Natuzzi Expands Marketing with GET Interactive

September 7, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Advertising on September 8, 2011 Leather upholstery supplier Natuzzi Americas is broadening its consumer reach with its digital marketing partnership with GET Interactive

The interactive ad campaign is currently being featured on shelter magazine Web sites like Elle Décor.

Natuzzi (NYSE: NTZ) first signed an agreement with GET Interactive in October 2010. The technology allows consumers to roll over an online banner ad, which then expands to showcase products, video and more in a total branded experience.

"Rather than waiting for a consumer to visit our Web site to learn about our company's offerings, this technology is enabling us to push the Natuzzi Italia, Natuzzi Editions and Italsofa brand stories out to the consumer wherever they choose to engage with us," said Brad Cates, senior vice president of Natuzzi Americas. "It also allows us to do so in a very compelling way."

In additional to national brand building, the company is creating custom banner ads for local markets to support individual dealers.

"In light of current economic conditions, we believe that it s more important than ever to find innovative ways to help dealers convert business and drive sales, particularly as they head into the all-important fall selling season," Cates said. "We are therefore customizing the national banner ad campaign for dealers at the local level to reflect both the message of the national campaign, and the products each store offers on its floors. This allows our dealers to take advantage of everything that Natuzzi Italia is doing from a national campaign perspective and to maximize consumer awareness for the Natuzzi Editions or Italsofa brands."

The local banner ads are customized in-house by Natuzzi's marketing team at no charge to retailers. The ads are available with customized voiceovers in French and Spanish for the Canadian and Latin American markets, as well as English. Go online to check out one of the banner ads. 

€œIn leveraging this technology, Natuzzi Americas has created the best possible scenario to maximize its full potential,€ said Rick Harrison, chief executive officer of GETInteractive. €œThe combination of national and regional ad buys, which allows consumers to engage with, and learn about the brands at any digital point of contact -- in concert with an individualized, store-by-store deployment of the banner ads customized to reflect the brands and products each store offers--has never been done before, in the furniture industry, or any other. Ever.€

Natuzzi Americas€™ commitment to adopting and leveraging cutting-edge technologies like this is not new, Cates said. The company was also among the first in the furniture industry to deploy digital tags to convey product information.

€œOne of our goals as a brand is to remain ahead of the technology curve and to continually raise the bar, both for the
industry and for our customers,€ he said.

In addition to driving consumers to dealers€™ doors at a time when they need it most, the expandable banner ad campaign is also providing information regarding consumer preference patterns at both a national and a granular level.

€œWe can track where consumers are going and what they are doing, and we can do it in real time," Cates said. "We€™re able to discern which models are most popular at a store-by-store level and we€™re generating a very powerful body of information. In essence, in implementing this technology, we€™ve created an on-going focus group that funnels information back to us from wherever the technology is deployed. Best of all, we are able to share this information with our dealers to help them manage and build their businesses.€