Hisense strives to bolster challenger brand status by reaching the right audience at the right time

As a challenger brand, Hisense is operating in a dynamic environment and its marketing campaigns must reflect this to maximise return on investment.

Which is why its digital-focused marketing is driven by unified data, and extensive research, as witnessed by its most recent campaign, ‘How Good’.

The campaign was borne out of our direct consumer research, head of marketing at Hisense Australia, Andre Iannuzzi, told CMO.

“We conducted a series of ethnographic studies with 3000 Australian Hisense product owners to better understand how they were using and interacting with their electronics and appliances,” he said.

The result was ‘How Good’, activated across TV and digital, which aims to celebrate the simple, yet surprising moments customers experience through Hisense’s range of products. The positioning speaks to the smart solutions and features across its product ranges.

“It’s very much a local campaign and for Hisense it’s about storytelling. We wanted to ensure the features and consumer benefits of our products are being communicated in a way that is responding to how our customers are using these features in everyday life,” Iannuzzi said.

The campaign is being activated through consumer and retail promotions with prizes, such as a current ‘Trip To The North’ promotion and the upcoming ‘ La Tomatina’ promotion, where consumers have a chance to win a trip to Europe.

The national television commercial campaign is led by a partnership with Seven Network supported by a high-reaching placement during the AFL. Pay TV and online video (OLV) placement has also been utilised as part of the media buy. Pre-roll activity is running across 7,9,10, SBS, Foxtel and YouTube. However, Hisense also remains focused on digital channels and is very much data-focused across all its marketing activity.

“As a marketer, data is critical to ensure you are reaching the right audiences at the right time. We’ve invested in tools that allow us to use a unified digital marketing platform, which ensures all our data is centralised,” Iannuzzi explained.

“The benefit of this is we can correlate the data coming in and utilise it at specific times, such as around popular televisions programs and important sporting events. We have unified visibility across all our marketing channels, and this has allowed us to not only see the big picture but also use small data to create hyper localised campaigns.

“In addition, we’re focused on communicating product benefits to consumers who want access to the best technology that can simplify their everyday lives. We’ve made great efforts to declutter jargon in the retail and tech sectors as well as across our digital platforms. As a result, we’re able to communicate clearly and speak directly with everyday Australians about the array of consumer benefits across our product range."

Iannuzzi said consumers engage with the brand because it has such a wide range of products. "This high-level engagement is evident across many platforms. Our most effective channels are digital by far, as well as on demand, catch up television services,” he noted. 

To ensure campaign effectiveness with the right audiences, the marketing team uses A/B testing and targeting and personalisation. It's also targeting consumers through the use of EDM and social channels. Sales results, annual product brand research, segmentation studies and ethnographic research across all categories are also fed into the marketing effectiveness loop.

In 2020, Hisense will be bolstering its already significant investment in sports marketing, with several announcements to come, and plans to leverage and expand its presence in this sector. It will also be launching an audio offering with the release of sound bars, and expanding its laundry category.

“This activity all forms part of our wider strategy to provide Australian consumers with a wide offering of innovative yet affordable home appliances and continue to build category awareness across our ranges,” Iannuzzi added.

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