Ontra

Ontra provides AI-driven legal technology for the private equity market. It’s a niche user group with language all their own. To make Ontra feel bigger than they are, while also appealing to their specific target, we used outdoor that spoke the private equity language, while communicating in large, public places. Digital retargeting followed to build consideration and drive conversion.

AI LEGAL TECH FOR PRIVATE EQUITY MARKETS

Ontra Advertising Division of labor

Billboards in NYC train stations in the city and suburban platforms on the Metro North line allowed multiple impressions with our target during each day of their commute.

General brand messages were mixed with specific problem/solution - old way/new way messages.

Ontra Social Media Advertising

Ctrl-F is a big keyboard shortcut in private equity. It’s used to find specific terms in financial models, legal agreements and investor presentations. And compared to how Ontra works, Ctrl-F is a dinosaur.

  • To reach private equity lawyers and those creating funds within private equity firms, we focused our initial campaign effort on NYC. The majority of private equity firms are concentrated in central Manhatten with the majority of decision makers traveling to and from physical office spaces on a regular basis.

    So we started by reaching people at the start of their commute points in upstate New York and Connecticut along the Metro North train line. For a brand with such a niche target, this outdoor was actually quite targeted and made the brand seem much bigger than it was.

    Placements continued along the route inside Grand Central Station and then along multiple points on transit shelters and billboards within walking distance of the main private equity head quarters.

    Follow-up media continued on LinkedIn where job titles and industry can easily be selected.

  • There’s a lot of money in private equity. And people in the space know what they’re doing. They have years of experience and everyone has their own, unique way of doing things. So they have to see a benefit that’s bigger and more tangible than just a general, “AI is more efficient” sort of message. They have to know that we understand the systems we’re asking them to change. They have to believe we get their business. They have to know we speak their language and get their pain. So we created a campaign with multiple executions focused on the exact types of tedious, minutia they deal with to build that trust.

  • There are too many brands and not enough colors. Very few sectors should rely on color ownership save for the car rental industry and maybe airlines. When you have a campaign with multiple executions, if each execution is the same color, it actually reduces the number of people who will read more than one or two. Why? They perceive that they’ve “seen that before” and gloss over. If you fill a subway station with messages of the same color, they become a single color of wall paper. If you break it up into multiple colors, like little M&M candies, people are more attracted and actually excited by the palette. Contrasting color palettes attract more attention than muted, similar shades. So if you want people to engage with your brand and read your messages, use more colors. If you just want to reinforce National Car Rental being the green company, then, ya, one color.