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How do you turn megabits into megabucks? THE ERICSSON ENGINE CAMPAIGN [page 2 of 2]
The race to Geneva The response was enthusiastic, to say the least. Ericsson decided to launch the ENGINE concept at Telecom Geneva, the world’s biggest and most prestigious telecoms event, held every four years. Telecom 99 would take place in October. It was less than two months away. A lot of material had to be prepared in a short time. A 40-slide PowerPoint presentation, with a complete speaker script, explaining the technical and commercial stories. A multimedia presentation on a CD-ROM. This included video interviews with customers and consultants, as well as the President of Ericsson Telecom, explaining the ENGINE concept, and an interactive technical presentation. An accompanying brochure explained everything on paper. These two items were mailed to VIP customers. A web site, together with web banner advertisements which were placed on the most important industry news sites. To flesh out ENGINE, we scoped out four different ENGINE network concepts, designed to dovetail with different telcos’ business strategies and their current network status. After the initial campaign roll-out, these network concepts were documented further, as the ENGINE library grew. Last but not least, we created three press advertisements for ENGINE. Making a business proposition In line with the overall campaign strategy of talking about business, rather than technology, the press ads focused directly on what we had identified as three top-of-mind concerns at the telcos. How to counter the erosion of their core telephony business by the mobile operators.
How to adapt their networks to cope with the shift in demand from telephony to Internet traffic. And how to make sure they could continue to make money, whatever the service and traffic mix their networks were carrying. The advertising ran in the winter of 1999–2000, in the international business press: Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist etc. (We were unable to use telecoms-industry magazines as other parts of Ericsson had already booked space in them, and Ericsson did not allow more than one ad to be placed in one magazine.) The media spend was relatively modest at about SEK 5 million. ENGINE was out there. It made its first appearance, as scheduled, at Telecom 99 in Geneva, before being intensively marketed to all Ericsson’s key telco contacts. And most importantly, Ericsson had caught its competitors napping. Not one of them had created an overall concept like ENGINE, or was able to present a credible and comprehensive migration strategy to the next generation of networks. Ericsson had the field to itself. “All operators are dreaming of something like this” Six months after the campaign rolled out, Ericsson commissioned the London-based market-research firm, BPRI, to gauge its success with the target audience. BPRI conducted face-to-face interviews with 20 senior managers, and telephone interviews with another 65 managers, from seven different telcos. BPRI told Ericsson that its findings showed one of the most positive responses to a marketing campaign it had ever seen. The advertisements were ranked as “highly relevant” by almost all respondents. “All operators are dreaming of something like this,” said one interviewee. “It’s a strong message … making money in an ever more competitive environment,” said another.
When asked about the brochure, 83% of the interviewees said that it communicated effectively, or very effectively. “Impressive. One feels like opening and reading it. It’s not conventional advertising which one throws away as soon as one has seen it.” After viewing the CD-ROM, almost everyone – 93% of interviewees – said they understood the ENGINE concept “fairly well” or “very well”. “A good presentation with strong impact. I like to hear the management of the company introducing well focused and effective messages,” was one comment. “It is user-friendly, easy to listen to and easy to understand,” said another telco manager. The launch of ENGINE created big waves within Ericsson. Suddenly, wireline communications was a sexy place to work again. Other parts of Ericsson’s wireline business joined the ENGINE concept: most notably, access systems came under the ENGINE umbrella in 2000. This meant that the complete network, from the core switching systems right out to the subscriber’s wall socket, was now covered by ENGINE. From 0 to $1.3 billion in one year Effective marketing communications is one thing. But what about the results that really matter – out in the marketplace? In the first year after its launch, Ericsson signed ENGINE contracts worth $1.3 billion. Two of the top three European telcos, BT and France Telecom, became customers. By the end of 2000, 35 telcos were ENGINE customers. And at the start of 2001, ENGINE entered the North American market, with a $1 billion order from WorldCom. With ENGINE, Ericsson had rocketed from being an “also-ran” player, with an unclear strategy and an uncertain commitment to its wireline customers, to being the benchmark against which other suppliers were measured. With a market share estimated at 35–40%, Ericsson had achieved leadership in the “next-generation networks” market, just as it had in the GSM and 3G mobile markets.
The ENGINE campaign was conceived and written by Fraser & Bilder Communications,
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DOWNLOADS Campaign case study (pdf, 1.7 MB) Press advertisements (pdf, 1.3 MB) |
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