ABOUT

GOOGLE HEAD IN THE CLOUD
IT. It’s not just an IT thing.

THE CHALLENGE

IT is no longer just an issue for the IT department. The impact on workflow, productivity and organisational cost structures means it’s now a board-level concern, drawing in influencers and decision-makers with limited technical understanding. People whose priorities are very different from the IT crowd.

Over 90% of European CFOs believe the move to cloud-based computing will be critical to commercial success. 70% believe their current IT structure is failing to deliver against business strategy. But the problem is, only 20% of them feel well enough informed to join the discussion about what to do about it.

THE IDEA: Head in the Cloud

Traditionally technology providers seek to influence financial decision-makers in large organisations via the IT department. We decided to go direct.

Google has had its head in the cloud for years, but not much dialogue with the finance department, who in turn aren’t very engaged with IT. Opening the conversation meant addressing the issue in an altogether different language. So we stopped talking technology and got down to business. Hard facts to help the FD crowd weigh up cloud benefits in a way that was relevant to their role.

Competitive advantage, productivity, cost efficiency. TCO. ROI. The currency of the commercial team. The argument was fiscal not technical, without the hard sell that C-suite execs hate. Top brass are time poor. Getting quickly to the point respects that limitation. We invited CFOs to spend just five minutes on a memorable microsite that took them on an unexpected journey; scrolling up through the clouds. Journey complete, a range of further resources were available; a personalized cost/benefits calculator, independent reports from McKinsey and the HBR, even a few questions to help kick-start a conversation with their own IT team.

The campaign included direct mail, super-targeted media, email, web. Every element designed to help empower the CFO to take more of a leading role in a business-critical debate. Without fear of getting lost in technology.

RESULTS

By showing why the cloud isn’t just an IT thing, Google found a brand new ally around the boardroom table. One who’ll become increasingly important as the cloud becomes the norm.

• From a highly targeted initial list of just over 3,000 corporate CFOs and FDs, 2,200 unique visitors to the campaign microsite.
• Average microsite dwell time of 5 minutes (and 8 seconds) – which luckily meant we got the headline right.
• +600 visitors going on to download additional resources.
• Resulting in over 150 direct or indirect corporate enquiries for Google Apps for Business.
• Winner of the Google Gold Global Marketing Excellence Award and rolled out in toolkit form across leading European markets and North America.