An integrated campaign combining social media, direct mail, a microsite and a little humor helped solutions provider Logicalis reach IT decision-makers.
Humor in marketing can be tricky, concedes Amee BellWanzo, client services supervisor, Sudden Impact Marketing, which created the “Legend of Bob” campaign for Logicalis. “But they thought this would resonate with their audience—when talking to IT pros, sarcastic humor works well—think geeky parody rather than slapstick funny.”
“There were certain aspects of the solution that caused users across an organization frustration, so humor was an easy way for people to relate to those problems,” says Lisa Dreher, vice president, marketing and business development, Logicalis.
The average sales cycle is approximately six months, says Dreher, with the size of the sale depending on the type of solution needed. Not surprisingly for a B2B company, the majority of Logicalis’ marketing efforts concentrate on lead generation, with CIOs and IT directors as the primary target audience.
For the “Legend of Bob” campaign, the goal was to open up conversations with prospects on the concept of communications and collaboration technology. “Logicalis wanted to stress that in today’s business environment, things like video conferencing and VoIP are essential and require a different infrastructure—many companies are not as ready for this as they should be, and we wanted to help them get ready.”
The theme of the campaign was that “Bob” was a mysterious IT guy who helped his organization do incredible things, and was seemingly many places at once. “He was always available and always there,” says Dreher.
A direct mail piece featuring personalized URLs drove prospects to a landing page on the dedicated microsite. The mailing featured a “field guide” that recipients were invited to use to journal their own sightings of the mythical Bob. The guide was illustrated with sketches of other hard-to-find legends like the Loch Ness Monster. Recipients were chosen from sales targets identified by account reps in their geographic territories, says BellWanzo.
Once they reached the microsite, prospects could watch a video deepening the “legend,” with coworkers speaking of all the wonderful things Bob helped them accomplish. A network readiness assessment was also offered on the site.
The search for Bob continued in social media with the “Spot Bob” contest. For spotting photos of Bob posted on Logicalis’ Facebook and Twitter presences, players could win items like stadium blankets, water bottles and remote-control cars, branded with the Logicalis logo. “It was a way to get people involved, playing off a “Where’s Waldo” type scenario,” says Dreher.
The campaign’s ROI was judged by the number of leads generated and overall revenue. The conversion rate so far is 11%, and as of mid-winter, the closed revenue figure is $1.09 million.
LinkedIn is the primary social network Logicalis is using to reach its audience. Blogging and media exposures are also being used as content to help fuel the social fire, helping to reinforce the themes behind every campaign both online and off.
“We’ve had our employees get very involved with social,” says Dreher. “There’s a lot of two-way communication happening with customers and prospects, and it’s very effective.”
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