Beyond the sticker price
Few B2B categories are as price-driven as commercial copiers. In that race to the bottom, Canon's premium hardware was losing the battle before its real value could surface. We changed the conversation, moved the buying decision off price and onto reliability and trust, and built a campaign that's now in its second year of consistently outperforming benchmarks and delivering qualified leads to Canon's inside sales team.
Background
Small businesses are the engine of most economies. Canada is no exception: 97%+ of all employer businesses in the country and roughly two-thirds of private-sector employment are attributed to small business. That's an enormous addressable market, and it's exactly why the commercial copier category is one of the most contested. Established brands compete aggressively, and for many small business buyers the purchase decision begins and ends with the bottom line.
Canon engaged us to develop an advertising campaign that would generate quality leads for sales and position Canon as the preferred brand against its competitors.
Challenge
Canon's office printers carry a higher price point than most other brands. And in a category where price is the dominant buying signal, Canon's list of compelling features wasn't breaking through.
Small business owners are discerning, time-poor, and skeptical of advertising that doesn't speak to their reality. Reaching them meant understanding the specific pressures they face – the frustration of equipment downtime, the hidden cost of poor print quality, and the everyday tax of dealing with vendors who route you through call centres and leave you waiting days for a technician. The job was to connect Canon's strengths directly to those pain points and build genuine credibility with the small business community.
Challenge
Canon's office printers carry a higher price point than most other brands. And in a category where price is the dominant buying signal, Canon's list of compelling features wasn't breaking through.
Small business owners are discerning, time-poor, and skeptical of advertising that doesn't speak to their reality. Reaching them meant understanding the specific pressures they face – the frustration of equipment downtime, the hidden cost of poor print quality, and the everyday tax of dealing with vendors who route you through call centres and leave you waiting days for a technician. The job was to connect Canon's strengths directly to those pain points and build genuine credibility with the small business community.
Solution
We started with the customer. Research, interviews, and audience immersion gave us a clear-eyed view of how small business owners actually operate, where Canon's performance advantage translated into a value story that mattered, and what kind of message would land beyond the spec sheet.
From that foundation, we built robust small business buyer personas grounded in behavioural and attitudinal insight. The personas did two jobs at once: they shaped every dimension of the campaign (messaging hierarchy, channel selection, creative tone, content cadence) and they kept every decision customer-centric, which is non-negotiable when the strategy depends on resonance rather than reach.
The strategic throughline was simple: small businesses think they want the cheapest copier, until it lets them down. We built the campaign around that truth.
The full communications plan was designed to take an unknown prospect from awareness through consideration to conversion, building preference at every stage and meeting buyers with the right message on the right platform as they progressed.
Alongside the paid digital program, we negotiated a strategic partnership with a relevant small business community. Being present where this audience already gathers matters to its members, and the partnership gave Canon the platform to show up in person with product demonstrations, contribute editorial content through the association's blog and newsletter, and deliver a keynote at the conference. It moved Canon from advertiser to genuine supporter of Canadian small business and gave the premium value story room to land with full context.
Throughout execution, every touchpoint stayed rooted in the same insight: the right printing solution isn't the one that costs less upfront, it's the one you can trust.
Results
The campaign outperformed media KPI targets, generated thousands of qualified leads, and increased funnel velocity over the prior year. Additionally, customer success teams reported a much higher lead quality overall.
Increase in conversion rate
Increase in total leads
Increase in clicks
