There isn’t always room for creativity in the world of B2B tech and software sales. But Melbourne integrated marketing outfit, The Walk, has challenged that belief by taking a creative approach to differentiating Lenovo’s offering of Microsoft’s highly commoditised Microsoft 365 software suite with their business customers in North America.
Recognising that the way we work has changed recently, Lenovo and Microsoft teamed up to deliver more personalised IT solutions for those switching to a more flexible and remote business model. But they needed The Walk to help them get the message across in a market heavily saturated with like-for-like messaging.
Proving, once again, what can be achieved with Melbourne’s rich talent pool and a sharp creative idea, The Walk has delivered a clever integrated marketing campaign to get customers excited about pairing Microsoft 365 with Lenovo CSP Managed Services.
Creativity that creates differentiation
With a creative concept centered around the flexibility of a fully customisable solution that can be tailor-fit to suit any business of any scale, The Walk partnered with a local artist from the Melbourne Museum who focuses on life-like miniatures to bring their ‘Built to Scale’ concept to life.
Creating a series of 1:24 scale workplace sets where Lenovo and Microsoft solutions were filmed being dropped in by hand, the clever creative allowed the campaign to highlight how the software could be delivered as a customised solution, at the perfect scale for any business.
“The Walk’s creativity was on full display with their ‘Built to Scale’ concept, which depicted various working arrangements through miniature sets,” said Drew Piland, Microsoft CSP Marketing Manager, Lenovo North America.
“The level of effort they went through to find a local artist, create the required sets, film multiple situations, and then bring it to life was incredible to watch’.”
The success of the concept was recognised by the client, Microsoft CSP Marketing Manager for Lenovo in North America, Drew Piland, who said “‘the genius in this was, not only did it help us stand out in a crowded marketplace while emphasizing customer flexibility, but it also provided us with the flexibility to build on these concepts as we continue to build out our brand’.”
Taking creativity down different channels
The campaign was built for the US and Canada, but everything including the miniatures, sets, photography and hero video for the campaign, was produced in Melbourne, using local talent. With the hero concept, photography and video leading the campaign, The Walk didn’t just stop there.
“Not only have they delivered high quality content under tight time constraints at a great price, but they’re also obsessed with developing a deeper understanding of our market to understand how we can continue to evolve the business,” said Drew Piland, Microsoft CSP Marketing Manager, Lenovo North America.
As an integrated marketing agency, their fully integrated work spanned sales enablement material and customer-facing collateral for reseller partners, as well as HTML5 display ads, search, and email outreach to generate interest in the new offering while driving traffic to the newly created landing page.
Designed by The Walk and built in collaboration with Lenovo’s global web agency in the UK, the landing page housed the hero video, a researched thought leadership piece, an interactive infographic, and supporting documents, including a ‘Convince Your Boss’ cheat sheet which empowered operational staff to convince executives about the benefits of Lenovo CSP.
When combined, the many components of the campaign successfully targeted various levels of the decision-making chain to prove to businesses why they needed to purchase Microsoft 365 through Lenovo.
Recognising the value of Lenovo’s vast network of reseller partners, The Walk understood that a key piece of the puzzle was empowering channel partners with the tools they needed to sell Lenovo’s offering.
To that end, The Walk created a range of sales enablement material, including a partner kit for their top sellers, and a series of seller training videos shot in Melbourne using local American-born talent.
“The way we were able to draw on local talent and collaborate internationally to create a global integrated marketing campaign with a strong creative component was the perfect expression of our vision at The Walk,” said Jo Edwards, Co-founder and Creative Director, The Walk.
The campaign is now being localised, ready for rollout in Europe and across APAC.
The ‘Built to Scale’ campaign is an excellent example of how clear thinking, good creative and great collaboration can help agencies of any size loom large on the global stage.
