How cut-through creative can differentiate in a commoditised market
Lenovo CSP Managed Services are a collection of services that help businesses make the most of Microsoft 365’s suite of powerful collaboration and productivity tools.
With Microsoft 365 already such a highly commoditised product, Lenovo turned to The Walk to develop a creative and fully integrated marketing campaign that would get their customers excited about pairing Microsoft 365 with Lenovo CSP Managed Services.
The hero video captured the concept with eye-catching creative
The challenge
Both tech leaders in their own right, Lenovo and Microsoft were faced with the challenge of generating excitement around Microsoft 365 software – a familiar software suite, but delivered via a flexible cloud licensing model that was new to some businesses. A creative approach was needed to help the offering stand out against the noise of a saturated and competitive market.
The goals
So, how do you generate interest when the software you’re selling is exactly the same as what the competitor is offering? You unleash an integrated marketing campaign that uses an engaging creative approach to speak to your audience in a way that highlights the most attractive qualities of the offering for them.
Highlight key advantages
Capture attention
Explain the unique value
Upsell complementary managed services
The journey
A miniature marvel
The first step was to find a creative angle that would capture the attention of the right people, generate interest, and get our message across.
The key insight was that the flexibility and scalability of the offering meant that it could be tailored to fit any business, whatever size they were and however their workforce is distributed. The campaign concept centered around the personal delivery of the perfect solution, at just the right scale.
To bring this to life, we enlisted the help of a Melbourne-based artist to produce 1:24 scale miniatures set that would capture the concept perfectly. With these tiny props we were able to shoot a variety of sets from different workplace interiors to warehouses, and show just how versatile the solution is.
We then devised the whole campaign strategy, employing outreach tactics that would get our message in front of the right audience. The results were so unique that they instantly caught people’s attention and inspired customers to learn more about the solution.
A solid landing
A campaign landing page was the key destination for campaign traffic, and was designed to allow different audiences, from business leaders in research mode to IT managers looking for the details to find the information they needed to be convinced that the Lenovo solution was right for them. We handed off to Lenovo’s main web agency to build the page, walking the walk when it comes to collaborating for the best outcomes for our clients.
Our greatest assets
To demonstrate how organisations could enhance productivity and empower collaboration in the workplace with Lenovo CSP Managed Services, we produced a series of campaign assets, including a PDF flyer, an interactive infographic and a features guide. This helped demonstrate how Lenovo CSP could solve challenges around collaboration, productivity and cost efficiency for businesses of every shape, size and industry.
Reaching key decision makers
To help decision makers understand how Lenovo CSP could benefit their business, we created a long form research piece that broke down the challenges facing them, and explained the business environment in which Lenovo CSP worked. This emphasised the value of an end-to-end productivity solution that supported productivity, no matter how their teams were working.
Recognising the many layers of decision makers within an organisation, we also developed a ‘Convince your Boss’ cheat sheet that empowered operational staff to convince executives about the value of Lenovo CSP.
Driving traffic online
Eye-catching display ads were designed to drive traffic to the newly developed landing page and utilised the miniatures concept and photography. These creative executions both attracted people’s attention and piqued their curiosity, making them eager to learn more about Lenovo CSP Managed Service. Two key assets, the research long form and infographic, were also targets for a content syndication campaign delivered in conjunction with a high profile tech publisher which generated many leads.
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Ad 1
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Ad 2
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Ad 3
A series of outreach emails were also produced to raise awareness and educate existing Lenovo customers about the benefits of Microsoft 365 from Lenovo.
In addition, to keep Lenovo CSP top of mind for visitors to the site, we also developed a nurture series that shared more information about the offer, and encouraged customers to get in contact with Lenovo.
Supporting partners to succeed
Lenovo has a huge network of reseller business partners and is committed to empowering their partners with all the tools and knowledge they need to sell through Lenovo’s offerings to their customer base.
Among the enablement material created was a series of videos to help resellers understand and sell through the advantages, as well as customer-facing collateral that resellers could co-brand and use as their own.
We also created a ‘Partner Pack’ to help onboard the first 20 resellers, and educate their staff on Lenovo CSP Managed services. This pack included everything Lenovo’s reseller partners needed to start selling the solution, including training videos, a campaign flyer, sales guides, conversation guides, sales email templates and a tri-fold desk topper for easy reference that would help to keep the Lenovo solution top-of-mind.
The results
The miniatures concept neatly captured and communicated the idea of being able to flexibly build and personalise your solutions to suit your business, no matter the size, shape or industry.
Taking a more creative approach allowed the solution to stand out in a highly saturated market, while turning a standard sales proposition into an interesting marketing campaign that encouraged customers to learn more about CSP Managed Services.
By producing useful resources and reference material, we were able to empower channel partners and internal sales teams to learn about the solution, so that they could do a better job of selling it to their customers. Ultimately, the campaign proved that a creative approach can be the differentiator in a crowded market.
