IBM: WHY SEND EDMS WHEN YOU CAN DELIVER MBAS

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: IBM
Agency: OGILVY & MATHER SINGAPORE
Category: Business Products & Services
Program Manager: Angus MacAskill (CBSI Australia)
Creative Director/Writer: Barrie Seppings (Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide)
Senior Account Director: Carmen MacAulay (Ogilvy Worldwide)
Senior Account Manager: Jennifer Smith (Ogilvy & Mather Sydney)
Digital Strategy: Emily Kelley (Ogilvy & Mather Sydney)
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Fiona Seeton (Ogilvy & Mather Sydney)
Account Director/Production: Nick Vildzius (CBSI Australia)
Senior Account Manager: Simon Gawn (Ogilvy & Mather Sydney)
Digital Strategy: Barrie Seppings (Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide)
Program Manager: Nicole Kim (CBSI Australia)
Media Strategy Planning: Rowan Avis (NeoOgilvy Singapore)
Media Strategy Planning: Yeeling Lee (NeoOgilvy Singapore)
Media Strategy Planning: Curtis Tracey (NeoOgilvy Singapore)
Account Co-Ordinator: Jessica Freeman (Ogilvy & Mather Sydney)
Account Director: Laura Knight (Ogilvy & Mather Sydney)
Senior Account Director: Roberta MacDonald (Ogilvy Worldwide)

Execution
Most B2B marketing is aimed at businesses: it’s rational, logical and impersonal. We decided to aim at individuals, and their self-interest (career progression) and make our approach deeply personal. The other shift was to move beyond branded content and to move into branded utility: we’ve re-cast marketing as a service by offering career-development instead of product messaging. Our audience literally studying IBM’s solutions and strategies as a way to advance their own career agendas. The NextGen program is an entirely new value exchange between the brand and the audience, where knowledge and power are traded for advocacy and loyalty.

Implementation
IBM decided to teach a class in how to become a CIO. The target: the most experienced IT Managers in large commercial enterprises in select industries in Australia. Intake was capped at 60 places. A partnership between IBM, CBS Interactive and Charles Sturt University delivered an MBA-level course that helps Senior IT managers move from the server room to the boardroom. The curriculum was drawn from the University’s online MBA course. After the final assessment, the top 10% of students graduated to ‘masterclass’ where they spent 3 months in one-on-one mentoring with the country’s leading CIOs.

Client Brief Or Objective
The Challenge: Tech pros in the B2B world know and love IBM. But these ‘pure geeks’ are no longer getting promoted to the boardroom, where big-ticket IT decisions are made. So big IT investment decisions are being increasingly made by people unfamiliar with IBM. Objective: Ensure more of the individuals in C-level roles have a deep understanding of, and positive relationship with, IBM. Strategy: Instead of trying to influence the current crop of C-level executives, IBM decided to play the long game. We set about creating a future generation of executive-level decision makers, equally well-versed in technology and business.

Outcome
This program completely redefines the parameters of engagement for B2B. Despite the high barriers (including multi-page application form) we quite purposely placed to entry, the course was oversubscribed by 300%. But quantity was never the aim: the extremely granular profiling data allowed us to make very precise cuts in terms of places offered – these were accepted at a rate of 96%.The students self-organised into a LinkedIn group, spent hours literally studying our branded course content and sacrificed weekends to complete assignments. Ultimately, over three quarters of the graduating students elected to continue a direct relationship with IBM after the course.