Firefly uses the power of research to help Masternaut reach a whole new audience

task

Masternaut provides enterprise telematics solutions to businesses and public sector organisations across Europe. The Masternaut Connect telematics platform turns real-time vehicle location data into valuable insights to help managers to improve driver safety, reduce fuel costs and optimise vehicle utilisation. Established in 1996, Masternaut has grown organically and through strategic acquisitions to become the largest in Europe.

Within the fleet management sector, Masternaut’s media profile was largely driven by customers, product and corporate stories. With the launch of a new telematics platform, Masternaut wanted to broaden media awareness to reach other decision makers in the business. With a 23% share of voice, narrowly ahead of rivals on 21% and 17% respectively, Masternaut also wanted to open up a wider gap that reflected its market share supremacy.

execution

In addition to existing media relations activities, Firefly recommended a research-driven campaign that addressed key issues for decision makers in areas beyond the traditional fleet management role. Focusing on driver safety and vehicle utilisation, Firefly developed storylines around uninsured business drivers, speeding and attitudes towards telematics.

Firefly conducted the omnibus research polling professional drivers in the UK. Armed with this research, Firefly and Masternaut created a raft of stories to provide market insights to fleet managers, HR directors, Health & Safety personnel, small business owners and CTOs.

These were some of topics used to craft press releases:

• The rise of ‘ghost fleets’, where a third of employees who drive as part of their jobs don’t have the correct insurance, despite driving an average of 4,708 miles per year.
• The growing acceptance of telematics amongst the workforce, highlighting that vehicle tracking had lost its stigma and ways that companies need to communicate the benefits of the technology to employees.
• The trend for business drivers to speed more in their employers’ vehicles, highlighting additional risks for businesses and how they can meet their duty of care obligations. This release was timed to go out during road safety week, a campaign by road charity Brake.

These press releases were supported by social media content through LinkedIn and Twitter as well as infographics to illustrate the story. The findings also formed the basis of bylined articles attributed to Masternaut executives and targeted at specialist media in areas such as HR and finance. Furthermore, the sales team also utilised the data on their own social networks and at UK based events, in which the results were referenced.

impact

Communicating business messages through ‘consumer’ omnibus research helped Masternaut move outside its core fleet and transport audience. Firefly’s PR campaign around the research resulted in over 70 pieces of coverage, across fleet, automotive, HR, health and safety, technology and business press. Research coverage included key titles such as Fleet News, Business Car and Automotive World as well as key vertical Computer World UK, HR Director, Tomorrow’s Health and Safety, Real Business and Talk Business.

The research helped contribute to improving Masternaut’s share of voice in the UK market, which over the course of 2014 stood at 35%, up from 23% in 2013. This placed it ahead of competitors Fleetmatics and Quartix, whose share of voice was eroded by Masternaut.