In 2005, La Poste launched a vast multi-channel communication campaign for the launch of its new subsidiaries Maileva and Asphéria. Alain Gosset was its marketing director at the time, and he entrusted 3TOON with the design and production of the gigantic e-mail marketing operation.
The operation consisted in creating a 4-episode animated web series (see the dedicated page), which would serve as a B2B sales tool for La Poste’s sales forces.
In 2012, seven years later, Alain Gosset gave us this client testimonial in which he explains his expectations at the time, and delivers a full assessment of this exemplary viral marketing operation. He insists in particular on the exceptional longevity of these programmes, still in use by La Poste’s and Maileva’s sales teams several years after they were commissioned.
Transcript of the interview with Alain Gosset
“ By carrying out this operation, we showed that La Poste was modern. La Poste, which traditionally was perhaps perceived as a little “old-fashioned” — the notion of “trust”, the notion of paper — by doing an operation like this one, we projected an image of modernity, showing that we knew how to tie together the Internet, the telephone and paper! ”
What other positions did you hold alongside the marketing direction of Maileva and Asphéria, subsidiaries of La Poste?
Alain Gosset: I was president of the SNCD, the national direct-marketing association. I launched e-mailing in France, I wrote a book on the use of e-mailing, I handled the legal side of everything surrounding Permission Marketing. And I also ran companies in direct marketing.
What challenge or problem were you facing before contacting 3TOON?
A G: Maileva’s problem is that it is a company selling products directly online — online document printing and other archiving products. The product is aimed at very small and medium-sized businesses. Given the huge number of them in France, we had to find a medium that would, on the one hand, explain the product — its concept was totally new — and on the other, try to sell it as simply as possible, directly. We also needed a means of training and informing both the general public of small businesses AND La Poste’s sellers and advisers. So we were after a product with two destinations: a sales aid and a self-training tool for the sales force.
How did you discover the 3TOON studio?
Pure chance! I was on the jury of a major direct-marketing awards competition, with several prize categories, including one for viral marketing. 3TOON was nominated in the viral marketing Grand Prix category, alongside two other companies, and it was 3TOON that won the grand prize, with a series of advertising films for FastBooking, which published online booking software for hotels. A few years later, when I was in charge of marketing at La Poste, I called them to see whether a cartoon would make sense for the launch of our products.
What results were you hoping for?
Running a B2B e-mailing promotion campaign aimed at small shopkeepers and tradespeople was no easy matter… Hence my memory of the 2001 viral marketing Grand Prix. I told myself that if we had 10,000 or 30,000 e-mails carrying an innovative, funny message, we might get the message duplicated 10, 20, 50 times over… So we addressed small shopkeepers with the idea that, often, when someone receives a message that touches them, they send it to their friends, who do the same — which is the very basis of viral marketing. That is why we chose this type of product.
Why did you choose the 3TOON studio?
Honestly, at the time, when we chose 3TOON, we did not run a call for tenders. Quite simply because 3TOON was working on an innovative concept back then. We simply picked a company that had experience, an innovative product, and had been recognised by its peers, since it had won the grand prize — even though I chaired the jury, I was far from alone on it — so no call for tenders. The budget was deemed reasonable for our distribution challenge, with two messages to carry.
How many episodes did you commission?
We started with 3 films and, as they were enormously popular, La Poste commissioned a fourth film to launch its electronic registered letter.
What results did you get in the end?
Measuring the results of viral marketing is very hard! But I logged on to Maileva’s site by chance, 6 months ago, and I saw that these cartoons were still online… 7 years later! That, I think, shows a certain success.
What lessons do you draw from this experience?
We had a great deal of very positive feedback from La Poste’s internal sales forces. That was the second message. And that we could measure, since we gathered them at least once or twice a year in seminars, during which we screened the cartoons and they could take them away, and so on. So there we measured that, beyond words — people speak of “the shock of images”, and it is true… The shock of the cartoon, with a humorous, entertaining touch and a simple message — because one of the things we learned is that a short cartoon should carry just one message, not several — a simple message, the person who receives it keeps it in their memory.
Watch the 4 episodes of the web series by clicking below
