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Let’s get personal(ized).

How to successfully engage a niche audience.

Johnson Financial Group (JFG) is a full-service financial company — which has a former United Airlines pilot on staff. As a result of the ongoing pandemic, United began offering early retirement in lieu of mass layoffs in September 2020. JFG recognized an opportunity to offer these pilots the resources they needed to make informed decisions.

Bader Rutter developed a campaign specifically targeting these pilots. Once other airlines followed suit and began offering early retirement too, we broadened our campaign to include other potentially eligible pilots across the country. Anticipating that most impressions and engagements would happen around major airport hubs, we targeted them more exclusively. And when we updated the geotargeting from all of the United States to just the 17 United Airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines hubs, our performance leapt. In paid media alone, our click-through rate more than doubled from this optimization — 0.12% to 0.27% — in one month.

Our efforts crossed social media, paid search and paid media, with all channels pushing to a curated landing page with information and resources tailored to each airline, knowing pilot needs varied depending on their employer.

To understand our audiences’ preferences on social, we also conducted an A/B creative test. We had one ad with text overlay on an image and one without. The one with the text received 85% more website visits, further informing our targeting strategy going forward.

About the Author

Allison Madell’s career has specialized in food communications, with a focus on food commodities and producer marketing programs. She has created strategic integrated marketing campaigns for high-profile commodity accounts, including The Incredible, Edible Egg; the National Pork Board; The Mushroom Council; and Got Milk?  ​

At Bader Rutter, Allison led the teams that developed breakthrough content for Corteva Corporate Communications, including the “millennial moms” blog, Plate-wise and the popular podcast: The Growing Debate. Bringing narratives to life through dimensionalized and differentiated content is what makes her happiest.​

After work, you’ll most likely find her on her spin bike or cooking for friends and family.​