Universal Lighting Technologies is the winner of three “Best of the Best” Awards for 2012, including Best Print Ad Campaign, Best Print Ad (Single), and Best Integrated Promotional Campaign. Hosted every year by TED Magazine, the national awards competition recognizes the best marketing and communications efforts in the lighting industry, covering advertising, public relations, social media, product literature and more.
Best Print Ad Campaign
In 2011, Universal Lighting Technologies took a “back to the drawing board” approach to completely reevaluate its strategy toward consumer messaging, graphic design, and media buying. Adding grocery store owners and managers to the audience mix along with traditional targets like distributors and installers, the company created an all-new print campaign focused on a personal message of empowerment. The artistic style was a bold, high-concept design capturing the retro style of a 1940s propaganda poster—unlike anything else in the electrical industry magazines.
Five ads were created as part of the “Revolution” campaign, each with a distinct message within the overarching theme of empowerment. Rather than directing audiences to the company’s general homepage, each of these ads included a special web address (www.unvlt.com/save) and QR code leading to case studies addressing the specific needs of targeted audience.
Best Print Ad (Single)
With the Revolution campaign, the “Demand Control” ad focused specifically on DCL technology, which enables precise control of power and light levels on the circuit level without the need for expensive control wiring. The headline plays on the twin meanings of the word “demand”—as an industry term referring to the amount of energy required at a particular time and a common verb meaning torefuse to take no for an answer. The message: Now you can demand control over your energy costs, thanks to Universal Lighting Technologies. With minimal copy, the ad cuts to the chase, giving just the facts: up to 45% energy savings, no new wiring, and no installation headaches.
Best Integrated Promotional Campaign
Commercial building owners and facility managers have long been a target audience for Universal Lighting Technologies, but a broad approach simply isn’t cost effective at presenting an energy savings message. Therefore, in 2011, ULT designed and launched the Audience Segment Campaign to target specific, tightly focused segments within the building owner and facility manager audience who were currently underserved by the lighting industry and provided clear potential for significant energy savings with well established lighting technologies.
Identifying grocery store owners/managers and parking garage owners/managers as the first two industry groups that clearly fit these criteria, Universal Lighting Technologies created unique brochures for each industry—addressing their specific needs with a detailed floor plan of each type of facility, explaining precisely which lighting technologies they could use where to slash energy costs. Next, print and digital mailings were designed to match the brochures. The first provided an industry-specific case study, the next focused on a specific product, and the third served as an invitation to a webinar. The objective was to create a wide variety of entry points to the grocery store or parking garage “story” ULT wanted to tell.
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