How our integrated attendee journey generated 140 on-target leads for F5 & Red Hat
CASE STUDY
KPI
Leads Obtained
$ Cost Per Lead
CLIENT OVERVIEW
F5 a global company specialising in application services and application delivery networking (ADN) – and one of their suppliers, Red Hat – the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source solutions.
This world’s leading provider of enterprise open source solutions – sought our assistance in helping them break into the DevOps movement in South Africa. Their aim was to build relationships with DevOps professionals by hosting an event dealing with issues relevant to the DevOps industry.
THE CHALLENGE
As F5 and Red Hat were targeting a completely new market to them, they (and us) were faced with a number of challenges, chief of which was how do we bring IT professionals in Johannesburg together so that they can benefit from the F5 and Red Hat partnership?
Another significant challenge was how do we engage IT professionals in a cost-effective manner without sacrificing the depth of their engagement. F5’s brand perception in front of the Developer and Operations personas is of critical importance. These audiences (especially the under 30’s segment) are very sensitive to advertising, and have a distaste for corporate attempts to get them to buy outright. In light of this, all communications need to lead with value and should avoid product-specific offers until buying intent is shown.
SOLUTION DELIVERED
Our solution was a campaign built around an integrated journey, culminating in a highly relevant, tailored local event in Johannesburg:
We kept costs low with strong incentive (a pair of Bose headphones given away at the event) to reduce the cost per lead. Our proprietary bidding strategies also allowed us to beat market rates for B2B leads acquired by a massive 96%.
We kept the campaign performance high with super-targeted parameters (specific locations, industries, company sizes, titles and seniority)
We optimised the lead journey for frictionless data capture, using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms in a novel and innovative way, embedding survey questions subtly into each form. Participants were shaping the kind of event they would be attending, all while providing their details and giving them a chance to opt-in to marketing communication.
F5 & Red Hat were not only able to penetrate the DevOps market but also do market research to help them better understand their new market and provide value from their first event.
Our Tactics
- LinkedIn Ad with Lead Gen Forms
- Persona-based Messaging
- Agile Project Management
GROWTH SUCCESS
Using these tactics innovatively, we were able to improve F5 and Red Hat’s positioning in the strategically critical DevOps market by targeting and engaging with new prospects in a 3-part interaction:
We generated highly targeted opted-in leads matching the DevOps persona for both F5 and Red Hat.
We obtained market research by requiring entrants to answer 3 survey questions.
We invited all competition entrants to the DevOps Day Johannesburg event to take part in the greater discussion and meet with F5 and Red Hat product specialists.
