Marketing Communications

68 CHAPTER 2 BRANDING

it was not just Barco who was announcing a new digital

cinema projector, but the whole industry. Third and

most importantly, Barco managed to get a new category

inserted in the Guinness Book of World Records : the brightest

projector. Barco set a new record in this category with

43 000 lumens of light (as compared with 20 000 lumens

for competitive brands), which is comparable with the

combined light output of about 1700 regular flashlights.

From then on, Barco started advertising with the slogan

‘brightest projector on the planet’. Christie and Sony did

not respond.

What about the results? Firstly, in terms of sales, the

campaign supported Barco’s rapid market expansion and

boosted the company’s image in the cinema market. Barco

became industry leader with a 40% market share and

25 000 projectors installed by the end of 2011. Importantly,

Barco obtained these spectacular results with a modest

budget of about €400 000. Approximately half of the

budget was spent on tradeshow participation, 35% on

advertising and a modest 15% on campaign creation and

collateral. Further recognition of the campaign was the

LACP Spotlight Award Barco received (LACP is a global com-

munications competition) and inclusion by MLC (Marketing

Leadership Council) in its top 50 of B2B campaigns.

Secondly, Barco displayed one consistent and recog-

nisable brand image in the digital cinema sector (and not

different images for the different types of projectors the

company has for this industry). According to a customer

loyalty study conducted by an independent research firm in

2011, Barco’s secured loyalists in the digital cinema indus-

try grew from 33% in 2009 to 55% in 2011, a customer

loyalty mark that is 12 points above the industry bench-

mark. Barco’s image proved to be the most impactful

loyalty driver in the digital cinema market with products

achieving third place (in other industries served by Barco,

products consistently form the top loyalty driver) (see also

Figure 2.7 ). Nevertheless, Barco needs to keep on improv-

ing its projectors and that is exactly what it does. Right

now, it already has a projector that produces 55 000

lumens of light. Barco also incorporated laser technology

into the light engines and integrated media servers and

theatre management systems software to offer its custom-

ers the capability of integrated systems. By consistently

putting customers’ needs first, Barco has become a more

customer-oriented (and less a mere product-oriented)

company.

Thirdly, in terms of in-house confidence the campaign

was also a big success. ‘Projecting the magic’ was the first

campaign for a specific product that Barco launched after

the new branding strategy was installed. The smooth

co-operation between the different divisional, regional and

corporate Barco teams was seen as one of the success fac-

tors of the campaign. The spectacular results reinforced

the company’s belief that ‘to be one’ was the right way to

go and recognised the new Corporate Marketing organisa-

tion as an important sparring partner for other divisions.

In this sense, the campaign also resulted in a significant

motivational boost for all Barco’s employees.

To conclude, in a couple of years Barco managed to move

from a merely technology-focused to a more customer-

focused organisation. Technology remains important,

but, unlike in the past, one face for the whole organisa-

tion and one brand image in terms of providing the right

customer solution in all its markets have become important

as well. By following the ‘one brand’, ‘one company’,

‘customer centred’ and ‘focus on Barco’s mid-term and

long-term strategy’, the ‘Projecting the magic’ campaign

for digital cinema became a big success.

Figure 2.7 Drivers of performance and impact

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