Marketers often have a love-hate relationship with Internet advertising. They know they need to do it, but usually have no idea which ads are working for them and whether or not their messages are getting to the right people. The whole process is kind of like throwing your money into a black hole. In fact, many marketers have used this metaphor before. So when we were tasked with showing how MailChimp’s tools can help them navigate the Internet, we figured that was the best place to start: by bringing the black hole to life as a sarcastic, ridiculous villain—and positioning MailChimp as the antidote.

We knew that if we wanted to connect with these small-business owners, we needed to not only empathize, but do so using the same fun, quirky, often absurd tone the brand is known for, especially when advertising in a category that isn’t.

We created a full funnel system of work around the black hole of marketing. First, we created intrigue with digital and social video that introduced small businesses to our marketing villain and MailChimp’s new features.

Once we had a large enough pool to retarget, we used enhanced data targeting and message sequencing to reinforce our product stories to a more qualified audience, driving them to engage with MailChimp via short-form video and social assets.

Finally, we focused on converting free users to paid users through smart retargeting. Anyone who hadn’t signed up was served banners that spoke to different automation benefits they’ve been previously exposed to, and how they save them from the dreaded black hole. Each acquisition asset drove to a corresponding landing page that furthered our customers’ knowledge of the automation and encouraged them to sign up to the feature with a CTA to the sign up page.

Our breakthrough voice and smart retargeting strategy drove awareness that converted to action.

The campaign achieved:

- More than 331M impressions and over 13M video completions

- Over 750K clicks and more than 300K site landings, almost 90 percent coming from new visitors

- Nonbrand search SOV against automation-related terms rose roughly eight percent between - the campaign's launch and its conclusion

- More than 35K free sign-ups, and just over 3.1K paid sign-ups

- An overall $64.32 cost per sign-up (inclusive of free and paid)