Winner: IBM Americas
Publication: Market$hare
Budget: There was no budget allocated for the new publication; Market$hare was simply a part of Freeman and O'Donnell's workflow.
IBM has 14 unique groups in its IBM Americas marketing organization. With each of these groups sending out routine communications to the 12,000-strong sales force, sales
employees were heading into serious information overload. Plus, important messages were being watered down or even missed.
In July 2001, internal communications and marketing teams were faced with the need to significantly streamline communications. Their efforts to work together before had always
resulted in confusion. "It was a phenomenal feat to get it down to a team that could execute without being encumbered," says Mary O'Donnell, marketing community programs manager.
O'Donnell and Linda Freeman, senior communications manager, spearheaded the project from White Plains, N.Y., and immediately began taking inventory of the communications to
find out who was sending what. They developed a form for communicators to plug in the names of the communiqués they sent out, how frequently they were sent and what content was
involved. A database was then developed. "We were shocked at how much stuff was going out and how much overlap there was," Freeman says.
O'Donnell and Freeman implemented what they refer to as a "gatekeeping" strategy with one branded electronic communications vehicle, titled Market$hare, encompassing all of the
content that used to go out in a variety of different alerts. Freeman took over the role of "editor" for Market$hare, which publishes monthly. She and O'Donnell have worked to
develop an overall focus for each month's issue, and when she solicits information from the 14 marketing groups, she lets them know what information to provide. The team also
created a template with six questions to send to contributors, including how the content is actionable for the sales force. "The content owners begin to edit themselves," Freeman
says.
The team has been able to demonstrate to management that the new pub has saved a minimum of $5 million in terms of storage costs that were previously incurred with multiple
emails sitting in employees' in-boxes. Most importantly, usage reports and discussions with members of the sales force show that the 12,000 recipients of Market$hare are really
using the e-pub. "The brand is getting traction. They know when they see that title in their in-box, it's not a waste of time," Freeman says.
(Contacts: Freeman, O'Donnell, [email protected], [email protected])