In November 2010, IAS won a global pitch in Germany to launch the new Siemens IT Solutions and Services brand.
On the memorable date of 11/1/11, the brand was launched in UK, Austria, Germany and US.
Siemens IT Solutions and Services (Siemens)
The abundance of choices, the constant arrival of new technologies and providers, the separation of operational technology and information technology and the lack of alignment between business requirements and technology create overwhelming complexity for Siemens’ customers.
Building on deep IT outsourcing expertise in a wide range of markets, Siemens design one holistic solution that perfectly brings everything together: business, technology and people.
With the self-confidence of an industry authority on the cutting edge of technology, Siemens orchestrate their capabilities and partner ecosystem to deliver the “best of breed” in every element of their solutions to enable change and have measurable impact on customers’ business goals.
Siemens’ Brand Challenges
1. To develop a stand-alone brand and positioning independently from its parent brand (Siemens AG), while using them as an important source of brand strength and convincing set of references.
2. To command a share of voice against the likes of IBM, Accenture, Capgemini, HP and T-Systems.
3. To capitalise on promising prerequisites to deliver on the three positioning dimensions (business, technology, relationships).
4. The transformation from a capability-focused organisation to a customer-driven, market-oriented provider.
5. Focus on key innovations and client value the brand can credibly deliver on.
Category in the making
At the heart of its solution, IAS strategically implemented its globally developed models and processes within BAM
(Brand Asset Management) and BOSS (Brand Orientated Sales Strategy).
Within the discovery phase of BAM, IAS conducted insightful market intelligence which identified a category in the making. Market analysts, thought leaders and employees have been holding much debate on the disconnection between business and technology, yet no IT brand had to date taken ownership of this emerging category. That is, not until IAS partnered with Siemens!
A core evolution of this emerging category Business Technology is the transformation of the IT industry from the business of IT services to the business of business services. The CIO’s job has evolved to being more transformative and externally facing, a service broker for the enterprise, focused on the sourcing, integration and management of the technology-enabled business services. The CIO has become a master operational strategist responsible for the optimising people, process and technology.
Category for the taking
Category creation is the sign of a leader. Creating a category and being first, makes it easier to get into the mind first, as opposed to convincing someone you have a better offering. Prospects have an open mind when it comes to categories and everyone is interested in what’s new.
In 1958, Leavitt and Whisler, Harvard Business Review, stated “the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology”.
In years to come the brand positioning developed by IAS for Siemens could be deemed as symbolic a moment as that of 1958!
Brand Positioning
While IAS can’t claim the discovery of ‘business technology’, it created a new, philosophical and unique positioning for Siemens. The new positioning is business technologists. The positioning manifests itself in the form of this is business technology and we are the business technologists. So unique is this positioning, not even Wikepedia has a definition for the term ‘business technologist’. Now Siemens has a positioning that truly takes ownership of the category.
Creative
The Business Technologist Proclamations Campaign
To announce the advent of the business technologists, people representing business technologists from Siemens IT Solutions and Services made proclamations about the new era the industry was about to enter.
The following are examples of business technologist proclamations:
In the beginning there was IT. Then came the business technologists.
Business technologists enter where IT fears to go.
Ask not what IT can do for you. Ask what business technologists can do for your company.
Give a company IT and it will work for a day. Give it business technology and it will thrive for a lifetime.
The following are examples of German business technologist proclamations:
Business Technology: Jetzt wächst zusammen, was zusammengehört.
Business Technology: Der Beginn einer wunderbaren Freundschaft zwischen IT und Business.
Business Technology: Die erfolgreichste Verbindung seit es IT Lösungen gibt.
Wer IT sagt, muss auch Business Technology sagen.
Hinter jeder efolgreichen IT steht ein Business Technologist.
Business Technology: Die erfolgreichste Verbindung von IT und Business.
The business technologist visual identity
A photo shoot was commissioned to generate the representative faces of ‘business technologists’. Photography sits on a simple ‘progression’ graphical device. The device progresses from dark to light and from squares to circles, symbolically illustrating a positive step forward for the industry.
The business technologist proclamations launch campaign
Internal Campaign
Inside out marketing is central to all IAS’ planning. Extensive campaign briefing documents were produced for senior and middle-management and an extensive pre-external launch campaign was implemented utilising the following channels:
• E-mail campaign
• Posters
• Light boxes
• Screen savers and wallpapers
• Intranet updates
• ‘At a glance’ leaflets
• Roll-up banners
External Campaign
The launch campaign targeted global C-Level IT decision makers across Germany, Austria, UK and US. With brand awareness being a core objective, IAS implemented a digital awareness campaign covering the following channels.
Advertising
A heavy media plan mostly comprising digital and mobile was developed using the following channels:
1) Mobile banners
2) iPhone and Blackberry application sponsorship
3) Online banner ads
4) Mobile sponsorships
5) Belly band advertising
6) Advertorials
Media highlights included:
1. Belly band advertising across CIO
2. Advertorial inclusion in the Computerwoche iPad digital edition
3. Exclusive banner placement on all IDG B2B mobile websites and iPhone apps
4. Mobile banner and mobile advertorial across IDG network with 100% share Of voice
5. Exclusive launch partner sponsorship of UK B2B mobile websites for CIO, Computerworld & Techworld. Logo. Mobile banners were exclusive on all mobile pages, linking to the mobile advertorial.
6. Co-branded promotion on CIO, Computerworld and Techworld online sites, sponsored by Siemens
7. Leaderboard, skyscraper, MPU, teaser, text links and newsletters
8. Exclusive launch partner sponsorship of CIO BlackBerry application. When the application was loading, exclusive
logo and banner appears on all pages linking to the Siemens mobile microsite.
As at 31st January, 2011 online impressions versus booked impressions were impressive at +134% in Germany, +121% in US and +163% in UK with 1,200 click-throughs from banner advertising at an average CTR of 0.2%.
However the integration of mobile banners confirmed IAS’ existing knowledge on the importance of mobile communication within this sector. CTRs soared as high as 1.77% in US and average click-through rates were much higher across the board.
Website
A new launch video and landing pages were developed to communicate the nine strategic offers to the market:
• Civil & national security
• Seamless government
• Intelligent energy
• Future work environment
• Smart energy
• Secured enterprise
• IT transformation
• Integrated manufacturing
• Applied knowledge
PPC
IAS developed and implemented a global PPC campaign across the four key countries combining a mix of key word phrases that command territories ranging from generic IT outsourcing and business technology, to more targeted key words around each of the nine strategic offers. The launch campaign is running between late January and March, 2011 and early results are showing a mix of positionings between one and three on Google with impressive click through rates and conversions.
Post-launch campaign
IAS has developed post-launch campaign plans which will see:
1) The launch of a fully integrated social media campaign which utilises YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing and
SlideShare.
2) A content strategy giving each of the nine strategic offer experts a framework to socially interact around key
topics and discussions. Topics are highlighted as a result of IAS’ research and planning. New content such as video
blogs and whitepapers will be integrated into the social media programme.
3) A social media ‘hub’ developed as the platform to manage all online social engagement.
4) The extension of an even wider global digital, mobile and outdoor media campaign.
5) The extension of the current PPC campaign to command all key term phrases.
6) The integration of direct communication using innovative new technologies such as InVideo direct mail.
7) Sales enablement toolkit development.
