Marketing Evolved!

Vincenzo Belpiede – Head of App Discovery, NOKIA

Objectives

– Generate awareness of App Social
– Increase Lumia users’ participation in App Social
– Build a group of brand ambassadors who can help promote App Social in the future

Approach

Recruit lifestyle, athletes, social, mobile and tech influencers to write a post or record an engaging video about their favorite mobile apps for the Nokia Lumia, which he/she posts on the Nokia app store via App Social.  Promote the posts via influencers’ social media channels.  Amplify via Nokia’s social media and app store channels.

Results

Evolve! has reached an estimated 172,989 people and generated 10,345 engagements.  More importantly, the program contributed to 4,933 new App Social users.

Henry Min, CEO of Nestivity

Early this year, social media startup Nestivity commissioned Evolve! to launch community engagement software tools for Twitter. At that time, Nestivity had no marketing presence and zero brand awareness. In the first three months, Evolve! enlisted dozens of social media influencers who helped drive more than 3,000 signups before the Beta was launched. Evolve! also developed a high profile PR and social platform for Nestivity to host discussions about best practices and ROI of building community on Twitter with some of the largest, most engaged brands on Twitter. Outcomes to date: Evolve! has helped Nestivity build genuine brand awareness, generate hundreds of sales leads and build relationships with some of the world’s largest, most engaged agencies, brands and influencers on Twitter.

Challenges:

• Launch a new product and new product category from scratch.
• Re-educate the marketplace: Twitter users are accustomed to one-off, fleeting exchanges on Twitter. For in-depth conversations, they are accustomed to moving to another platform.
• Few brands have the resources/understand how to build community, and few have dedicated resources to do so.
• Start with no marketing presence and zero brand awareness.

Solution:

• Identified and activated a community of social media influencers who helped drive signups.
• Identified/recognized the 25 most engaged brands on Twitter.
• Introduced Nestivity to these top brands and social media influencers in the context. of speaker panels, “Tweetcasts,” press interviews, and one-on-one conversations.
• Ran multiple social campaigns on behalf of Nestivity to create qualified leads
• Created a “herd mentality” with the press and influencers to drive signups
• Developed content to further establish Nestivity as thought leaders on engagement on Twitter.

Results:

• 5,000 signups before version 1.0 was released
• 90 blog and press stories generated through word-of-mouth marketing
• Business relationships with some of the most engaged brands, agencies and influencers on Twitter.
• As a result of the Evolve! social campaigns, Nestivity was able to create longer term sales opportunities with Fortune 500 brands

Enterprise social software vendor harmon.ie set out to amplify its brand awareness and forge relationships with MVPs in the Microsoft SharePoint community in order to help generate sales leads and help close enterprise software deals.  Beginning in 2011, they commissioned Evolve!, Inc., team members to identify and engage SharePoint community leaders globally as well as in targeted geographies.  During a recent #SPJam Tweet Chat, more than 100 participants from the SharePoint community generated a total reach of 2,294,612 during the one-hour discussion, according to Topsy Pro. That’s nearly a million more Twitter users than #SharePoint during the same day, with 1,194,942 people users potentially reached. harmon.ie’s multi-faceted, multi-year social media, public relations, content marketing and in-person campaign has achieved ample Tier 1 IT press and SharePoint blogger press coverage, including dozens of product reviews; significant mindshare among Microsoft SharePoint customers and relationships with several of the most powerful influencers in the SharePoint industry.

Challenges

• Abundance of ISVs in the SharePoint ecosystem
• Limited brand awareness among SharePoint experts/practitioners who influence customers’ buying decisions
• Drive leads for harmon.ie mobile and software products
• Create market awareness for IT decision makers from nearly zero to 90%

Solution

• Identified and recognized most influential SharePoint experts/practitioners in the United States and Europe
• Drive press awareness about new harmon.ie solutions
• Wrote engaging blog posts and created relevant content to drive leads
• Interviewed customers and influencers on video posted to tier 1 media sites
• Held online contests to drive awareness and leads
• Created infographics, landing pages and email campaigns to drive leads
• Offered influencers the opportunity to amplify their brands by contributing thought leadership in Tweet Jams (#SPJams), the harmon.ie corporate blog and in Tier 1 IT publications
• Gave influencers first access to product releases
• Hosted influencer dinners and awards at trade shows to drive face to face discussions and to promote influencers in public
• Interviewed harmon.ie prospective customers to highlight their achievements on Tier 1 press sites
• Created speaking opportunities for CEO at industry trade shows to generate awareness and leads

Outcomes

• Drove thousands of leads which converted into millions in revenue
• Market awareness now almost 90% of relevant IT decision makers
• Dozens of Tier 1 IT press and influencer press coverage
• More than 100 participants in each #SPJam, each of which generated and a greater reach than SharePoint they were hosted.
• Significant mindshare among Microsoft SharePoint customers and relationships with several of the most powerful influencers in the SharePoint industry
• Created strong partnership relationship with Microsoft which gave client early access to products and strategic relationships for future revenue opportunities.
• Made harmon.ie a thought leader in the SharePoint community