Beyond barcodes.-A new digital ecosystem to give greater value to partners.

AECOC.

Did you know that all barcodes in Spain are generated by La Asociación Española de Codificación Comercial? AECOC came with a clear request: to transform the relationship with its associates. To achieve this we built a new digital ecosystem around the brand, which strengthened brand awareness and generated more conversions.

Beyond barcodes.

Barcodes are at every twist and turn we take. Whether we’re shopping, receiving a package, on theatre tickets or even our favorite band’s concert. But, have you ever wondered exactly where they come from and who creates them? To be honest, neither have we. However, that all changed the day the Spanish Association of Commercial Coding (AECOC) contacted us.

It was at that moment we discovered that this non-profit association is the only one certified in our country to generate barcodes by international standards. Founded in 1977, it has more than 30,000 members throughout Spain, including producers, manufacturers and distributors. All of that equals about 4.5 million jobs and generates 20% of Spain’s GDP.

A clear request.

But AECOC’s mission goes above and beyond than just generating barcodes or electronic invoices. It offers its members consulting and advisory services, provides seminars and training, anticipates future trends and even promotes projects that promote a more sustainable society.

When chatting with them, they made a clear request: to transform the relationship with their associates, strengthening the links and increasing the value they received. For us at Good Rebels, it was clear to us that the way to achieve this was to digitise the relationship by building a new digital ecosystem around the AECOC brand.

Transferring AECOC’s value proposition to its digital identity.

AECOC interacts with its associates through digital channels and thematic events, organised around the different sectors of activity (health, hospitality, mass consumption, logistics, etc). Therefore, we had to propose a transformation strategy that would integrate digital platforms and physical environments to generate a new omnichannel galaxy aimed at optimising the relationship with both current and potential partners.

For the first step, we delimited what would be AECOC’s digital identity and to do so we had to answer three key questions:

  • What’s its value proposition?
  • Who’s it aimed at?
  • How does it translate to each service?

We then came to the realisation that AECOC had to make its mission of improving competitiveness of its members throughout the value chain, to reach the consumer in the most effective way possible, crystal clear.

This mission was to be embodied in the values that defined its digital identity: willingness to serve, commitment to the objectives of its partners, and a positive and proactive attitude.

The entire digital proposal of AECOC had to be oriented to make these objectives clear to its community and to transmit the principles of trust, usefulness, transparency and efficiency.

Redesigning and conditioning the digital channels.

With AECOC’s values and digital proposal clear, we began to work on its digital channels. First, we fine-tuned the website, based on the premise that a B2B oriented website doesn’t have to renounce to an attractive and dynamic visual communication. So, we decided to modernise its style and give it a fresh look while still transmitting the image of rigor and professionalism that associates look for in an entity like this.

Additionally, we also wanted to give a lot more visibility to the content generated by AECOC (publications, webinars, seminars, events, etc.), so that the associate would perceive that the organisation was continuously offering a different value than others.

Communicating better.

In addition, we took charge of the dynamization of social networks, mainly Twitter and LinkedIn, preparing specific pieces, messages and copies for each platform, and at the same time, organising a complete strategy of paid media campaigns on LinkedIn. At the beginning we focused on working on notoriety to later focus on conversion (event registrations, sale of studies, etc.).

We also launched a weekly internal newsletter (The Friday mail) aimed specifically at the heads of each area, which, using a casual and direct tone, included the latest publications, articles or graphic materials of interest to them, as well as news on corporate profiles, tips and recommendations to continue strengthening their personal brand.

We conveyed to AECOC the idea that it is necessary to invest in order to reach the audiences among which it wanted to position itself.

Energizing expert profiles: power to the PMs.

The other main pillar of our work with AECOC focused on industry events. On the one hand, we took care of the live coverage, trying to give maximum visibility to speakers and content, while on the other, we paid great attention to additional elements of value, such as surveys or behind the scenes.

We insisted on the importance of disseminating the meetings before, during and after they were held. And after each event, we generated ad hoc reports, gathering the repercussions and reach achieved.

But it doesn’t stop here. As we believe that practice of teaching a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, we also launched an exhaustive task of empowering product managers and the visible heads of each of the areas. Through personalised one-to-one training, we gave the PMs the tools to become true sector references:

  • We worked with more than 40 professionals who are experts in their respective areas.
  • We tailored the training to the digital expertise of each of them, from how to optimise a LinkedIn profile to how to energise their digital community.
  • We supported each expert to develop and enhance their personal brand with customised content and creativity.
  • We generated discussions and conversations.
  • We gave them continuous feedback.

To sum it all up, we leveraged their expertise and influence to build bridges with the AECOC brand.

A result beyond digital channels.

Our work strengthened brand awareness, increased the reach of all their digital actions and drove traffic to the website to generate conversions. We highlighted AECOC’s educational work and omnichannel through innovative formats, and emphasised the importance of adding value to the community through events, quality content or conversations.

We then used the advantages of each social platform to gain brand awareness and reinforce verticals. All this to convey AECOC’s extensive value proposition to the target audience.

 

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