Summary

• Intel Multi-Site Director is a cloud computing application provided by Intel and used by small IT companies across Europe to offer a sophisticated IT support service to their customers.
• Bright Digital has enabled Intel to bring to market one of its first ventures into online services.
• We built the technical infrastructure and promoted it to prospects across Europe using digital marketing tactics.
• This included web, email, social media, search, sponsorship and online video to generate and nurture new business leads.
• The service generated over 1600 sign ups in the first 4 months 78% ahead of first year target.
• It has become an Intel benchmark for how to develop and market an online service.

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Client

Intel is a global superbrand creating the technology innovation and the building blocks that drive much of the world's computing systems. The Bright Digital team has been providing digital and marketing services for Intel for over a decade.

Brief

Intel Multi-Site Director is an online service that enables smaller IT companies to compete against bigger IT support services. Many IT companies are struggling to make sustainable margins from their traditional sales of hardware and are looking at ways to offer services that provide them with a regular revenue stream. Intel Multi-Site Director gives them the capability to manage PCs remotely and offer a much more sophisticated IT support service to their customers

Bright Digital was briefed initial to build and maintain the technical infrastructure behind the service. Subsequently Bright Digital also won the marketing contract to promote the service.

Objectives

Infrastructure – the goal was to create an online service with seamless integration between multiple existing applications and new modules.

Marketing - Lead times to purchase for this type of service are very long with substantial periods of evaluation. Therefore the primary goal in year 1 was to raise awareness of the new service and to maximise the number of signups to a 1 year free service.

Solution

Application development
Bright Digital worked closely with Intel to take advantage of the explosion in low cost cloud computing applications. We took a US software application and transformed it into a ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) application built specifically for a multilingual European audience. We integrated a multitude of tools and systems including a social media platform, online support tools, Intel’s customer authentication system and an ecommerce platform. The application is written in .Net with a Microsoft SQL based backend.

Marketing
Bright Digital created a digital marketing strategy for the new service that considered the type of businesses being targeted, the most effective methods of communicating to them and how to generate and nurture leads. Our creative marketing team developed all the propositions and the brand using an orchestral conductor as the creative analogy. The following activities were then executed:

Marketing website - aimed at engaging prospects and generating leads. This is the landing site for many of the promotional activities. The site uses video content to present case studies and interviews with the Intel team.

Social media – a first for Intel in Europe, Bright Digital created a social media strategy that helped them understand how to become involved in customer conversations and create new avenues to communicating the benefits of the service. We worked with the Intel team on a weekly basis to monitor and participate in the buzz that is happening in IT, we guided the creation of blog, micro-blog, online PR, linkedin discussions and white paper development.

Email - we ran a continual lead generation and retention programme using email marketing. Adaptive email techniques were used to target potential customers – recipient behaviour was analysed and different strategies followed to engage prospects even more. Design and copy was constantly optimised with regular A/B tests of creative. Standard metrics of Open and Click rates were way above industry averages as a result. A monthly newsletter was also used to support the social media activities to keep prospects up to date and maintain contact.

Co-marketing - a co-marketing toolkit was developed including display advertising, email templates and advertising copy for use by distribution partners.

Online events - we developed a series of online webinars that combined recorded video footage and software demonstrations with a live Q&A and demo session with Intel experts.

Live event resources - to support live events we provided online registration tools for registering attendees, digital signage for display panels at the events, SMS and email reminders.

Search – highly targeted paid search advertising was used to generate new lead opportunities. We helped Intel establish a target cost per acquisition (CPA) to ensure effective spending of their budget.

• The activities in the first 4 months generated over 1600 sign ups which was 78% ahead of the first year target.
• Email campaigns have resulted in results of 38-42% open rates (industry 22%) and click through rates of 14-19% (industry 12.4%).
• The service has become the benchmark Intel use internally for how to develop and market an online service to its customers.
• The service is now the most comprehensive Remote Management and Monitoring online application available in Europe.