an insider’s view of the award submission process. Pasted below is the text and the supporting images we submitted to the BMA. Have a read and you be the judge.

Background

Fifth Ring was tasked with creating a brand that would unify a disparate set of oil & gas legacy brands. Proserv consisted of two divisions, Proserv and Proserv Offshore, and was in the process of merging with a newly formed group of companies known as the Galathea Group, consisting of Gilmore Valves, Hydrafit and Argus Subsea. The new organisation was formed to provide a unified service in the field of subsea technologies for the oil & gas industry. The challenge for Fifth Ring was to create a brand that would unite the organisation and launch a unique offering to the oil & gas sector.

Campaign objectives

• Get buy-in from nearly 800 employees across 21 sites in 10 countries
• Position the company as a major player in oil & gas services
• Unite the component companies behind a single proposition
• Provide the company with a unique proposition in the market
• Create a stand out corporate style to support their new position

Research/strategy

Fifth Ring carried out extensive perception research across a number of territories and different stakeholder groups. Online quantitative surveys quizzed staff in all companies about their current understanding and future aspirations for the combined business. Qualitative interviews were conducted with senior staff, customers and the media.

The competitor brand audit revealed the opportunities clearly existed for a proactive player to define and own a specific market space, both strategically and visually. This was a key finding.

Fifth Ring presented these findings with recommendations during a 2-day workshop that served to clarify and determine the business’s future market position. Specific attention was paid to developing a brand identity map to discover a shared essence that the formerly separate companies had. This essence was ‘simple solutions for complex problems’.

The idea

It became apparent from our strategic workshop that unlike their competitors, who placed a high value on emerging technologies, Proserv wanted to offer their clients reliable technologies given the cost associated with any failures. Where they added value was the innovative way their engineers applied these technologies. Ergo the tagline:

Ingenious Simplicity

The greatest engineer of all time, Leonardo Da Vinci, once said ‘simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’. However, most oil and gas engineers today seem to have forgotten this. But Proserv now has a unique brand built around the wonderfully simple premise of being able to do more with less. That says it all really.

Results

Feedback from Senior Managers confirms that employees in all corners of their operation have positively accepted the new brand. Their position in the market has been enhanced with a clear offer and position communicated to their customers. This might be typified by a recent comment from an energy industry CEO “I didn’t know who they were but I know now and I would like to buy them.”

Proserv are currently looking to expand their workforce globally by 20% and expect to exceed their growth forecast this year and next. Turnover for 2011 rose 17% from £96 million to £113m. A further upswing of 20% is predicted in 2012 due to the firm’s strong pipeline of work.

‘I just witnessed the Brand roll out to all employees. It was a tremendous success. This adds to our sense of mission, passion and urgency for which I am very grateful.’

David Lamont, CEO Proserv

We received this award at the BMA conference in Chicago, our name and work for Proserv was projected on a huge wall in front of almost 1,000 of our peers.