Project Debrief: Tribridge Project Next Campaign
Client: Tribridge
Project Type: Campaign Development
Timeline: 6 Weeks
Recently, EFM was asked to manage the launch of Tribridge’s Project Next Campaign, part of their efforts to help their Microsoft Dynamics clients transition to a cloud solution. We take deeper dive with our Sr. Art Director, Angela Renac, to discuss what goes into helping define a thought leader in an already saturated B2B cloud services industry.
What was the initial request from Tribridge?
Moving to a cloud platform can be an overwhelming, daunting thing for a company, even if they understand that it’s a necessity. On top of that, many of Tribridge’s current/potential clients don’t fully understand what they can offer in services and solutions. We were asked to come up with a creative campaign and messaging directed at C-Suite, decision-makers, and influencers that positioned Tribridge as the trusted leader in cloud-based solutions, who understands their goals and concerns, and has the expertise to help companies transform their business with the cloud.
What did you define as success for this project?
Ultimately, this is a lead generation campaign. Success would result in a company initiating an assessment or workshop with a Tribridge consultant to develop a plan specifically for their business.
What steps did you take to quickly get familiar with the current brand?
We dug deep into Tribridge’s branding, website and messaging to assess what they offer and how they present both their services and their brand to customers. We also had some great discovery sessions with the client and did additional research into competing companies, some that we identified as having similar services, or being of a similar size and reach, and others that Tribridge identified as direct competitors. We also familiarized ourselves with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and how it’s talked about so we could better speak to the kinds of solutions Tribridge would offer its clients.
Where did you find inspiration for this campaign?
We did a lot of research to get as familiar as we could in the short amount of time we had with the core campaign topics. How were people in our target audiences discussing the cloud? What were consistent challenges? Why was it important to them? We also used visual communities to reference for like emotions, color, or texture references. It helped us quickly gather our ideas in the time we had. We would then come together to bounce our ideas off each other and see how we could use inspiration from other team members’ ideas to make our own better.
Considering you presented multiple options for the campaign, how did you navigate those reviews with the client?
We focused each campaign option to embody a very different emotional perspective. For each concept, we presented a rationale for the audience takeaway, detailing how the look, feel, and voice of the approach supported that takeaway. This process helped our Tribridge contacts see how every element, be it color, font, copy or imagery, was a thoughtful choice toward communicating the desired message to their audience. Once they selected a concept that resonated with their aesthetic and messaging goals, we continued to refine that direction in 1 or 2 more rounds to resolve any kinks or gaps. All the while, we continued asking questions about Tribridge’s marketing, communication and tradeshow needs to be sure we were delivering a campaign that could extend to all their targets, and adding creative thinking around how the campaign might further come to life in unexpected ways.
Do you see unique design challenges for B2B clients?
Most B2B clients exist in a crowded marketplace where they’re trying to stand out, to be fresh and unexpected, but still convey authority, leadership and expertise. To do that you must work hard to strike a balance, especially when you’re speaking to a C-suite audience who are looking at the big picture, and are more removed from the day-to-day challenges a business has. Communicating about high-level business goals to decision makers can be trickier than talking about specifics of a product or service to department managers who will use it.
Any lessons learned from this project?
It wasn’t so much new learning as much as a reinforcement of good habits. The practice of substantiating your creative approach and ideas with strong, strategic reasoning was important to moving quickly through this process with the client, helping them assess our creative and make sound decisions to help develop the campaign on a short timeline.
By David Fried
