Baker Petrolite Wins “Maverick Marketing” Crystal Award with a Knockout.

What do you call a boxer who gets beat up in a fight? A sore loser. (Alright, alright, it’s a clean joke.)

What do you call a creative idea whose marketing team uses it to build awareness and business in a striking new way? A winner – in this case, a Crystal Award winner.

Or you can call it the “Boxing Glove” box: the Baker Hughes LeakGuardTM Hydrocarbon Leak Detection and Mitigation Services package that started life as a direct mail idea and toted up even bigger results as a maverick marketing tool for tradeshow use. The winnah and new champeen of Crystal Awards Category 77: “Maverick Marketing.”

Finding and fixing the hydrocarbon leaks in refinery heat exchangers is a huge problem. They cost a huge amount of money. To fight this expensive trouble, Baker Petrolite created the branded LeakGuard program to deliver three big benefits: early leak detection; rapid ID of the leak source; and emergency mitigation of microbial growth. In other words, “Find Them Fast. Fix Them Fast.”

Brenda Bramhill, then-water treatment marketing manager, envisioned an offbeat marketing drive to surprise National Petrochemical and Refining Association (NPRA) attendees in Dallas. ‘Cause for the first time, NPRA would let sponsors purchase table-top display areas that could be operated during lunch and reception times. Petrolite had a whopping six hours over two days to get its message out – to create LeakGuard awareness and memorability.

Nobody can resist a big box. This big box has a boxing ring on the outside. It has a bright red Everlast™ boxing glove with the LeakGuard brand name, plus the tag line “Find Them Fast. Fight Them Fast,” on the inside. Plus it’s got your sell-them-don’t-just-tell-them program collateral (all theme-matching, thank you) and a call-to-action.

According to Bramhill, the Petrolite team handed out enough boxing glove boxes in the six hours time period so that “…people were lined up to get an opportunity to see what the excitement was all about, to experience the buzz for themselves.”

The Boxing Glove giveaway generated that buzz. When customers realized the symbolic nature of the glove and their problems with hydrocarbon leaks, they said this giveaway item was one of the most creative they’d ever seen. And Petrolite beat its going-in qualified lead goal by 100%.

Baker Petrolite Downstream Marketing Manager Scott Bieber emailed, “Thanks to Brenda and her team for bringing their ‘A game’ to the creation of this successful Baker Hughes promotional program!” The team included graphic artists Beth Ann Prete and Lucia Clark. Susan Bourgain and Haley Zerwas assisted with the direct mail part of the campaign. And Bieber was kind enough to mention my name too. I sure am proud to have had a part in this award-winner.

Look, more than 200 finalists brought their best to the 2010 AMA Houston Crystal Awards. There were more than 60 winners. The one I helped work on and bring to market – that’s the one I’m writing about. Thanks, Baker Petrolite and way to go. This one’s a knockout.