PartsTrader
Gigantic's strategy
Repositioning for Growth in the U.S. Market
Background
As the leading parts procurement platform in New Zealand, PartsTrader had a proven business model. But when expanding into the U.S. market, early communication missteps created confusion and skepticism among their key verticals: body shops, suppliers, and insurance carriers. To gain traction, the brand needed more than just visibility. It needed trust.
They reached out to Gigantic Media for help.
The Challenge
While reputation recovery was just one piece of the puzzle, it needed to be addressed first. Reputation recovery isn’t just about damage control. It’s about reshaping perception.
We also wanted to "re-introduce" the PartsTrader brand to the US market in a more friendly and accessible way. Additionally, we needed a marketing strategy that fit the challenges of their specific sales cycle: selling to large insurers while maintaining excellent relationships with shops and suppliers. We understood that this wouldn't be easy and would require going beyond a purely digital strategy to encompass relationship building around live events.
The task: reframe PartsTrader’s U.S. presence through a multi-point marketing strategy that would rebuild confidence and inspire belief.
We set out to turn a fragmented, misunderstood brand narrative into a cohesive story of innovation, reliability, and renewed momentum. We then put in place a strategy that allowed us to get that message out across multiple channels culminating each year in a large, well-attended event that we could use as a clear barometer of success.
The Approach
Gigantic Media leveraged its deep expertise across the automotive ecosystem, including insurance, OEMs, repair networks, roadside assistance, and procurement, to design a comprehensive reintroduction strategy for PartsTrader.
Deliverables included:
- Revamped brand identity that visually and emotionally aligned with the U.S. market. This included using illustrations to make the brand more approachable and investing in thought-leadership strategies like webinars and trend reports.
- Intuitive website that backed the complex sales cycle to guide user journeys with clarity and credibility. Selling an enterprise SaaS solution that benefits a three-part ecosystem is no easy feat. We built the website understanding that it would need to provide both instant accessibility to the brand, messaging that addressed each of the three audiences and a depth of knowledge and education to support what can be complex products.
- Sales enablement design assets including presentations and companion collateral for high-value meetings. This is one of the seemingly simple elements that many marketing agencies miss. When selling to top executives, presentations may be the single most important piece of collateral you will build! But because a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation is often seen as the purview of an internal sales team, outside agencies often lack the skill (or will) to dig into these and ensure they are brand-aligned and effective.
- Product launch campaign to introduce new platform features and functionality. As PartsTrader settled into the US market and began to introduce new products, they turned to us for the creation of these new "aub-brands". We worked closely with their product teams to create dynamic and impactful product-branding that would both stand on its own and work seamlessly within the larger corporate brand strategy.
- Event marketing strategy and execution, including a standout presence at SEMA Las Vegas. As mentioned, one of the pillars of our success with this key client was the building of an impactful event strategy. When selling to large enterprise customers like insurers there is simply no getting around the need for a thoughtful in-person marketing strategy. This is another area that sets Gigantic Media apart: few agencies are able to pull off a world-class event while simultaneously delivering on all the key digital strategic elements.
The Impact
Gigantic Media delivered a unified brand and messaging platform that simplified complex internal changes and reshaped external perception. The results speak for themselves: significantly increased revenue, pipeline acceleration, and positioning as a key part of the collision repair ecosystem. We certainly can't take all the credit! The Partstrader teams worked smart and worked hard for the past seven years to take PartsTrader from a company struggling to find a foothold in the US, to one of the premier companies in the auto-physical damage space.
"Every campaign we've worked on together has been met with creativity, precision and a deep undertsanding of our goals. Gigantic is responsive, thoughtful, and always a few steps ahead, which gives me complete confidence in everything we launch together."
Brenda Hogan
VP Enterprise Accounts
PartsTrader
