Ontra turns Billboard Rewards into brand lift.

A 90-day sprint to launch Ontra's first brand campaign

Ontra was laser focused on scaling quickly and wanted to run their first-ever brand campaign including out-of-home media to increase awareness and understanding of Ontra’s products and drive more leads for the business. The company was determined to launch an impactful, high-quality campaign in their target market before the upcoming holidays, which meant they only had 90 days to do it.

It simply wasn't going to be possible to meet that tight deadline using their in-house resources, and there wasn’t enough time to search for and engage an external media planning consultant either. Thankfully, Ontra had the perfect solution in their back pocket: Brex Billboard Rewards.

Brex Billboard Rewards turn card points into marketing power

Ontra had been amassing rewards points on their Brex corporate cards — up to 7x back on purchases — and this was the perfect time to redeem them for Brex Billboard Rewards. While Brex rewards offer cash back and other traditional options as well, the Brex Billboard Rewards program is a unique option that allows customers to instead redeem their card points for fast, full-service billboard planning and execution.

With Brex Billboard Rewards, Ontra received expert comprehensive media planning support, from mapping of target accounts to analyzing available inventory to strategically aligning ad placements throughout the New York Metro area. Ryan Duke, Director of Brand and Communications at Ontra, shared, “The level of effort and expertise that Brex put forth made Ontra feel like we’re working with a thought partner.”

“Brex wasn’t a vendor, but a strategic partner, to help us launch our first out-of-home campaign with Brex Billboard Rewards. And across the board we saw really big brand lifts.”

— Ryan Duke, Director of Brand and Communications, Ontra

More than a 50% increase in demo requests and impressive brand lift

Ontra successfully launched its first brand campaign with highly targeted, impactful ad units in the New York Metro by their deadline. Because they used Brex Billboard Rewards, the campaign took 25% less time to build and launch than it would have taken if Ontra had used an external media planning agency or done the work in house. They also achieved a 23% cost savings for the campaign overall by tapping into Brex Billboard Rewards’ media discounts and services. And of course, they paid for it using Brex points, not cash.

Following the campaign, Ontra saw a remarkable 56% increase in demo requests month-over-month, and impactful brand lifts across the board, including increases in organic searches and site traffic. Ontra also tracked mentions of the campaign in Gong and uncovered many prospects who cited seeing Ontra ads as their reason for reaching out, validating their first test of a large brand marketing campaign.

Overall, Brex’s Billboard Rewards is a significant value-add for Ontra’s marketing team. “Having a program like Brex Billboard Rewards has been a game-changer for our marketing function,” said Ryan.

Beyond scaling their business through Billboard Rewards, Ontra has simplified their T&E with Brex’s intuitive corporate cards, expense management, and travel software. “Brex’s travel platform simplifies flight bookings with saved traveler preferences,” said Ryan. “It’s all easy to use and integrated.”