Creative Content Catapults Global IT Brand
Client
Insight is a leading provider of hardware, software, and IT services to business, government, education, and healthcare clients.
Location
Headquartered in Tempe, AZ, USA
Services Provided
- Youtility consulting
- Content and creative consulting
- Media consulting
- Editorial development and ongoing management
- Corporate podcast strategy and executive production
Overview
How does anyone today keep up with the speed of a constantly changing landscape, let alone a major player in the IT resale market? With a priority on forward-thinking technology solutions and the expertise to help companies make challenging decisions, Insight’s goal is to stay at the top of their game while technology pieces continue to shift. For Insight, the focus will always be on delivering superior information, service, and products. Now, it’s time to translate that into a meaningful and Youtility-inspired digital marketing effort.
Situation
Insight provides a wide variety of IT resale goods. Not only do they sell technology products, but they also show you the best way to use them to solve your business challenges. They aspire to be the go-to trusted resource and advisor for IT professionals.
The goal of Insight’s content team was to up their digital initiatives in a way that was a Youtility: marketing so valuable people would pay for it. When it comes to digital marketing, Insight is an incredibly forward-thinking company. While they face the universal challenges that all big companies face in terms of bandwidth and competing priorities, their ability to look to the future works greatly in their favor as they aim to be competitive and cutting edge with their content marketing.
Challenges
Although Insight is already a global leader in the IT resale industry, they faced considerable challenges, as many big companies do:
- Speed of change in the IT industry
- Internal bandwidth for new projects
- Competing priorities and uncertainty of the previously untested outcome
- The amount of effort and resources in paving a new path
Solution
Convince & Convert worked with Insight to brainstorm 10 new content concepts for their digital marketing program. Insight decided to select one of the concepts and do it really well: a new podcast called Technomics.
The purpose of the podcast was to create a marketing channel that would help CIOs and their direct reports have a better grasp of what’s going on in the IT and business worlds, so as to make solid business cases for their IT decisions.
C&C provided the planning, production, and promotion plan for the show, including editorial and cadence coaching, host and guest preparation, and overall show management. Our goal was to implement everything that needs to be done so that Insight hosts Robin Itule and Jeremy Nelson could step into the show studio, do their thing, and keep moving with their day. C&C plays the role of the glue that holds the show together.
Insight leverages internal subject matter experts as guests, making this a great example of how a company can drive engagement and use employees as external super stars.
We began with an un-advertised pilot season with nine episodes over a six-month period. We then took a break, re-aligned the show with Insight’s Services Unit, created a more concrete editorial calendar, and improved the production process to have a show drop every two weeks on schedule, and implemented a promotion plan.
The increased and improved planning helped create the structure for the Insight team to fully commit to the podcast. When we first started, it was a bit more fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants, as it often is in any creative process. In round two, we streamlined substantially, and the 345% increase in downloads over pilot season proved that it worked.
For C&C, it’s about continuing to improve. The idea that “the work is done” is not the right way to think about content ideas. We continue to partner with Insight to keep their show relevant.
With the first content concept up and running, the company is looking at their next venture.
Results
- Launched with 9 episodes over 4 months
- Improved podcast concept over a 5-month period to align podcast with a business unit as a strategic priority for the firm
- Relaunched with 12 new episodes over six months; increased downloads 345%
- Now receive sponsorships; stronger channel for building partnerships
- Continual audience-building content channel