Dell: I.T. Squad
EssenceMediacom/ Dell
Business leaders don’t trust their I.T. providers—but opt to reference Reddit threads when shopping for the next host. Dell crafted an animated comedy series exclusively for Reddit to earn their trust back.
Meet the Team
Describe the brief or inspiration behind your project/campaign. What was your team tasked with?
How do we earn the trust of I.T. decision makers?
Dell Technologies provides some of the most advanced I.T. products for businesses, but business decision-makers don’t trust I.T. providers. There is an inherent disconnect in perceived trust across business decision-makers and their enterprise providers (49% do not trust enterprises and think they are not trying to understand their challenges).
Closing the trust gap is essential in restoring the fundamental partnership, and I.T. services stand the most to gain in building trust (15% spend more on I.T. services when businesses trust the enterprises they work with).
Traditional advertising was not working. We needed to better understand where this ‘hard to reach’ audience lives, what were their trusted I.T. sources, what motivated them and what were their most pressing I.T. issues.
Data revealed that this young business decision-making audience outrank other audiences in community forum engagement, especially on Reddit and Quora, where they trust in peer-to-peer discussions. These forums rank top of mind through most of the B2B buying journey.
Dell saw an opportunity to connect with this audience in a more organic way by joining the conversation on Reddit (72% of users trust brand recommendations on Reddit).
A lot of teams have challenges keeping a campaign idea simple, especially if multiple contributors were involved. How did you ensure that your project remained true to the idea and on brand all the way from brief to launch?
At Essence Mediacom, we fundamentally believe that in order to create relevant content for the “new communication economy” you have to change the way you work to change what you make. Instead of handing off a project from one discipline to another, or from creative to media, our multidisciplinary Creative Futures team is organized around one project, from beginning to end. And that includes the client. So, there is no chance of deviating away from the strategy, the campaign goal and purpose.
Did you collaborate with another business on this project? How did you work effectively together towards a shared creative vision?
In order to create effective campaigns today, many times, multiple partners are needed. In this case we partnered with Reddit to help us push the boundaries of the platform and understand how best to leverage its tools. We partnered with Charlex to help us elevate the comedic qualities of the script within the challenges of 2D avatars.
What does being recognized by the Webby Awards mean for you and your collaborators?
The Webby Awards celebrates the best of modern day campaigns. It is the pinnacle of creative and effective recognition.
