How Giancarlo Esposito and a robust creator strategy boosted SurveyMonkey’s success

Through a comprehensive strategy encompassing data, creative, influencer marketing and media, the campaign successfully extended SurveyMonkey’s reach and influence, resulting in higher brand awareness, cultural resonance and increased consideration among younger consumers.

The Idea

After rebranding to emphasize its enterprise solutions and differentiate itself from its self-serve SaaS survey origins, SurveyMonkey faced increased competition and a decline in market share. The company aimed to regain its leadership position, improve financial performance and address rising paid search costs resulting from competitors bidding on their brand terms.

The Strategy

SurveyMonkey seized the opportunity to launch a bold mass-market campaign that would reaffirm its category leadership. Partnering with PMG, the brand adopted a holistic approach encompassing data, strategy, creative, influencer marketing and media.

The goal was to extend SurveyMonkey’s reach and influence as a culturally-relevant brand and business solution, especially in these challenging times.

With the help of PMG’s Alli – the agency’s proprietary marketing intelligence platform – SurveyMonkey executed its largest-ever integrated full-funnel campaign, including its first venture into streaming. The campaign, fronted by actor Giancarlo Esposito, urged business leaders to listen to their customers and employees for better decision-making.

As part of the effort, SurveyMonkey also ventured into influencer marketing for the first time, working with creators across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok to showcase how surveys foster connections, empower individuals and businesses and engage communities. Notably, one video from DeAndre Brown humorously conveyed the irrelevance of workplace ‘perks’ like free pizza to Gen Z, instead highlighting the value of soliciting feedback.

The campaign was deployed across various channels, including connected TV, digital platforms, social media, podcasts on iHeartMedia and Spotify and digital out-of-home.

The Results

The campaign delivered outstanding results, including higher brand awareness, cultural resonance and active consideration for SurveyMonkey.

With the help of PMG and Alli, SurveyMonkey achieved a 58% reduction in brand cost per clicks, resulting in $1.5m in savings that could be reallocated to other performance programs and channels.

Further, within four weeks, TikTok hashtag views for #surveymonkey surged from 200,000 to 9m. The campaign generated 530m impressions among the target audience, with 127m video views. Furthermore, the campaign contributed to notable growth in sign-ups, signifying SurveyMonkey as the preferred provider for a new generation of users.

This campaign won at The Drum Awards for Marketing Americas 2023. Find out more about The Drum’s Global Awards program or head to our case studies hub to read more award-winning stories.