IBM's DB2: FROM DARK HORSE TO TOP DOG

This global integrated campaign won the 1998 Silver Effie award for software

IBM's $15 billion Software Division had a major growth problem -- 95% of their revenue came from mainframe software licenses sold years past. The mainframe sector was flat. The industry had flocked to the mid-range "client/server" sector where IBM's brand and key product offerings were charitably considered irrelevant. Into this breach we had to launch their new flagship product, the DB2 database for NT.

But database behemoths Oracle, Microsoft and Informix were not our biggest enemies. IBM's own internal marketing fiefdoms and budgets were balkanized to the point of global paralysis. It was impossible to synchronize efforts across borders or across marketing disciplines because too many people with conflicting interests controlled pieces of the budget.

So we used competitive message-testing research in 12 key countries to gain two things:

1. The insights for globally integrated advertising, direct mail online fulfillment and telesales. 2. Buy-in from the Byzantine array of local budget holders, rallied by a common customer voice.

The Effie-winning, $20 million DB2 campaign ran simultaneously in over 25 countries, tripling sales of the strategically critical NT version and turning a moribund brand into a top 3 contender in less than a year. On-going marketing support for DB2 has helped make it the new market share leader.

CRAYOLA: AN OLD BRAND LEARNS SOME NEW TRICKS

This campaign won the 1994 Gold Effie award for software

Binney & Smith needed to launch their first Crayola-branded creativity software for kids in 1994. Not known for taking risks, they only allocated $1 million for marketing. Yet their research exposed an unusually complex purchase decision-making dynamic: Dad made household technology decisions, Mom make creative stimulus decisions and Junior made plaything decisions.

Added glitch for good measure: zero presence in the software distribution channel.

We had to find an inexpensive way to appeal to all three decision-makers simultaneously. So we summoned up all our guts and guile to start zigging while everyone else was zagging (all the while comforting a risk-averse client).

We targeted upscale parents instead of kids (a toy industry first) using family-oriented cable TV (a software industry first). We produced two :30 spots with dealer tags -- one for each version of the product -- and then merchandised the bejeezuz out of them to the major software retail chains. The combination of the Crayola brand and (apparently) deep-pocketed consumer marketing was more than they could resist. Endcaps galore!

Crayola's Art Studio and Amazing Art Adventure roared past fine products by Microsoft and Broderbund to takeover category leadership in only six months.

NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR: FACTS & SCIENCE FICTION

How one vehicle served 13 autonomous product groups and redefined the brand

We owe a lot to the electronics industry. Sure, it did give us the pocket protector. But it proved that intensely turf-conscious product P&L managers could profit through pooled marketing. It also showed that there's a critical role for creativity, even when selling ultra-tech to ultra-techies.

Such was the case for National Semiconductor back in the early 80s. NSC was known among electronic design engineers primarily as a "nuts and bolts" component provider. The new edict from the corner office: morph that image into a provider of true innovation, stat! Unfortunately, NSC's ad budget was split between 13 highly autonomous P&L managers with goals of their own.

So we came up with a centralized advertising vehicle called the National Anthem — a 4- to 8-page monthly magazine insert that carried product stories of varying lengths. Heavily fact-laden, no brand fluff at all. The trick was to give the Anthem an eye-popping "Dali-esque" science fiction look. (Have you ever tried making op amps way cool?)

The 48 issues we produced were tracked by 55 separate Starch readership studies. The National Anthem was the #1 most seen and most read ad in 53 of them (settling for top 5 in the others).

At least three NSC competitors tried to mimic the Anthem, but none were nearly as successful. The National Anthem was the best-read and most emulated print campaign in the history of the semiconductor industry.

PETER NORTON: THE BRAND FRANCHISE HALL OF FAME

The brand-building power of properly integrated marketing communications

Like so many other pre-dot-com software entrepreneurs, Peter Norton began selling his now venerable Norton Utilities from his kitchen table. Considered strictly for the most technically savvy users, the disk utility software segment soon became overcrowded with parity products and driven by low-margin "upgrade mania."

Over a three-year period, we grew revenues ten-fold and turned the Peter Norton brand into one of the most valuable franchises in the PC software industry. Here's how:

First, we created the impression of a much larger company by fully integrating all of the advertising, packaging, product literature, corporate identity and in-store merchandising.

Next, we greatly expanded the market -- and Peter's share of it -- by focusing on just one utility out of 26. We sold the ability to "unerase" lost files to ordinary business PC users as a way to "eliminate your business losses." This at a time when software ads in business pubs were unheard of.

Finally, as enterprise PCs were being networked en masse, we repositioned the Norton Utilities as a way to lower skyrocketing IT support costs -- simply by installing a copy on every PC in the company!

Checkmate.

EARTHWEB: MULTIPLE ONLINE B2B REVENUE STREAMS

Pioneering business-to-business revenue models in the dot-com early days

It was a time of irrational exuberance -- and incredibly long hours. EarthWeb, a "content.community.commerce.com" that served IT professionals, was totally caught up in internet hypergrowth.

The challenge was to forge and grow as many online revenue streams as possible, all the while striving for that coveted "first-mover advantage." While the advertising sales force was beavering away, we on the marketing side were busy on a number of fronts:

Developing and launching ITKnowledge, one of the first B2B online content subscription services. We had over 3000 subscribers in less than a year.

Managing several e-commerce partnerships with online retailers and auctions.

Increasing unaided brand awareness 29% with integrated spot TV and unusual outdoor advertising in the New York and San Francisco markets.

Opening the doors several large advertising accounts with a high-impact direct mail campaign using very low tech View-master 3-D viewers that educated advertisers in an entertaining, beguiling and very memorable way.

We not only pulled it off, we lived to tell about it.

DATAPRODUCTS: TURNING AGNOSTICS INTO EVANGELISTS

Out-maneuvering two 800-pound gorillas in the retail PC printer market

Dataproducts, at the time a Fortune 500 mainframe-oriented printer manufacturer, developed a line of high-end (read: over-priced) PC printers. The goal was to move a B2B brand that Businessweek called "stodgy" into the white-hot consumer peripherals market, then dominated by Epson and Okidata.

Even our substantial $10 million marketing budget was barely 1/3 of that spent by each of the two giants. Their classic mass market "pull" campaigns were moving lots of low-priced printers through the vendor-agnostic, margin-starved retail channel.

Our approach: we allocated up to $1 million to a single dealer association in each of four major markets. We launched a locally intense "Dataproducts Dollar Days" promotion offering a color printer for only $1 to customers who bought a high-end PC system. The dealers were obliged to display our printers prominently and to agree to minimum purchase levels.

The campaign integrated spot TV and newspaper advertising, PR, POS displays, NHL sponsorships, collateral material, branded merchandise and retail sales spiffs.

In less than a year, Dataproducts achieved top-tier retail presence and share-of-mind in key markets that served as the platform for all subsequent efforts.