Summary
Triton used a character called the “DB2 Geek” and run a mini site.
We used our “DB2 Geek” character in a campaign designed to increase brand awareness with our target audience of DB2 and database management professionals and generate leads for our Remote DBA service.
DB2 is a highly technical subject and does not lend itself to interesting creative. In order to stand out from our competitors it is important for Triton to push the boundaries of traditional IT marketing.
However, with a budget of just £8500 for this campaign and a marketing team of one it was a challenge.
It was vital that we selected the best mix of communication channels and worked creatively to stretch our budget. The campaign utilised a range of media channels to engage with the widest audience possible including:
• Direct mail
• Website
• Social media including Twitter and LinkedIn
• Video
• Advertising
• PR
Triton Consulting provided consultancy and remote support for DB2 which is IBM’s flagship database.
About Triton Consulting
Triton Consulting is a specialist IT consulting organisation. We provide consultancy and remote support for DB2 which is IBM’s flagship database. Triton is a small organisation with 10 permanent employees.
One of Triton’s key offerings is Remote DBA – a remote database support service. We offer Remote DBA Office which covers 9-5 working hours and Remote DBA 24/7 which is round the clock support.
Strategy
For company year 2010-2011 Triton agreed a strategy to concentrate on two key areas:
-Remote DBA
-DB2 pureScale
The nature of consultancy is that there are peaks and troughs in business. Remote DBA contracts last for 12 months which means a constant revenue stream to flatten out the natural peak and trough cycle.
Objectives of the campaign
In most cases Remote DBA customers purchase short-term consultancy before signing up for Remote DBA. Therefore we considered new consultancy customers as a win.
Campaign objectives:
-Raise awareness of Triton and our services including consultancy and Remote DBA
-Gain eight leads, four opportunities and two new customers generating at least £90,000 of revenue which equates to one Officeplus and one 24×7 standard.
Target audience
Our target audience for this campaign comprises of IT contacts in organisations running DB2.
IT Manager/Database Manager– decision-makers
DBA/DB2 Technical – influencers
Main campaign activities:
Direct Mail – DM was chosen to create an impact with our potential customers. In the IT industry, email is becoming over-used and creative direct mail much rarer.
The objective was to give our prospects something they would keep. A high quality travel mug was used with the Triton logo and website along with a leaflet.
The leaflet was written in a conversational style to match the DB2 Geek branding. It highlights the key selling points of Remote DBA and encourages initial short-term consultancy with an offer of 15 per cent off our normal day rate. It includes a cartoon, to entertain the audience whilst positioning ourselves as the first port of call for DB2 support.
Supporting activities:
Website – Dedicated landing page:
Social Media – Many of our target audience have been early adopters of social media, especially LinkedIn and Twitter. These tools are free, so great for our limited budget.
We added a new Twitter account @DB2Geek and run two LinkedIn Groups.
Social Media – LinkedIn Ads – Chosen for cost effectiveness and targeting. We used the following ads to with click-throughs to our dedicated landing page.
Advertising – To make the most of our limited budget we ran a highly targeted three-month banner campaign on Toolbox for IT. We kept costs down by selecting a package that positioned our ad to a UK only audience within the database community.
PR – An article entitled “Top 10 DB2 support issues” was written for Database Journal
Telemarketing – Follow-up calls were carried out in-house to keep costs to a minimum.
Video –We animated a DB2 Geek cartoon to produce a viral video. The aim of the video was to increase brand awareness within the technical DB2 community, which Launched in June
Timescales of the campaign
Phase 1 – Planning
Planning began in December 2010. A brief for the direct mail and email campaigns was submitted to our creative agency .
Planning meeting January 2011
Reviewed ideas and created a plan to use the DB2 Geek more heavily in marketing communications.
Phase 2 – Execution – February- April 2011
Direct mail leaflet was created and the campaign launched in late February. Emails went out shortly after.
Advertising was launched on 1st March.
Links and discussion topics were added to LinkedIn and Twitter.
PR on DB2 Support went live on 3rd March in Database Journal.
Phase 3 – Follow-up
Initial follow-ups to contacts was done in-house to keep costs to a minimum and is ongoing.
Phase 4 – Reporting analysis – May 2011 – ongoing
We are still collecting results.
Testimonial
“Marketing had a very tight budget for this campaign, in addition to the usual challenge of coming up with an exciting and memorable approach for marketing some fairly complex and unexciting IT concepts and services. I was blown away by the end result – cool, imaginative, contemporary and completely different to anything I’ve seen used within this sector before. An amazing result.”.
Julian Stuhler, Director, Triton Consulting
