Epson Wins Gold and Silver in Marketing Excellence Awards 2014

Epson Wins Gold and Silver in Marketing Excellence Awards 2014

Singapore, 14 November 2014 – Epson, the world’s first and, to date, only major printer maker to offer ink tank system printers, has walked away with two wins in the prestigious Marketing Excellence Awards, organized by Marketing Magazine. Last night, Epson received the Gold Award for Excellence in Marketing Communications and the Silver Award for Excellence in Integrated Marketing (B2B). The awards were bestowed in recognition of the technology giant’s innovative “ThINK Outside the Printer” campaign.

The Excellence in Marketing Communications category recognizes the best marketing campaign, initiative or programme that conveys compelling messages to its target audience while driving core business objectives while the Excellence in Integrated Marketing (B2B) category recognizes the best organization that effectively engages its B2B partners through an integrated marketing strategy, which employs a suite of marketing tools and media channels while driving core business objectives.

“We are thrilled to receive this recognition for our efforts from such a prestigious organization,” says Managing Director for Epson Southeast Asia, Endo Koichi. “Epson is re-defining and challenging the printer category with the introduction of the original ink tank printers. The research data shows that ink tank printers are gaining market traction and disruption has started. We have a unique value proposition, what was needed in this region was a consistent message coupled with high brand and product visibility delivered through a cohesive media strategy.”

In keeping with this direction, the “ThINK Outside the Printer” media strategy comprised print and out-of-home (OOH) advertising, in-store communications, social media and SME event activations, all consistently implemented across the five countries where Epson has a presence; Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and The Philippines.

“Among the more traditional source of influence like OOH, newspaper and magazines, small businesses make their printer purchases from researching online, walking up to stores and talk to promoters and base on word-of-month,” states Siew Jin Kiat, General Manager, Inkjet and Laser Printing Division. “The opportunity is there for us to introduce ink tank printers into their minds to change their perceptions before the next decision cycle.”

The campaign ran over two phases in 2014, with phase one lasting from February to April and phase two still ongoing, from July to December. Targeted at SOHOs and SMEs in the ASEAN region, the campaign also included the creation of a marketing video, titled ‘The Interview’, which garnered over 600,000 views on Epson’s YouTube page (400,000 of which were garnered during the first 3 days) and provided them with quantifiable data on their reach.

As a result of the campaign, Epson saw an increase in inkjet market share, in Q2 2014, up from Q1 2014[1]. Epson also retains the number one market share position in the high yield segment.

“For this campaign, we linked our functional messages to the bigger, more emotionally involved world of “business value”, which is an emotional mindset for small businesses and business owners,” elaborates Siew. “We wanted to trigger a rethinking of printing needs in a business, to present a new printing solution. The result of thinking outside the box is a printer that will help save the small businesses money.”