Summary
Every year, IBM invites a handpicked group of senior business executives to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. It is one of the best chances IBM has to forge new leads with this hard to reach group of people and it was deemed a good opportunity to communicate the brand idea of ‘Smarter Planet’. But from research, we knew that simply talking about a ‘Smarter Planet’ only went so far to convince – the audience needs to be able to experience it on their own terms. Also research indicated a frustration at the Championships is that those attending don’t have access to all the courts- you hear the roar of the crowd but can’t see what’s going on. Building on these insights we developed a mobile application (IBM SEER 2.0) – by simply pointing your smart phone, you are given X-Ray vision to see the matches on the show courts (live feeds), along with live radio, taxi feeds (to see the queues), points of interest and live twitter feeds. Also IBM SEER 2.0 was ‘seeded’ to bloggers and journalist to maximise PR coverage to reach a wider audience. The result – 10,000 downloads of the app and ROI of 1:113.
About the client company
IBM is a globally integrated enterprise operating in over 170 countries. In addition to being the world’s largest IT and consulting services company, IBM is a global business and technology leader, innovating in research and development to shape the future of society at large. IBM often partners with governments, corporations, thinkers and doers on ground breaking real world problems to help make the world work better and build a smarter planet.
Strategy
IBM believes that the ‘world can work better’ and articulates this through the idea of a ‘Smarter Planet’. But there are some challenges in communicating this idea. Firstly, it is quite conceptual and secondly many of IBM’s solutions are intangible.
Simply talking about the IBM brand idea of a ‘Smarter Planet’ only goes so far to convince so an integral part of the communication strategy has been to create moments where the audience can experience a ‘Smarter Planet’ on their own terms.
The Wimbledon Championships provide a perfect opportunity to allow people (specifically, senior business executives invited by IBM) to experience a ‘Smarter Planet’. In this case by solving the frustration that those attending don’t have access to all the courts- you hear the
roar of the crowd but can’t see what’s going on.
A mobile app (IBM SEER 2.0) was created that delivered ‘live video feeds’ of each of the show courts – by simply pointing your mobile phone to the direction of the court – it magically provides you with x-ray vision to see the action. In addition, live match scores, live radio, taxi feeds (to see the queues), and a number of points of interest with live twitter feeds were accessible. All delivered through the two most popular smart phone platforms – Apple OS and Android.
In addition, IBM SEER 2.0 was ‘seeded’ to bloggers and journalist to maximise PR coverage to reach a wider audience.
Objectives of the campaign
There were three objectives for this campaign
- Demonstrate the wider problem solving capabilities of IBM through a ‘Smarter Planet’.
- To generate interest from senior business executives attending the Wimbledon Championships with IBM (in turn, leading to sales revenue).
- To communicate to a wider audience through PR.
The target audience
Then main audience was senior business executives invited by IBM to attend the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. From research, we knew that traditional advertising was achieving diminishing level of returns with this group. Linked to this is our experience that communication that ‘speaks to’ senior business people in their ‘non work life’ can be one of the most effective ways of communication.
A secondary audience of bloggers and journalists (to generate PR coverage.
Media, channels or techniques used
The IBM SEER 2.0 app was distributed through iTunes and Android Market. In order to ‘get the word out’ we focused on communicating to broadcast and digital press via an exclusive ‘beta test day’ a week before the tournament began at the Wimbledon grounds. On this day, key bloggers and journalists could see and experience how revolutionary the app was for themselves. We also delivered a demo video and B roll assets that could be dispatched to any interested journalist on a domestic and international level to further leverage PR coverage. This editorial flexibility allowed for further positive seeding, online coverage of IBM’s ‘X Ray Vision’ story and details of the IBM SEER app.
Timescales of the campaign
Planning: 7 February 2010
Development: 12 March 2010
Final testing: 15 May 2010
Seeding and press activity commenced: 9 June 2010
Application live: 21 June 2010
Client testimonial
“The IBM SEER app has opened many doors for us; it has enabled our sales teams to start conversations with anumber of our clients as a result of the Wimbledon SEER activity. Itreally has embodied everything we want ‘SmarterPlanet’ to be about.” Alan Flack, Wimbledon Executive, IBM
