Under a corporate mandate, IBM needed to achieve cost-savings and increase the performance of their event marketing initiatives. After months of audits, they made the decision to consolidate their marketing activities with GPJ.
A dedicated team of IBM and GPJ executives spent months conducting an integrated event marketing readiness audit, intensively examining the existing processes, relationships, tools and other aspects of IBM’s event programs worldwide. Based on this research and ensuing documentation, this team created a detailed analysis of the areas to which IBM’s program could bring new efficiencies and improve the bottom line. With this information in hand, GPJ and IBM built a blueprint of a new kind of worldwide event marketing platform, one rooted in strategy, brand standardization, groundbreaking creative, measurement, consistent processes, new tools, and transparent billing and reporting. A new model was implemented through a phased approach over several years developing the necessary software and tools, re-allocating people and resources, applying new analytics to programs based on clear business objectives and institutionalizing the idea that strategy and thoughtful analysis would inform decision-making at every level.
The radically new paradigm that emerged now serves as the industry benchmark, bringing IBM tens of millions in savings, reducing the event portfolio while increasing the total results by optimizing the experiences that IBM does create to engage and activate its many audiences.
