What Others Say: Taking Care of Business – As Told by Ryan Watt
What Others Say: Part 4 of 4
This is the fourth and final segment in our series, What Others Say. We’ve heard from a performing arts venue, an international retailer and a not-for profit child welfare agency. Although each has vastly different offerings, they share one very common thing: their messages are targeted at the general public, consumers of goods and services. In this segment we hear from a company in the business of serving other businesses.
Ryan Watt is the General Manager of Duroair Technologies, a pioneering company focused on clean air environments for aerospace, automotive, defence, manufacturing, marine and metal fabrication industries. When they launched an agency search they had decided internally that they wanted to reposition their brand, and briefed agencies accordingly. What follows is the outcome of that exercise.
Duroair’s Marketing Clean Sweep
“In our agency search,” says Ryan, “others talked about past client successes. Interkom came in and knew everything about our business. Their approach was so noticeably different. It was like night and day.”
The concept of outsourcing the entire marketing function hadn’t occurred to Duroair’s management, but the idea, tabled by Interkom, made good business sense. A contract was signed with expectations for a very hands-on role.
“For our business model, we don’t want to be taking on the additional overhead of staff. What we like about Interkom is that they offer that complete package. If we were to talk to Google on our own, we’d go into a deep black hole. They have their own contacts and they have their own digital service manager.”
“Anything marketing related whether it’s new programs, trade shows, new content, even presentations to our customers, I usually run it by Interkom to make sure everything links back into our brand strategy. They’re really an integral part of our company.”
Right from the get go Interkom rolled up its sleeves and got busy, quickly integrating into the business of industrial air filtration and clean room design. New ideas and opportunities were presented. A formal branding strategy took shape. Duroair’s website was overhauled. Videos demonstrating Duroair’s patented technologies were produced.
A lot of work focused on repositioning; investing in digital advertising to go after a different, more sophisticated market.
“We’re testing retargeting right now using Google Adwords and quite a bit on video as well. The results have been very good,” Ryan reports.” When we started out our entire channel network had about 20,000 views accrued over a three year period and now in a period of 12 months with Interkom, we’re over 100,000.
Looking back at their earlier customers, Ryan says they were largely “unknown companies that stumbled upon us.” Now Duroair is working with Fortune 500 companies including Boeing, British Aerospace, and General Electric. “If it hadn’t been for Interkom’s rebranding and positioning insights we wouldn’t have been sophisticated looking enough to attract those customers.”
According to Ryan, what impresses Duroair most is the passion Interkom brings to the table. “They want to see our business to succeed. They’re not the yes man. They don’t tell us what they think we want to hear, they try to push us and introduce us to new ideas and concepts. We don’t always go with their suggestions, but they’re constantly putting new thoughts in our heads and have earned the right to push our boundaries.”
“Their goal right from the start was to be part of our team, create significant measurable value and then celebrate the successes. When we close those big deals, they’re celebrating as much as we are. That talks to the type of company they are, their culture. It’s not about collecting a monthly retainer. It’s about seeing that success and celebrating with you.”
Celebrating successes is indeed, as sweet to us as icing on a cake.