DALLAS, TX — December 1, 2009 — ICOM, a division of Epsilon Targeting – the marketing industry’s most advanced provider of consumer information for targeted solutions - today announced the Canadian launch of their new program, i•Influencer
TM. This word-of-mouth marketing program leverages the power of a category’s most influential consumers to deliver measurable results for leading brands.
ICOM’s i•Influencer program identifies and engages proven category influencers to create brand awareness and increase and improve consumer impressions. This program is the only one of its kind that combines the ability to find and reach these unique consumers, on a large scale, with an effective and efficient message strategy that is tailored to the distinctive requirements of this segment, to provide superior performance and ROI. The strategy can be easily leveraged to meet a number of brand objectives including social media.
Brian Rainey, Epsilon Targeting President said, "During our forty years in business, Epsilon has been a direct marketing leader and now, this program demonstrates a new approach to consumer engagement. We are uniquely positioned to identify these lucrative "influencers" and effectively engage them with a tailored message strategy, across multiple channels, thus driving measurable results. With unparalleled data assets powering this offering, our pilot program demonstrates the opportunities and success that brands can achieve with the i•Influencer program."
Contrary to current thinking, consumers are influencers within a category, not across categories, according to research conducted by ICOM. In addition, there are no commonalities in terms of demographics but rather, influencers are people who like to talk to others and make recommendations.
According to Gillian MacPherson, Director, Product Marketing, "For the greatest return on marketing investment our clients can now directly interact with individuals who will become brand ambassadors. Our pilot program showed greater performance than any other word of mouth marketing program available. The opportunities are substantial and cross over a number of channels and marketing strategies incorporating the latest technology and touch points such as social media."
Reckitt Benkiser, the first i•Influencer
TM client, participated in the pilot program for their Air Wick FreshMatic Mini. In two test markets, the program targeted 12,500 air care product influencers. The strategy incorporated direct mail, email, and the web. Cynthia Arnold, AIR WICK® Brand Manager at Reckitt Benckiser said, "We are thrilled with the results from our AIR WICK® FRESHMATIC® campaign. ICOM’s i•Influencer
TM program is unlike anything else in the market right now. It offers brands mass targeted reach yet still provides the consumer with a personalized engagement. Best of all, it delivers results. i•Influencer
TM provides a strong ROI when compared to other in-store and out-of-home promotional mechanics."
The i•Influencer
TM pilot program results showed a significant 46% lift in sales during the test period, as measured by AC Nielsen in a match panel. The results also showed a concentration of activity in locations near influencers, demonstrating success of the pass along component. In addition, there was an increase in purchases of other AirWick products, thus the i•Influencer
TM program had a halo effect on AirWick sales.
i•Influencer
TM will expand to the US following current pilot programs in that region.
###
