Business software provider Infor has launched its first global advertising campaign in an attempt to go head-to-head with some of the world’s largest vendors.
The satirical campaign, featuring illustrations of âBig ERP’ fat cats by New Yorker cartoonist Steve Brodner, will appear in print, online and out-of-home, and is the first global push for Infor since its inception seven years ago.
The campaign centers on the idea that companies traditionally offering business software, most notably Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, have taken on a “big business” mentality – becoming bloated, uncaring and slow to respond to customer needs.
Infor say the campaign reflects its core belief that mid-market customers are seeking evolutionary, not revolutionary, solutions for their business needs.
Infor teamed up with PJA Advertising + Marketing in late 2009 to create the âaggressive and bold’ campaign which positions Infor as the better choice for business software.
For the online push, PJA partnered with Spongecell, employing the company’s multiple calls-to-action technology allowing people who interact with the banners to choose multiple activities, from viewing video case studies, downloading whitepapers, to visiting Infor’s Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages. One of the characters even has his own Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/Big_ERP.
“Customers are deeply frustrated with the cost and complexity of business software,” said Robert Humphrey, Infor CMO. “They want software that’s simple to buy, easy to deploy and convenient to manage. We worked with PJA to come up with an aggressive and bold campaign that exposes the problems with typical business software companies and positions Infor as the best alternative to the vendors we are satirizing in the campaign.”
“The timing of this campaign couldn’t be better,” said Mike O’Toole, President and Partner, PJA. “Market insights clearly indicate that Big ERP vendors have been treating customers with a ‘take-it-or-leave-it, one size fits all’ approach far too long. As soon as we hit upon the idea of these characters, the campaign took on a life of its own. And Infor has challenged us to keep making the work better. It’s truly a great collaborative effort.”
