I’m an ITer - Direct
Issue 19 | June 2011
Agency
Ogilvy Beijing
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Doug Schiff; Associate Creative Director: Fei Wang; Art Director: Fei Wang, Pudding Zhang; Copywriter: Bozhan Zhang; Agency Producer: Fei Wang; Production Company: Helicon Studio; Producer: Tianyi Zhu; Associate Account Director: Suya Wang; Account Executive: Derek Zhang
Date
December 2010
Background
Every year, IT professionals are flooded with DM. Most routinely land in the 'round file'. IBM, a company with plenty of DM-producing experience, decided they needed to reframe how they interacted with their target. So they went from communicating to providing content; from providing information to providing insight; from simply reaching a target to creating a community; from producing a database to enriching one.
Idea
The ITer was first bundled to an influential IT magazine. And it quickly gained a reputation for being a leading beacon of the industry.
Results
Then ITer went online, with not only compelling content, but with a platform that offered a forum for the IT community's perspectives and insights.
In the end IBM reached over 1 million top IT professionals, the opinion leaders in their field. Along the way ITer helped IBM created buzz and gain greater influence. And boost business leads as much as 17 times!
All through an entirely new way of connecting with the industry in China.
Our Thoughts
I review submissions to Directory with two different mindsets. First is as a creative person. Is the idea cool, do I like it, do I want my Directory friends to share the pleasure I take in an idea well crafted? The second mindset is as a small business owner wondering how to grow the company. Is there something in the idea I can learn from, something I can borrow or steal?
This idea doesn’t really tick the first box but it certainly ticks the second.