Company: IBM
Contact: Sandy Carter, Vice-President of SOA & WebSphere Strategy, Channels & Marketing
Location: Armonk, NY
Industry: Computing, B2B
Annual revenue: $103,630,000,000
Number of employees: 398455
Quick Read
When IBM had a sneaking suspicion that the faltering economy might have a dire effect on registrations for its annual IMPACT conference, it devised a plan that in addition to trying new promotional tactics involved forging better relationships with, and maximizing conversions among, those who could attend.
That strategy paid off in more ways than one, as you'll learn when you read how Sandy Carter turned a sweeping industry challenge into a long-term win for the organization.
Challenge
IBM is the world's leading provider of computer products and services. Nonetheless, in today's economy, even the big guns need to rethink marketing strategy if they are to keep pace with previous years' results.
Such was the case with IBM's annual IMPACT conference, which aims to educate attendees on the smart and effective use of service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions. The event had hosted more than 6,000 attendees in 2008; however, widespread budget cuts throughout the industry threatened to significantly reduce registrations in 2009.
To compensate, IBM sought a new strategy that would not only drive event registrations, but also...
- Increase conversion (sales of SOA solutions) among those who register, in order to make up for any reduction in registrations
- Create a more lasting relationship with attendees that would benefit the company well beyond the event
"We had to figure out how to get a higher conversion from leads since we knew we weren't going to get as many people to the same events in this economic climate," explained Sandy Carter, VP of SOA & WebSphere Strategy, Channels & Marketing.
Campaign
IBM's strategy included the following elements.
Leveraging social media
Low-cost online networks allowed the company to promote the event on a budget:
- It set up an IMPACT group on LinkedIn and encouraging users to invite others from their personal networks to join.
- It tweeted about the event using the #ibmimpact hashtag and offering contests to win one-on-one sessions with SOA experts.
- It established a Facebook page that offered information, video, and calls to follow the feed on Twitter.
Getting partners and customers in on the act
The company also established a "Friends of IMPACT" YouTube channel and asked partners as well as customers to produce and upload their own videos explaining, in their own words, how IBM SOA solutions have assisted their businesses and why people should attend the event.
Building community
IBM worked with Boulder, CO-based EventVue to set up an independently hosted social network in an effort to create a more permanent campaign, using the event as the "starting game" for establishing an ongoing relationship between company and attendee.
In addition to common areas—where users could post comments and participate in polls created either by community members or the company—the network included micro-communities by specialty (business, academia, etc.) so that users could easily connect with peers and access customized content. To further their connections, users were also able to create personal profiles and import profile information from other sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook.
Driving community awareness with bot promotions
To take better advantage of IBM.com's substantial website traffic, a bot—which the company named Vanessa—was added to pop up during visits and encourage users to "join our community, and be part of what IBM has to offer," Carter noted.
Going local
In addition to the main conference, local events—dubbed "Impact Comes to You"— were planned for 100 cities internationally to appeal to those who did not have the time or budget to travel. The global company used an internal competition that called on its local talent (i.e., people based in those cities) to hatch their own promotional strategies and plan the events.
Driving interactivity and community at local events
The company also set up a contest among customers and attendees in those 100 cities. People vied for a free ticket to the main conference by posting local-event photos and videos to Flickr and YouTube, as well as by tweeting during the events using the #ibmimpact hashtag. Customers and attendees were made aware of the contest ahead of time and encouraged to bring their cameras; some of the local events loaned cameras to attendees.
Adding virtual events
Understanding that some may not be able to take off an entire day to attend even a local event, IBM added a series of virtual events to the program. Using ON24's service, the virtual events were designed to simulate the live event, complete with a keynote presentation, live Q&A, demo booths, and coffee-room chats. Users were encouraged to tweet behind the scenes. The content of each virtual event was also made available on-demand after the broadcast.
Sending out a post-event widget
In previous years, after events had taken place, customers would often approach the company for copies of presentations. Rather than email those upon request or post them to the company website, IBM instead created a widget that used RSS feeds to supply all attendees with the presentation materials, along with videos, case studies, and other webcasts. Two versions were offered so that users could choose to download the widget directly to their desktops or access a Web 2.0 browser-based version, which could also be embedded into personal blogs.
