1 Million Responses to “What’s Your Purpose” Campaign in Latin America

As part of SAP Ariba’s message in Latin America, we promoted the theme “Business with Purpose”, focused on Finance, Purchasing and Supply Chain professionals, introducing the idea of Purchasing with Purpose.

MARKETING

Marcelo Fernandes

2/6/20255 min read

As we had a series of digital and in-person activities, I share here the excellent results we achieved and the creative process that illustrated the elements involved in this campaign.

At the end of this article, I also shared the “10 Lessons Learned, Tips and Tricks” based on the process of building and implementing this campaign.

You may be wondering why 1 million? Then stay with me until the end of the article and you will know.

But before you continue with the article, take a look at what participating customers had to say about the project. Having customer participation in B2B campaigns is one of the most powerful elements you can add.

When I started to develop this project, I thought about how to make the Purpose tangible and more aligned with regional challenges. I came up with some pillars (below) to focus on, based on existing materials globally, but adjusted to the local reality of Latin America so that they would resonate better.

The campaign called “What is your Purpose?” was born. (content in English)

To promote the pillars of all the materials created, the goal was to create a tangible connection with the solutions we offered.

Economic Growth → SAP Ariba Network

People Development → Free course on Modern Purchasing (in Portuguese only), with 13 classes, including the SAP Ariba vision and product demonstrations.

Risk Management → Supplier Risk Management Solutions

Our promotional effort, which included a digital campaign in 6 countries (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia), as well as the sponsorship of the CFO Council of the Americas, where I and the General Manager of our BU presented our story, was successfully concluded.

Commercial Focus

This campaign was built based on digital methodologies, with many benchmarks and traceable results in reports provided by PHD (our agency) and our internal areas.

The campaign had 2 main components from a data/targeting perspective:

Targeting 1800 accounts from the official Target Accounts list, with revenues exceeding 300 million dollars. Using information from this list (company names) crossed with the LinkedIn database to obtain more precise targeting. This represented a pipeline of more than 80 million dollars.
Using paid media (Programmatic, LinkedIn, Twitter) to reach a defined universe of professional profiles to whom the message was designed to be delivered. This focused on the target account list and also on a broader professional universe within specific industries.

Unfortunately, due to technical limitations on Marketo-based landing pages, we were unable to track visitor domains. However, we did obtain data from all customers who signed up for the free training.

CFO Council of the Americas

This is a branch of the Americas Society, Council of the Americas, and promotes meetings focused on CFOs of large companies.

During the planning phase, we pushed for the theme “Business with Purpose” to be included in the year’s agenda. We sponsored and presented this story in 4 meetings for approximately 120 high-level participants in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Peru.

I was also able to record 2 interviews (click to watch in English) with clients who participated with me on the panels. These interviews had over 1500 views on my personal LinkedIn page.

The LPs (landing pages) were created based on the pillars, including content associated with the concept and presenting SAP Ariba solutions and free training (in PT only) with 13 video classes available for visitors to download and interact.

The banners (16) were created in both languages, as well as posts on social media. All focused on creating curiosity in the public.

Video Production: 6 teasers were created (1 minute each), in addition to 8 videos with the main story and interviews.

Links to videos with English subtitles are below (click to watch):

Main Story – Purpose-Driven Business (Focus on Procurement and Supply Chain). The Purpose-Driven Procurement journey in Latin America. This “news” style video brings together the opinions of the experts below on the pillars mentioned and their impact in Latin America.
Interview with Tifenn Dano Kwan, SAP Ariba
The CMO of SAP Ariba talks about her views on the importance of purpose and why companies are changing their mindset about making a profit.
Interview with Frank Diana, Tata Consulting Services
Futurist and Managing Partner talks about the origin of purpose and how the world is moving from supply chains to ecosystems.
Interview with Fernanda Facchini, Natura Brasil
Supply Chain Manager of one of the largest cosmetics franchises in the world shares her vision on supplier inclusion and vision on Purpose.
Interview with Samuel Herrera, Monte de Piedad México
Deputy Director of Services and Controls talks about how companies should impact their surroundings with a Purpose, making employees proud of the company they work for.
Interview with Ednei Kupper, Nortel (Ariba Network Supplier)
Business Development Manager talks about the benefits of being part of a digital network, such as compliance, security and process optimization.
Interview with Azucena Cardenas, Merck (Ariba Network Supplier)
Customer Experience Manager shows how digital transformation can positively impact customer satisfaction.
Interview with Luis Fernando Figueroa, Alpina Colombia
Director of Purchasing and Foreign Trade, talks about how professionals need to be prepared to deal with the challenges of modern purchasing.

Another 13 videos were produced in the format of classes talking about Modern Purchasing, Guided Buying, Auctions, improving the buyer-supplier relationship, management methodologies, discussion panels with customers, etc.

Participating Associations:

As part of the digital effort, not only was a marketing email sent to our qualified database, but also the associations engaged in the project communicated with their members using their websites, newsletters and social media channels.

INBRASC – Brazilian Supply Chain Institute (part of the Brazilian Live University)
ASCOA – Council of the Americas (CFO branch)
ACOPC – Colombian Association of Purchasing Professionals

These associations have several thousand members in the areas of Purchasing, Supply Chain and CFO.

Promotion at SAP Offices

We also promoted the concept using internal newsletters, reaching employees in Latin America, as well as using the internal TV system for communication over a 30-day period.

United Nations Global Compact Meeting – Brazil

On May 9th, I presented the SAP Ariba Sustainability study at the UNGC SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) meeting.