IBM TRIMS FAT WITH IT MAKEOVER CHALLENGE

Most small and medium organisations have a fixed budget when it comes to upgrading their IT infrastructure. They resort to purchasing piece-meal solutions or products as a stop-gap measure, until the next problem arises. As a result, they have an IT infrastructure that is complex and doesn’t quite meet their IT needs. They need a solution for their ‘mis- fit IT infrastructure’.

With this in mind, IBM launched a competition where customers stood a chance to win up to US$50,000 (S$79,000) worth of IBM IT solutions by just telling us what their biggest IT challenge was.

The objective was to create buzz, awareness, interest and demand for IBM Solutions within the SMB space and thus we sent out 600 high-impact DMs across ASEAN.

We developed a 3D DM with a simple headline 'Growing Fast?' on the box. Inside was a leather belt with 12 belt holes. Each hole represented each month of the year, with the inner most belt hole being January, and the last belt hole being December. This custom-made belt was a metaphor for growth (like how one needs to loosen his belt as his waistline grows).

Apart from the high-impact DM which was sent to the CIOs and CTOs, we also sent pop-up direct mailers to the IT managers. We segmented this database further into IT managers from lower SMBs and those from upper SMBs and sent out 2D DMs and eDMs with specific messages to each group. The message to the lower SMBs was focused on ill-fitting IT infrastructure as a result of rapid business growth, while the message to the upper SMBs was focused on ill-fitting IT infrastructure as a result of them having older IT infrastructure (purchased over the years) that can’t quite meet their needs.

To reach out to the white space (non-IBM customers) and to generate awareness of the campaign among the general IT public, we also deployed web banners, print ads and radio ads.

To also create buzz and excitement among the IBM business partners and IBM staff, and for them to, in turn, encourage prospects to participate in the competition, a set of posters and life-sized cut-out standees were also developed.

Given the nature of the prize which is almost like a mini IT infrastructure renovation, and with reality TV programs such a hit these days, we decided to name the competition the 'IBM Makeover Challenge'.

The basic rule of image selection is that it needs to resonate with the target audience. Due to the cross-cultural nature of the campaign, we ended up producing two sets of images – one with a Pan-Asian talent, and one with an Indian talent (specifically for the Indian market). This also meant two sets of creatives and final artwork for all the deliverables, all within three weeks.

We had sent out 600 high-impact DMs across ASEAN and we exceeded our target (in terms of number of participants) by 20% by the end of the campaign.

Nikhil Karur
Integrated Marketing
Communications
Program Manager
IBM Singapore

THE MAIL

OBJECTIVES
To create buzz, awareness, interest and demand for IBM Solutions within the SMB space.

APPROACH
IBM launched a competition where customers could win up to US$50,000 (S$79,000) worth of IBM IT solutions (comprising of hardware, software and support services) by just telling us what their biggest IT challenge was.

RESULTS
600 high-impact DMs sent out across ASEAN, and by the end of the campaign, the number of participants exceeded our expectations by 20%.