IBM

IBM, one of the largest technology companies in the world, asked us to create a channel marketing campaign to develop a closer working relationship with their resellers and distributors across the UK and EMEA.

IBM is one of the largest technology companies in the world. They wanted to develop a closer working relationship with their network of resellers and distributors, both in the UK and across the Western European area of their EMEA region. They searched for a London marketing company to help them out.

After a tough pitch process, we were appointed to deliver a sales incentive campaign to reward their UK channel for promoting IBM PCs and laptops to their customers. Our strategy was so successful that it won a gold ITMA award.

We were subsequently commissioned to develop and deliver a complex pan-European channel marketing programme with a budget in excess of £1.5million. The first aim of the strategy was to create a database of all customer-facing staff working for their network of distributors and resellers across 15 Western European countries. The database needed to include managers, sales representatives, customer service agents and software engineers. We created a bespoke marketing application using IBM software products to create the database tool and deliver all its functionality.

The second stage in the process was to deliver a campaign that combined elements of communication, education, recognition and reward – aimed at managers, sales teams, service reps and software engineers – to encourage them to promote IBM products and services to their customers. We held training events across Europe to support the delivery of key messages. Sales were driven through incentives, which offered rewards to both individuals and teams. An online quiz rewarded knowledge retention. During the delivery of this campaign, we travelled across Europe setting up and managing a local network of agencies to help us to overcome legal, cultural and tax issues – they were also responsible for running local campaigns and liaising on our behalf with IBM country representatives.

“Really impressed. They are very client-focused, strategic, creative and great fun to work with. Every time we gave them a difficult challenge, they always found a clever way to overcome it.”

Pernille Loevengreen
Channel Marketing Manager
IBM

Category

Marketing consultancy
Design studio
Event marketing
Channel marketing