Pinnacle Awards Submission Presented by: Tanya Babcock and Carrie Perlet
Brite Business Situation In 2011, Brite invested in its managed services platform by building a state-of-the-art Network Operations Center with badged security, the latest network monitoring software and the hiring of staff to monitor customer networks remotely. The service offered 24x7 comprehensive IT support, off-loaded tactical support functions, patch management, secured customer networks from malicious software, anti-virus and attacks. By 2012, Brite began offering ancillary services: McAfee Endpoint Protection, McAfee Web and Email Protection, Email Archival and multi-year retention, Software/Hardware asset management, BriteMail Hosted Microsoft Exchange, BriteVault+ Disaster Recovery and optional Computing as a Service (an equipment leasing program with desktop, laptops, servers and storage). Objectives and Measures These new comprehensive product offerings were a unique bundle in the market and targeted small to mid-sized organizations. We needed to ensure the service hit the market effectively and with as much fan-fare as possible to not only increase our customer base, but solidify in the market our newly branded position as a hardware, services and security IT consulting company. The goal would be to increase revenue by 30% in BriteStar services by the end of 2012, and customers by 10%. Strategies and Target Audiences An integrated marketing campaign was the best approach. We needed to be able to create multiple brand touch points, customer facing materials and effective, descriptive communications to better explain such a comprehensive and complex product. Our campaign needed to state the problem clearly, and then present the solution just as succinct. After much study and review, a plan was presented that would include print, digital and social marketing. What we exposed in our research was the impact of a long and sustained economic recession had caused IT organizations (especially those in small to mid-size businesses) to shrink, but the workload and IT needs grew at an astronomical rate. The staff on board was overwhelmed with trying to keep up with break/fix issues, and routine maintenance, or growth strategy plans, were being neglected. As a result, more issues would arise from the neglect, either by equipment failing, security breaches, or network capacity being so depleted productivity was affected. Businesses were struggling with security concerns, network downtime and degradation of productivity because no one was able to effectively watch their network. Hence, the tag-line for our BriteStar campaign became, Who s Watching Your Network?
Brite We needed to convey to these small to mid-sized organizations that were struggling that our service was cost efficient and did not reduce staff, but augmented them. We also needed to sell our value added services like email archival and disaster recovery that many did not luxury of considering before. For smaller organizations, the Computing as a Service program (which includes BriteStar services) gave them the ability to have the latest and greatest hardware, remote desktop support and peace of mind network security without the large up-front costs. Implementation/Tactics The campaign was scheduled to launch May 1 st and last through the month of July. Brite rolled out a mini-website, which included an ROI calculator, a Computing as a Service Online Estimator and Quote request. A blog was created and weekly stories were written and Tweeted to present real world examples of IT issues in small to mid-size businesses and how those issues would have been avoided if they had BriteStar, BriteMail Hosted Exchange or BriteVault+ Disaster Recovery. To create a level of authenticity, we hired models, professional photographers and makeup artists to shoot all of the in-situation shots displayed in our brochure, website, advertising and blog. The advertising appeared in the Rochester Business Journal s Daily Email Blast for five (5) weeks, as well as an email blast being sent to 10,000 subscribers. We also used the Rochester Business Association s email dissemination services. We created a full-color brochure, which was sent to targeted prospects in a direct mailing, conducted a drip email campaign for our targeted customers within Brite s email database and created t-shirts, bike shirts and a tear drop banner for display at local events. Results Brite has seen a year over year revenue growth of 43% in BriteStar Services for fiscal year 2012. New customer acquisition was 27%. The overall ROI of the campaign was $9.30 for each dollar spent. Sincerely, Tanya Babcock Director of Marketing and Advertising Brite
BRITESTAR CAMPAIGN: Who s Watching Your Network In 2012, Brite began offering ancillary services to its BriteStar Service Product: McAfee Endpoint Protection, McAfee Web and Email Protection, Email Archival and multi-year retention, Software/Hardware asset management, BriteMail Hosted Microsoft Exchange, BriteVault+ Disaster Recovery and optional Computing as a Service (an equipment leasing program with desktop, laptops, servers and storage). BRITESTAR: CAMPAIGN EXAMPLES Mini Website Blog Email Blasts Banner Advertisements Corporate Challenge/Tour de Cure These new comprehensive product offerings were a unique bundle in the market and targeted small to mid-sized organizations. We needed to ensure the service hit the market effectively and with as much fan-fare as possible to not only increase our customer base, but solidify in the market our newly branded position as a hardware, services and security IT consulting company.
MINI WEBSITE (http://britestar.britecomputers.com)
BLOG (http://blog.britecomputers.com)
EMAIL BLASTS Drip Email Campaign 70,000 Impressions 32% Avg. Open Rate
EMAIL BLASTS
BANNER ADVERTISEMENTS This series of banner ads ran in the Rochester Business Journal s Daily Email for five weeks. The ad was changed out each week with a different visual.
BANNER ADVERTISEMENTS
CORPORATE CHALLENGE/TOUR DE CURE Many athletic events occur during the months of May through July. We created an outdoor teardrop banner, t-shirts and bike shirts for our employees to wear and display to increase exposure of the campaign. These were displayed at the Chase Corporate Challenge and Tour de Cure to name a few.
CORPORATE CHALLENGE/TOUR DE CURE