Summary
Oracle is a global vendor of business software and hardware systems. Its Customer Services division provides support services to help customers get the most out of their Oracle investments.
With a growing number of third-party support vendors entering the market, it was vital for Oracle to demonstrate the superior value of its own offering over competitors. As part of this undertaking, Oracle initiated a comprehensive marketing campaign to further educate and inform new and existing customers of the benefits of Oracle support.
Oracle Customer Services enlisted Marketing Options International (MOI) to organise and manage an ongoing series of live events across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where customers could learn about the benefits of Oracle support.
MOI handled the entire process, from list creation, invitations and delegate management through to event support and reporting. The team drew on its international event management expertise to ensure that each event observed local laws, culture and business practices.
The target number of registrations across all 13 events was 650 (50 per event). MOI was able to far exceed Oracle’s expectations, achieving 1,177 registrations – 81 per cent above target. Feedback forms completed by delegates showed 73 per cent were satisfied or very satisfied with their experience.
About the client
Oracle is a global enterprise software company. Its Customer Services division provides support, maintenance and upgrade services to help customers get the most out of their Oracle investments.
Client challenges
With third-party support vendors entering the market and offering lower prices, and the development of a number of proactive support tools being developed to support their customers, Oracle wanted to drive customer awareness of its support services to customers and demonstrate how they offer superior value.
The biggest challenge was in emerging markets, where more customers were choosing the cheapest support packages they could find rather than the best ones for their needs. To increase awareness of the benefits of Oracle Customer Services across the EMEA region, Oracle enlisted MOI to organise and manage a series of events in 13 countries: Egypt, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Kenya, Kuwait, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and United Arab Emirates.
Event objectives
The objective of the event programme was to raise awareness among Oracle customers of the different levels of support service that Oracle provides, and the benefits they deliver. Oracle tasked MOI with achieving 50 registrations per event – a total of 650 registrations across all 13 events.
Event outline
Each event was a half-day conference with presentations about Oracle Customer Services and reallife examples of how it can add value to customers’ businesses. A Q&A session gave delegates the chance to put their questions to Oracle Customer Services experts.
The live format was chosen for several reasons:
- Customers tend to have very specific questions about support, so the events offered an opportunity to find out how Oracle can help their business, not just ‘businesses’ in general.
- In smaller countries, Oracle risks being seen as a large, faceless foreign company, so it was important for Oracle to show it is friendly and helpful and has a strong local presence.
- Oracle has acquired many companies in recent years. The events provided a forum for customers to express any concerns about this strategy, and for Oracle to address them.
- A key strategic objective for Oracle is to help its customers become more successful. The live format helped Oracle to build relationships directly with customers, discuss their business challenges and offer relevant additional solutions to help resolve them.
Target audience
The target audience was the contacts within each customer organisation who are responsible for managing the Oracle products purchased, including IT Managers, Directors and all senior Tech titles.
Campaign strategy including communications
For each event the target audience was agreed with the client at the start of each event project cycle. MOI then facilitated a full delegate management service for each event, as follows:
- Venue liaison.
- Invitee list creation via Oracle’s customer contact database (GCM).
- Creation and distribution of personalised HTML invitations and dedicated registration landing pages.
- Response management and daily reporting to Oracle stakeholders
- Personal calls to every registered delegate prior to event to confirm attendance
- Creation of branded name badges for all delegates and Oracle contacts
- Ensuring that each event is organised and managed in line with the host country’s culture and customs, for example:
- All events were presented in the local language most commonly used for business.
- In Saudi Arabia women are forbidden from attending business events, so MOI ensured.
- That no women were invited and that onsite support staff were all male.
- All catering menus were chosen to reflect local religious requirements.
- A native local language speaker was onsite at all times to help with registrations.
- Confirmation calls to delegates were conducted in local language.
- Design and creation of all event signage and collateral printing.
- Personalised follow-up emails to all attendees and no-shows offering a link to download event presentations and the opportunity to speak to an Oracle representative.
Campaign timescale
Each event had an eight- week project timescale:
- Kick off call with client to agree location, date and venue.
- Design and create HTML eDM and registration pages.
- Six weeks before the event: submit list pull to Oracle’s internal CRM database and associate the eDM with the list.
- Five weeks before the event: send the first invitation.
- Weekly reminder emails up until the day before the event.
- Remove contacts who have already registered from booster database.
- Week prior to the event: Confirmation calls to registered delegates.
- Within 24 hours of the event finishing: upload leads to Oracle’s database for sales follow-up.
- Post-event: send personalised follow-up emails to attendees and no-shows.
- Compile reports for analysis and send to Oracle.
By initiating event planning at least two months in advance, MOI was able to implement a successful, multi-touch approach to driving registrations. Sending multiple HTML invitations including reminders kept it front of mind with potential delegates. Registration was made as easy as possible, with options to register via phone, online, email or fax with minimal data capture. To boost attendance rates, confirmation emails were sent after registration, and courtesy reminder calls placed in the week leading up to the event.
Results
The target number of registrations for the 13 events was 650 (50 per event). MOI’s expertise in managing international events meant it was able to far exceed Oracle’s expectations, achieving 1,177 registrations (81per cent above target). Feedback forms completed by delegates showed that on average, 73 per cent were satisfied or very satisfied with their experience.
Customer testimonial
“The Marketing Options International team have done a fantastic job of making the EMEA Customer Services event series a success. Their professional planning and ability to work as an integral part of the Oracle team have enabled us to achieve our objectives in terms of building customer relationships to drive cross-sell and up-sell of Oracle services.” Gareth Scragg, director, services marketing EMEA, Oracle.
