• by Aaron Baar , September 2, 2010

Xerox wants to be more than a company that makes copiers. In a new global marketing campaign from Y&R, the company is leveraging iconic brands and brand images to show how it helps businesses with process and document management, freeing them up to focus on the business at hand.

The campaign leverages Xerox's February acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services, the world's largest diversified business process outsourcing in the world. The acquisition doubled the company's size and tripled its business services enterprise. "It really started to shift our portfolio so that we're not just a technology company, but are also a business services company," Christa Carone, chief marketing officer for Xerox, tells Marketing Daily.

One television commercial, breaking Sept. 7, uses the Mets mascot, Mr. Met, as an example. In the spot, the mascot presents two team executives with a sloppily handwritten, barely legible document. After one of the executives chastises Mr. Met for the presentation, he notices that the mascot has enormous, gloved fingers (and only four of them at that). A voiceover explains that Xerox helps the Mets manage their documents so they can get back to the business of "entertaining fans." The spot closes with the executive trying to get out of his gaffe by saying he didn't want Mr. Met (who has a baseball for a head) to get "a big head." Mr. Met slumps off sadly.

Other television executions leverage brands like Marriott (where two bellhops/concierges delay doing paperwork and invoices in order to provide each other with better service), Ducati (where an employee tries to translate technical manuals into Portuguese while in a wind tunnel) and Notre Dame University (where the Leprechaun mascot "refuses" -- he doesn't speak -- to review documents).

Print executions continue the lighthearted approach with images such as a Marriott bellman pushing a luggage cart full of folders, Target's "Bull's-eye" dog mascot attempting to deliver direct mail pieces and Mr. Clean trying to photocopy a cartful of documents while wiping off a table in a break room.

"The key for us in the brief was to have some fun with this whole business-to-business category," Tony Granger, global chief creative officer at Y&R, the agency that created the campaign, says. "It's so full of content that takes itself terribly, terribly seriously."

The effort, which will expand globally over the next few months, introduces the tagline "Ready for real business." The campaign also includes a microsite, www.realbusiness.com, which illustrates case studies and other examples of Xerox helping companies get back to doing what they do best, which is the insight behind the entire campaign.

"The Ducati guys didn't get into the business of human resources or documentation," Granger says. "They got into the business of designing cool motorcycles."

The agency also developed an out-of-home element to run in airports that uses motion sensor and touchscreen technology. Executions were still being finalized at press time, but Granger promised the work was truly "breakthrough."

While the effort is intended to leverage the ACS acquisition, the intention is also to highlight how Xerox can save companies money, particularly as many businesses are still post-recession wary, Carone says. "The timing was right with the messaging," she says. "[Executives] are really putting their business models under the looking glass and trying to find efficiencies. The timing works well for us right now because these are conversations that are happening every day."

The campaign is booked for a 15-week run, but "our intention is to continue the campaign well into 2011," Carone says. "We'd love to get more brands into the mix, not only in advertising, but also on our sitelet."