Xactly came to PaperplaneCo to create a video that would resonate with viewers at the top of the sales funnel, while also building awareness around other products for those deeper in the funnel.

STORY

Our objectives for this video were:

• Demonstrate how IRP accelerates the GTM process, emphasising agility and speed
• Incorporate Xactly’s updated branding and driven, goal-oriented brand voice, through a carefully written narrative and curated music
• Ensure viewers walk away with an idea of what Xactly technology can do for go-to-market planning, revenue team performance, and pipeline management & prediction
• Touch on Xactly’s unique selling points in a short video
• Enable the Xactly team to use snippets of the full-length video across social media

DUAL AUDIENCE

This video needed to reach two distinct audiences:

• Top-of-funnel viewers unfamiliar with the brand 
• A section of mid-funnel and current customers who were only familiar with one of the products in Xactly’s wider platform of solutions

THE VIDEO

Our team opted for a fresh, humorous take to capture viewer attention. The 68-second video starts off talking about things people never say.  The story continues by introducing the idea that Xactly wishes more people would show their love for salespeople. Next, we show off several tools and features from within the Xactly Intelligent Revenue Platform, and highlight one of the brand’s USPs: their strong historical dataset for benchmarking.

This video was built for the long haul. It was initially translated into French and German for Xactly’s audience. More than two years later, this video is still the featured video on Xactly’s YouTube channel and has been updated with current numbers and a new typeface.

After a successful first season, the Adobe Commerce Accelerator Webinar Series came roaring back with a second season featuring six two-part episodes. Each episode contained a thought leadership part and a more technical part that showed off the software.

The first season of the series, under Magento Commerce branding, explored modern consumers and their needs. It explored how new technologies and business models were upending entire sectors, creating ongoing waves of disruption for every business — and it was a success with over 90% of attendees reporting that they found the series helpful. Season 2 was developed as a practical business roadmap, putting a spotlight on the Adobe Commerce tools that help organisations advance and adapt quickly.

A SERIES THAT EMPHASISES SIMPLICITY IN A SEA OF COMPLEXITY

Commerce, by nature, is full of complexities. Adobe Commerce’s target market includes commerce brands with varied product catalogues, working in multiple markets and using multiple currencies, and running on multiple sites and channels. The array of Adobe Commerce solutions is also complex, allowing enterprises with diverse needs to grow and optimise their performance. The aim of this series was to acknowledge the complexities of doing day-to-day business while highlighting solutions in a straightforward way.

CREATING A PRACTICAL BUSINESS ROADMAP

Sometimes, the best approach is to take it step by step. To encourage viewers to put their knowledge into action and drive business transformation — without feeling overwhelmed — the episode list was developed to reflect a step-by-step approach, moving through specific areas of the business that can be optimised with Adobe Commerce. The premier episode gave viewers a high-level look at Adobe Commerce. The second episode focused on increasing customer lifetime value among current customers, an easy yet valuable place to start for any existing business. The episodes moved forward through improving the checkout experience, reducing purchase friction, and keeping customers engaged via content. The season wraps up with a recap of the many key ways Adobe Commerce technology can help.

DESIGNED FOR ENGAGEMENT

No lectures found here! This series was designed for interactivity. Each episode of Season 2 contains two separate events, helping to separate thought leadership content from solution and demo content and preventing viewers from needing to digest too much information at once. Each part-one “webisode” was divided into sections, including introductions, learning objectives, theory and research presentations, case studies, and a coffee chat segment, followed by a live Q&A session and resource sharing. Each part-two “webisode” included introductions and learning objectives, a product demo or case study interview, and time for Q&A, giving viewers a chance to see Adobe Commerce features in action. Having a host, multiple speakers, and the coffee chat format made each episode lively.

STORY

When it comes to partnership vision videos, our approach is to start by showing that we get you.

In this case, with the change in management, we researched the new CEO to gain an understanding of where he wanted to take the company. One line in particular stood out to us:

“To become a tech powerhouse, we must continue to adapt to the changing marketplace and evolving customer needs”

And in thinking about what it means to be a tech powerhouse, and historically tracing Xerox’s roots back to its heyday when they invented not just the copier, but also many other UI innovations, we decided to ground the emotional hook and story proposition around the idea that:

Every Copy Starts with an Original.

Xerox.

The Original Tech Powerhouse.

Now better than ever with SAP.

To produce this video, we researched footage from the Xerox Archives (thanks, YouTube!) and cut together a fast-paced, super inspirational video that got everyone proud and excited to be a part of the Xerox legacy.

The video was an absolute hit and SAP retained the account. To prove that that’s not just salesman-speak, Xerox eventually commissioned us to adapt the video for public broadcast and continue to use the video to open their own internal events.

The research covered a wide range of topics, such as company growth rates, revenue growth challenges, annual revenue planning process, revenue forecasting process, technology used, state of revenue intelligence program adoption, and Intelligent Revenue technologies.

However, the resulting data needed to be translated into something more accessible and actionable for their target audience.

PaperplaneCo produced a series of multi-channel assets that extended the research into content pieces that were effective for different stages of the customer journey.

These included:

• A social video
• An ebook
• A series of infographics
• Blog posts
• Mini-guides

SOCIAL VIDEO

Through these assets, Xactly established themselves as thought leaders in the industry, extended the reach of the research and provided valuable insights into the State of Revenue Intelligence.

We developed the concept around Marketo Engage’s proposition of Proving and Improving Impact by delivering the insights into which audiences, campaigns, channels, and content are successfully driving buyer engagement. 

The series aimed to address the importance of failure and its role in achieving success. It challenged the traditional notion of success stories and explored how failures are crucial for innovation and growth.

Fail fast, iterate faster with Adobe Marketo Engage.

You can ONLY learn from failure and missed opportunities if you understand why you failed in the first place. Resilience starts with having the insights, and iterating, improving and optimising as you build on small successes towards the big win.

The Resilience Sessions was a multi-touchpoint event series that included:

• TOFU virtual events targeting two key industries (Professional Services and High Tech) featuring guest speakers sharing their stories of failure.
• MOFU Resilience Builder Kits that dived deeper into the speaker story and introduced Marketo Engage as the “antidote” to failure, enabling fast recovery.
• BOFU solution workshops

For the virtual events, we partnered with F*ckUp Nights, a global movement focused on creating experiences that deconstruct society’s perception of failure and recruited speakers through their network and designed the theme like a late night, dive bar event. The On24 event collateral was designed around this concept with a matching console background.

Marketo Engage’s Resilience Sessions webinar series was an innovative and informative way to explore the concept of failure. It challenged the traditional notion of success stories and encouraged attendees to develop resilience and learn from their failures.

After the virtual event, attendees were sent an ebook that featured the event speaker and dived deeper into the case study.

The ebook was created as middle-of-the funnel content, introducing the Marketo offering and demonstrating at a commercial level how data-driven decisions could help businesses recover much quicker from failures and setbacks.

Marketo Engage’s Resilience Sessions webinar series was an innovative and informative way to explore the concept of failure. It challenged the traditional notion of success stories and encouraged attendees to develop resilience and learn from their failures.

A DUTY  TO PROTECT THE BOUNTY OF A PEOPLE AND THE LANDS THEY LOVE

Southeast Asia is an economic miracle that has transformed the region and millions of lives over the past fifty years. In recognising this success, ASEAN and The World Bank also recognised how much there was to lose. Over the past 30 years, natural disasters have affected more than 400 million lives in the region. 

The Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Insurance Facility (SEADRIF) was created to provide financial solutions and technical advice in response to natural disasters. Its success depended on support from the people, public service, and governments of Southeast Asia.

BELIEVING IN THE CAUSE CAN SIMPLIFY A COMPLEX MESSAGE

When Benedikt Singer, Team Leader at Global Risk Financing, brought this project to us, we immediately recognised its social impact, and felt committed to its success. We were also very aware of the difficulties involved in delivering a message across different cultures that would resonate with the public and all the way through to ministers in government.

A CLEAN SLATE

This initiative gave us the opportunity to build a brand from the ground up. We would be developing everything that was required to establish SEADRIF as the trusted financial solutions provider to ASEAN governments. These assets included the logo and visual identity, brand narrative, awareness video, brochure, and website.

THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY

We approached this project knowing that the visual elements would be fundamental to communicating the value of SEADRIF to a diverse audience. These elements had to be combined in a logo that symbolised SEADRIF’s purpose while reflecting the identity of the people it serves. The SEADRIF team worked closely with us as we peeled back the layers of motivation, assumptions, culture, and symbolism. 

We looked at what SEADRIF could achieve through the lens of government ministers, public servants, and the wider population. Chrissy, creative director at PaperplaneCo put it like this, “I find these workshops immensely helpful because we learn what is important to the client. There is always something that they say, an idea or phrase that animates them that in turn sparks my imagination. It’s always very obvious to me when someone is expressing something they believe.”

A great deal of time and effort goes into the discovery process, because when done well, it reveals the true value proposition of a campaign. For SEADRIF it was clear that they could not stop disasters, but they could prevent disasters from becoming a crisis. And from this seed of truth everything grew naturally, and rapidly.

EXPRESSING IDENTITY THROUGH SYMBOLISM

While three logo designs were presented, one of them expressed with simplicity the many aspects that SEADRIF was built on. The Virtuous Circle logo represents the cycle of sustainability. It’s protective circular form starts as a solid, representing regional collaboration, with the rotation offering shelter. As it progresses, rice stalks form to represent security and an affinity with ASEAN. Then to express the purpose of sharing with those in need, the stalks spread open with seed.

The children of truth are beauty and simplicity, and we were not surprised when The World Bank and ASEAN recognised the values that this logo communicated about SEADRIF so effortlessly. From there, we quickly agreed on the colour palette beginning with a yellow for ASEAN progressing to an abundant green harvest.

WHEN FOUNDATIONS ARE STRONG, GROWTH FLOWS EASILY

Having a powerful visual identity, and knowing our value proposition supported the purpose of SEADRIF, the development of the campaign then flowed organically. By keeping all three target audiences in mind we simplified ideas like complex financial instruments with messaging based on “home insurance for your country”. Focusing on the beauty and value of what would be protected, helped us keep the tone light and positive. Using each medium’s strengths, we infused them with the meanings they needed so that each worked as a stepping stone. This path led our whole audience emotionally, and thoughtfully to an appreciation of how SEADRIF was there for their future.

CARE DEEPLY AND IT WILL BECOME A PART OF YOU

We’d invested a lot of ourselves in the project by the time we’d pulled the whole campaign package together. It included website design and content, a brochure, an  awareness video, and the brand narrative all integrated with the logo’s visual identity. The SEADRIF team had continued to work closely with us and were very supportive through the whole process.

The rewarding experience, and the importance of this work, had drawn us close together. We knew we’d captured the heart as well as the message of SEADRIF, and were gratified by the compliments and appreciation we were shown for this work.

A CRITICAL, INNOVATIVE INITIATIVE

Disasters and their aftermath –famines, pandemics, conflict, and migration– push 26 million people globally into poverty each year.

The frequency and severity of disasters will only be exacerbated by climate change.

Over the past few years, the World Bank has helped several vulnerable countries develop strategies to manage their financial risks. But several countries failed to implement these strategies because of lack of financing and technical know-how. That’s where the World Bank’s Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF) comes in.

Through grants sourced from donor countries, GRiF helps provide vulnerable countries with financial assistance and technical expertise. Using these resources, countries can invest in disaster risk financing solutions and scale up their financial preparedness systems.

When disasters strike, recipient countries are quickly able to access funds for response, recovery and reconstruction.

GRiF was first revealed in October, 2018 at the World Bank and IMF’s Annual Meetings in Bali.  With the World Bank and IMF’s Spring Meetings coming up, the GRiF team wanted to ramp up their marketing efforts to underscore the critical need for GRiF. Attended by nearly 2,800 government officials, civil society members, observers, and hundreds of members of the press, the 2019 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF seemed like the ideal venue for the official launch of GRiF.

Benedikt Signer, Senior Financial Specialist at The World Bank, had been impressed with our work on another earlier World Bank project, SEADRIF. When Benedikt contacted us to design GRiF’s launch campaign, we set up a Discovery workshop with the GRiF team to uncover the key objectives of the launch.

Their key goal was highlighting the benefits of working with GRiF. It was critical that the campaign inspire trust and urge the audience to respond. This was a challenge because GRiF was a new, complex initiative with no parallels. Also, it wasn’t just potential recipient countries that the GRiF team wanted to reach out to. The team also wanted the campaign to attract more donors and help get its own internal partners onboard.

BUILDING TRUST THROUGH COMMUNICATION

We chose to launch the campaign in two formats: an introductory video to set the stage and a brochure that would serve as a primer on GRiF. Through a storytelling, human-focused approach, the video would show the audience why countries needed GRiF. To create a deeper impact, we chose to focus the messaging squarely on the recipient countries. We reasoned that donor countries and the World Bank’s internal partners could be won over as long as the benefits to recipient countries were apparent.

To build confidence, GRiF needed to be easily understood. We designed the brochure and video around a comprehensive infographic that would explain the GRiF process and participants at a glance. The brochure needed to provide answers to any and all of the questions that sprung up in the minds of our target audience while watching the video. We structured the contents of the brochure using the 5W1H (Who-What-Why-Where-When-How) approach to improve readability and comprehension. 

Through collaborations with the GRiF team and our own research, we designed and sourced illustrations and examples to clarify and support complex technical information. In both formats, we used hard-hitting visuals, statistics and use cases to make a compelling case for GRiF.

To further bolster trust in GRiF’s mission, we dedicated a page of the brochure to GRiF’s first approved grant and funding success. The news had come in while we were still working on the campaign: the Mozambique government’s foresighted decision to partner with GRiF months earlier had paid immediate dividends. In the wake of catastrophic tropical cyclone Idai, the government was able to secure $8 million in early funding from GRiF. 

About GREM (Geothermal Resource Risk Mitigation Project)

The project aims to increase the share of renewable energy in Indonesia’s energy mix. In its first phase, the project aims to scale up investment in geothermal energy development and support Indonesia in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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