Maersk Line – B2B

Social Media Case Study

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 Q1
Why do you think Maersk Line was so successful in
social media? What do you think are Maersk Line’s key
drivers of success
 Q2
Evaluate how Maersk executed on its social media plan
and platforms
Channel Specific Content Development Breaking the notion of
Maersk being a boring
Delivering the right content to the right audience and conservative
company
Develop
Rank Segment
Content

4 target audiences: 4 key areas of focus:

Ranking social media
• Fans • Communications
channels from least to
• Customers • Internal Usage
most corporate
• Experts • Customer Service
• Employees • Sales

Before Maersk engaged in Social Media marketing, it clearly identifies the different platforms that it wants to utilize and the purpose, audience, and
focus for each platform. The rationale is to assist Maersk in setting achievable engagement goals and developing appropriate content based on four key
areas of focus listed above.
Social media platforms plotted as per user preference

From least corporate to most corporate

How does Maersk stack up
Social Engagement Channels

1.1 million likes 1,16,000

followers

Fans including NGOs, current

Fans, employees, experts, trade
and potential employees,
press, shipping professionals,
suppliers, regulatory bodies,
customers
shipping enthusiasts and fans

Create engagement through Share news with the industry,

stories and visuals in a humanize the brand and interact
conversational way publicly with the various
stakeholders

Platform suitable for general

Platform suitable for quick
audience and raising brand
resharing (re-tweets)
awareness
How does Maersk stack up
Channels for corporate use

1,09,882 1266 followers

followers

Customers, shipping
Customers and shipping experts professionals, experts and
journalists

Share business related news, to For business news, interacting

get closer to customers candidly with users about
informing them, listening to them innovation, leadership and
and discussing with them business, Hangouts with press

Most corporate platform suitable Platform used for getting quick

for communication with ideas from users
customers
How does Maersk stack up
Channels for video sharing

Focused on
16337
functionality, not
subscriptions
reach(35 videos,
16 subscribers)

Fans Fans

Primary video channel for Supplementary video channel

uploading all videos for internal where all business units had
viewing(restricted) and external their albums
viewing

Proved superior to company’s Provided consolidation and

own ability to broadcast videos synergy across business units
with relevant functionality
How does Maersk stack up
Dedicated channels for visuals

Flickr
33734 followers
491 followers

Instagram container spotters,

people interested in taking Fans and press
photos of containers and vessels

Inspiring people around the

Used for functionality more than
world to take photos of Maersk
building a community
vessels and containers

Maersk Line was one of the

strongest brands on the Used for uploading high-res
platform, gave brand recognition photos and grouping them into
and engagement, kept product categories
and services top-of-mind
How does Maersk stack up
Dedicated channels for visuals

1225 followers

Fans and blog readers Employees

Pinning images on specific Sharing stories, opportunity for

boards, to engage a large employees to blog, post stories
audience by pinning images in or articles, which can be then
blog posts by the company shared

Not a primary focus for the It is an easy-to-use blog site with

company extensive social capabilities
 Q3
How do you think Jonathan Wichmann calculated the
1500 percent ROI on Facebook? Do you agree with his
calculation? Why or why not?
1500% ROI???????
For every wall post made public, an
68% customers
impression is made on a fan. – Virtue Group feel social media
efforts improved
perceptions of
Maersk Line. – Q4
1 million
2012 survey
fans

600,000 FB fans in 2012

2 posts
daily 4x engagement than average B2B

Only 22% fans were actual customers

$5 per
1000
views
“Our ROI could be “The value of one
zero, or it could be interaction can be
Benchmark, 5000% depending worth more than
not targets upon your 300,000 likes.”
assumptions.”
 Q4
How do you think Maersk Line’s competitors will react
to the company’s success in social media?
Global Competitors
Maersk is a clear winner in the digital space when
compared to its competitor

1.1 Mil Fb Likes 11000 Fb Likes 4184 Fb Likes

115k Twitter Followers 27832 LinkedIn followers 1205 Twitter Followers

68000 Fb Likes 5825 Fb Likes

Non Existent
6821 Twitter Followers 15546 LinkedIn followers
How Competitors will react?
Competitors may stick to the traditional approach
for the short run

Current Industry View Proven

Measurable
Impact
Find Impact
difficult to
measure
No
Measurable
Impact

They continue to believe that the

Industry Marketing Managers know
traditional and low profile container
the importance of social media but
line industry does not require social
find metrics difficult to implement
media programs

Competitors are unlikely to catch up to Maersk in the short run

 How Competitors will react?
Competitors will seek to emulate Maersk’s
success As Digital and Social fronts become increasingly important in the B2B sphere,
competitors will not sit idly by and cede control of this sphere to Maersk

Possible competitors Game plan

Build a strong Launch a counter attack Measure the impact

foundation
• Concentrate on • Come up with
• Build a social where your users metrics to measure
media strategy are social media
focused team • Share relevant performance: % of
• Incorporate industry and positive/negative
industry conversion company news sentiments,%
instead of self • Showcase Core reduction in
promotion Competencies support costs
 Q5
What are the challenges facing Maersk Line in social
media going forward?
Future Challenges
4 key tailwinds shape the future of social media

Redefining real-time Greater Information Content Marketing

Visual Web
marketing Density will continue to grow

Visual platforms like

Companies focusing Cutting through Companies will Pinterest, Instagram
on the right time to background noise to continue to prioritise and Tumblr will
engage the right capture limited engagement and increase in
clients rather than consumer attention metrics for social popularity as
rapid response will be a challenge media success customer
for companies engagement
platforms
Implication of trends
Maersk can ride the tailwinds of change

Content Marketing will

Redefining real-time Greater Information Visual Web
continue to grow
marketing Density

Integrate social Keeping abreast of

media marketing changes in social
Share relevant Achieve consistent with strategic media and
content with the and coherent brand marketing efforts and implementing
right audiences on image for sticky update technologies to
the right platforms impression organizational engage consumers
structure to support eg. CRM and digital
marketing changes marketing tools
 Q6
What should Maersk Line do next? What areas should
the company focus on and why?
Focus Areas
Augmenting social media marketing in overall business

Internal External

Employee
Employee Usage
Usage Communication
Communication Sales
Sales Customer
Customer Service
Service

Build Employee Develop brand Generation of Conversation

Role Engagement awareness leads with customer

Wide reach Content not

Maersk Employees as
directed towards
Lack of focus on
content across social customer service
Position media lead generation
generators

Maersk needs to develop its social media efforts to have a significant

impact on growth
Compass Campaign
Insights and best practices sharing will foster growth

Thought
Thought Leadership
Leadership Maersk is established as the go-to-shipping provider for clients with its expertise

Information
Information source
source Provide insights to potential customers and optimize shipping solutions

Value
Value Creation
Creation Encouraging sharing of best practises and customer dialogue

How Maersk Compass Works

Maersk publishes
technical insights
and information on
industry best
practices on LinkedIn
Customers engaged with
technical insights and
recognize the economic
value proposition of
working with Maersk
Sales team works with clients
to propose tailor-made
solutions and optimizing
their shipping processes