The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented disruption with global logistics and distribution. Organisations faced a wave of new supply chain issues that threatened operations, profitability and even their future.

The world has changed over the past two years. Supply chains have been stretched, customer demand has risen and ultimately, business has evolved. DHL Supply Chain had earned a reputation during the pandemic for proactively coming to business customers’ aid to help with their supply chain challenges.

The brief was to build on this uplift in their reputation with a campaign that continued to shift perceptions away from them being seen a ‘solution provider’ to more of a long-term strategic partner.

Our main objectives were to raise brand awareness and attract and retain customers by raising awareness of DHL Supply Chain as a market leader and highlighting their range of logistics expertise to new and existing customers.

The idea takes influence from comic-book blockbusters to position DHL Supply Chain as the Ultimate Sidekick – an unstoppable force of 200,000 DHL experts around the world that can accomplish extraordinary feats for new and existing customers. They have the power to take on any challenge, seize any opportunity and always get results.

The campaign consists of dramatic film (and a series of static executions) that channels the spirit of spectacular superhero franchises into the traditionally sober b2b supply chain sector. Getting the design and execution right was as important as the idea itself. The style and tone of the campaign runs through online B2B media channels, before directing them to the campaign landing page.

This integrated campaign leaves our audience in no doubt that DHL Supply Chain has the size, scale and expertise to provide long-term partnership across a wide range of solution areas by becoming their Ultimate Sidekick.

The target audience for this campaign were decision makers and influencers (CEOs, President, VPs, Directors and Senior Managers) in Supply Chain/Logistics, Transportation, Manufacturing & Production, Purchasing & Procurement and Demand Planning/Forecasting.

The campaign was segmented with targeted messaging to appeal directly to prospects and existing customers who might be interesting in DHL’s eight individual solution areas. Its versatility allowed us to promote DHL Supply Chain’s wider service offering and deliver specific solution area messaging (using the overarching concept) to disrupt the market and amplify key selling points.

With organisations facing increasingly complex global challenges as they emerged from the pandemic, they needed expertise and support from a b2b partner with the global strength to stand by their side in the face of adversity. This global campaign showed the world what DHL Supply Chain are capable of and why they are their customer’s Ultimate Sidekick.

At the heart of this campaign was an online film called “Experts Assemble”, which was supported by a series of static messages and other campaign collateral. We ensured strong, consistent brand & solution messaging across all executions.

The film launched at the beginning of September 2021 (followed by all the supporting executions) and this phase of campaign ran throughout Q4 2021.

To get this out to market, we used targeted paid media and third-party display advertising across multiple platforms. We delivered service-specific messaging to decision-makers in relevant sectors — using the overarching concept to amplify key selling points in each area. Digital banners were delivered using DemandBase. Social media posts and imagery (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) was also used for owned channels including advocacy (Oktopost).

This global online campaign used both paid and organic advertising, driving the audience to campaign landing pages: https://dhlsupplychain.dhl.com/ultimatesidekick

Campaign Marketing performance and business impact as a result of the campaign:

• New business signings increased by 21%

• Highest ever customer renewal rate at 90.2% (target was 85%)

• The campaign successfully engaged with 60 top global accounts

• The campaign delivered a 6x ROI

• Organic Linkedin: 19.6k engagements / 1,046 249 impressions / 5939 clicks

• Paid advertising: 14k clicks / 4.5m impressions / 26.7k social engagements

• Campaign landing page – 65k visitors / 76k total page views / 1.21 minutes average view time

• Increased loyalty and feedback by achieving a Global Net Promotor score of 52 at Q4 2021 (up from 36 in 2020)