The Hindu Business Line : Jubilee campaign

DHL is reinforcing its leadership in the express business by highlighting its expertise in ferrying shipments within the Asia Pacific region through a new campaign coded AP-AP. It also tied up this campaign with an online promotion where its customers had a chance of winning a pair of return flight tickets to a destination of their choice.

Highlighting the strategy behind the new campaign, designed by O & M, Ramesh Natarajan, National Marketing Manager, DHL Worldwide Express, says, "Our latest campaign is part of our renewed focus on Asia as a growth engine. The intra-Asia (AP-AP) market is the fastest growing segment for DHL."

According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates, intra-Asian trade has risen steadily from about 24 per cent of total trade in the early '80s to 40 per cent in recent years.

Underlining the growing importance of the Asia Pacific region in its global business portfolio, DHL has launched the AP-AP marketing campaign across all Asia Pacific markets. "The 360-degree marketing campaign is being spearheaded by an all new advertising campaign with the tagline, `No one knows Asia Pacific like we do,' which reflects our extensive knowledge of the Asia-Pacific region," says Natarajan. DHL was the first international express company to begin operations in the Asia Pacific more than 30 years ago. "Today, DHL has leadership positions in most markets across the region including India, where it is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year," says Natarajan.

To tap growth opportunities in the region, DHL has invested more than $1.13 billion in airport gateways, air hubs, airline operations, security, ground network and infrastructure development across Asia Pacific over the last few years. In India, DHL has made significant investments in setting up technologically-advanced infrastructure including India's first airside gateway at the Indira Gandhi Airport in Delhi, sophisticated service centres, a brand new fleet of vehicles and new generation wi-fi scanners. By running a contest alongside the campaign, DHL is also measuring the success of its latest campaign. As Natarajan says, "Today's economy is an entertainment economy and it's important that we engage our customers with our brand. I think this is our way of engaging the customer - and measuring the efficacy of the campaign. We have never done a multimedia campaign in India that did not have a response component to it."

By running this special promotion, all DHL Express customers in the Asia Pacific region stood a chance of winning a trip to any Asia Pacific destination of their choice with every DHL Express shipment sent from May 10 to July 31. There were 50 pairs of tickets to be won and customers could enter the contest online.

The contest focuses on DHL's key strength of being fast and reliable. "The game engaged our customers in a virtual experience of pick-up of shipments in a given time frame, which is something that DHL does 24x7." The contest is a test of skill where customers play a `DHL Drive Time' game which requires them to navigate a DHL van through a maze to pick up as many DHL parcels as they possibly can within the 30-second time limit. The top 50 online entrants who achieve the highest scores in the DHL Drive Time game will be declared the winners.

Adds Natarajan, "Media advertising for DHL has proven to be good for acquisition and cross-selling, unlike, say, DM which is good for retention and customer lifecycle management. All of these, of course, complement our primary contact channels, field sales and telesales."

And, if we add channels of communications (the AP-AP campaign is on TV, the Internet, print dailies, print magazines, outdoor, direct mail, e-mail and radio with many innovations in some of these) - then we find that the response multiplies, not just adds up."

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