HP Sprocket captures Christmas attention and sales with a limited-edition gift bundle

Industry sectors: Consumer electronics

Brand name: HP

Website: hp.com/go/sprocket

The HP Sprocket is one of a handful of mobile photo printers available; a standout for its high print quality. But, in its first year, consumer awareness was low. Realizing that seasonal marketing was a good match for this product, the HP UK marketing team developed a winning gift bundle campaign that mobilized the combined power of digital printing and social media for the peak Christmas season.

Share with colleagues

Challenge

“Christmas is a great time for a gift campaign, but it’s also highly competitive. First, you must get retail chain buyers’ attention amongst all the other brands vying to get accepted for their holiday promotions. And then, during the season, you have to stand out to consumers.” – Zoe Jokiel, HPS Product Team Manager, UK&I Print Business, HP

Raising awareness among disparate audiencesIn mid-2017, less than a year after its introduction, the HP Sprocket mobile photo printer commanded a healthy market share. But, with the whole category suffering from overall low awareness, HP wanted to boost the HP Sprocket’s profile and drive up sales.

Teens and young millennials, avid takers and sharers of smartphone photos, are the obvious market for the HP Sprocket. But many don’t have access to a desktop printer or money to buy a mobile one. So, HP had to find a way to appeal to a wide age group spanning young users and an older segment that was more likely to buy them as a gift.

Strong sales of the HP Sprocket during its first Christmas period and again in the summer holidays showed that the mobile photo printer held particular appeal when photo-taking was even more top-of-mind. “We realized that seasonal marketing made sense, and that people saw the HP Sprocket as a gift, so we wanted to leverage the upcoming Christmas season to capture attention and purchases,” recalls Laura de la Pascua, Head of Marketing, UK&I Print Business, HP.

Setting teens, their parents, and young millennials as the target market, HP began developing a Christmas gift offering and campaign. To have a chance at capturing consumers’ attention, HP knew the gift would first have to get the interest of buyers for the retail chains, who as early as July were deciding which products would be in their holiday season offering.

Solution

“It shouldn’t take months and months to create a campaign. Moving and adjusting quickly is key. Digital printing gave us flexibility to get the boxes out really quickly, and to produce more of them as the campaign evolved.” – Zoe Jokiel, HPS Product Team Manager, UK&I Print Business, HP

Gift bundle enabled by digital printingHP created an eye-catching, limited-edition gift bundle for Christmas that included a Sprocket, accessories, and a voucher to create a personalized skin through an interactive website. Using HP Scitex, Indigo and Latex Digital Printing Solutions, the bundles were created and packaged in one-of-a-kind corrugated boxes. Tens of thousands of the boxes were printed, with the unique patterns on each one created by HP SmartStream Mosaic from a single seed file designed by British designer Emily Forgot. The Mosaic-generated designs were also featured on in-store displays.

The unique boxes were a major attraction for retail chain buyers, giving them something that would stand out on shelves and draw in consumers with the chance to choose a specific box just for their friend or family member. To appeal to a wide gift-buying market, the printed design made the box look as if it was already gift-wrapped.

The development and production of the packaging took only a few weeks using HP digital printing capabilities. Coded vouchers inside the box enabled consumers to create a personalized skin for their Sprocket via an interactive website, and the skin was then printed and mailed to the consumer.

The gift bundle, sold through leading retailers, was supported by a 360˚ marketing campaign spanning X-Factor sponsorship, outreach by influential vloggers, and campaigns on multiple social media platforms. X-Factor was chosen because teens and parents watch it together and it gave HP real-time exposure through the voting app, with over half a million downloads.

Results

“There’s no single magic ingredient for the campaign’s success. It all worked together: the unique packaging and offer, the effective influencers, the X-Factor app, retailers’ marketing campaigns, our prominence in social media. It worked because we surrounded the customer.” – Laura de la Pascua, Head of Marketing, UK&I Print Business, HP

Exposure (and sales) beyond expectationsThe Sprocket gift bundle and integrated marketing campaign hit the mark with exactly the target audience that HP had defined, boosting awareness and sales throughout the crucial Christmas gift-giving season.

The gift pack was featured in numerous online, TV and magazine gift guides, with a combined audience of over 350 million people. The campaign received millions of social media impressions, via both HP’s campaigns and organic posts and shares. Retailers in the UK and Europe conducted their own online and in-store campaigns around the gift bundle, extending the reach even further.

Post-campaign studies show that it dramatically raised consumer engagement. In the UK, unaided awareness doubled across all age groups; and it tripled amongst HP’s prime target audience of 13 to 17-year-olds.

Most tellingly, HP Sprocket sales in the UK grew by over 300% year-on-year – growth that HP attributes almost completely to the gift bundle and marketing campaign.

With sales higher than expected, the flexibility of digital printing was key to keeping pace. “A couple of retailers doubled their orders mid-season, and we were creating bundles as the orders came in,” says Zoe Jokiel, HPS Product Team Manager, UK&I Print Business, HP

Julia Cole, from HP’s Global Brand Innovation Team, adds: “Because of the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of digital printing, there are now lots of options that were not previously available, like personalization, unique designs, and flexible ways of packaging. Now, packaging is not just part of the marketing mix, it’s a powerful element in the communications mix.”Sign up for updates

hp.com/go/getupdated

© Copyright 2018 HP Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA7-3046ENW, May 2018