The Brief

While most enterprises have been cutting costs to deal with the current economic slowdown, IBM has been advising companies to think long-term. And since IBM provides particularly effective solutions for the integration of IT and business, they wanted a DM piece that would express their unique offering. Target drawn from existing or new customers? New customers / those using the competitor’s products/services. Strategy of the campaign? The strategy was to target competitors’ customers with a warning that cheaper isn’t better, especially when thinking long-term.

Creative Execution

IBM is always battling the cheaper, but lesser quality brands in a variety of sectors. When it comes to the integration of IT and business, almost all competitors come up short. The creative was able to point that out in an alarming way. When opening the box, the target didn’t initially see the sharp teeth as they were concealed by the box’s design. But after opening, teeth appeared at the same time as the main message. The sharp teeth made a sharper point. IBM is superior to nearly all competitors when it comes to integrating IT infrastructure for business. So the confidence this piece has gels very well with their offering as well as their brand position.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

The creative was made to get a reaction. Saving money is generally good, but doing so at the sacrifice of your future business is a bad idea. This creative was made to make that point, but also get a good response.

Results

As the DM targeted those using IBM’s competitors products/services, the client was pleased to find out about the 6% response rate, as that was twice the norm for IBM’s customer base, or those already inclined to respond. Feedback also strongly confirmed it helped support IBM’s leadership position within IT infrastructure as well.