Client

Ishida is world leader in the design, manufacture and installation of advanced automated systems for weighing, packing and quality control, in particular for food products. Many familiar products on supermarket shelves are weighed and packed by Ishida equipment.

Freestyle is the branding agency responsible for Ishida’s advertising, direct marketing and electronic direct marketing throughout EMEA. Recently, we were asked to put together a programme to attract visitors to the Ishida stand at major exhibitions throughout EMEA in 2010/11.

Target audience

Production management, particularly in food manufacturing companies, throughout EMEA.

Approach

Advertising:
Ishida’s international brand advertising has been scheduled to peak just before each major exhibition in each country. Each ad is placed in a relevant feature and carries information about the Ishida stand location in addition to the normal brand and product message.

Direct Mail:
Since the target audience of our target audience is predominantly major retailers, we produced a mailer based on the concept of a supermarket till receipt, the content of which could be varied according to the Ishida display at the exhibition. Where relevant, the call-to-action is the offer of free tickets to the exhibition.

Electronic Direct Mail:
The DM version of the till receipt was followed up by an EDM version shortly before the exhibition.

Results
The company produced some notable results. For example, Ishida achieved challenging targets for qualified leads at Fachpack (Germany), with a 3% response to the EDM; and at Emballage (France), there were such a large number of ticket enquiries that Ishida ran out of tickets!