Rocket Software is a global technology leader that develops enterprise software for some of the world’s largest companies. For more than 30 years, the company has helped global businesses across all industries solve their most complex IT challenges and modernize their IT without disruption.
Rocket Software’s technology is pivotal to millions of business transactions every day, but its brand was largely unknown outside of its very technical and specific buyer. As the company looked to expand and build greater awareness and trust, it turned to V2 Communications.
One communications strategy to meet this goal is to illustrate Rocket Software’s market-leading products in the context of solving customer pain points. To create demand for a product that would be launched in June 2023 called Rocket Data Intelligence—and to support a marketing funnel from awareness to consideration to conversion—V2 ideated a survey report, launched around the product launch, that would contextualize the value of this new product.
V2 collaborated with agency research partner Researchscape International to field a survey to 250 IT leaders focused on their concerns about what keeps them up at night. The questions were designed to drill into the three key pain points that Rocket Data Intelligence solves for – efficiency, risk management, and optimization.
The findings created an opportunity to position Rocket Data Intelligence as the solution to their problems—an opportunity that V2 promoted via an integrated campaign comprised of activations across earned, owned, and paid channels.
Omnichannel Amplification to Support the Marketing Funnel
V2 developed a comprehensive report that summarized the survey findings and offered solutions to IT leaders’ concerns. This report was used as a hub asset to support earned, owned, and paid channel activations. Together, these activations created a surround sound effect, making the survey—and thus the need for and value of the product—hard to ignore.
Owned Content
Owned content was key to providing a destination where all information related to the survey could be found and was important in driving audiences to Rocket Software’s website. V2 strategized and developed a variety of spoke assets from the report that lived on Rocket Software’s website—specifically a survey landing page, which V2 developed the wireframe and copy for—which were amplified across social and paid media channels post-launch. These content assets included multiple blog posts, infographics, an eBook compiling customer case studies that support product messaging, and an episode on Rocket Software’s podcast Digital: Disrupted, which V2 produces end-to-end.
Earned Media
Earned media was key to bringing general awareness and credibility to the data. V2 issued a press release unveiling the survey and report. V2 conducted media outreach to business, technology and trade publications read by key IT audiences, resulting in 30+ pieces of media coverage. Standout coverage includes:
- Security Magazine, 63% of IT leaders measure IT success by reduced risk
- Datanami, Rocket Launches a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ for Data Lineage Tracking
- CIO, Top considerations for data modernization initiatives
- ITOps Times, Rocket Content Automation accelerates IT modernization without introducing added risks
Paid Media
V2 manages and writes Rocket Software’s CEO Milan Shetti’s sponsored column in CIO Brandpost. V2 wrote and published four articles for the column that pulled on different themes from the survey—and explained how Rocket Software’s new product can solve for IT leaders’ challenges:
- What keeps IT leaders up at night?
- Efficiency is the name of the game for IT leaders
- IT leaders know they need to manage IT risk—but need help in execution
- Unlocking the hidden value of data
These posts generated an above-industry-average CTA Click-Through-Rate (CTR) of 2.65%, and received over 3,000 pageviews.
In addition, V2 further amplified the report via a LinkedIn advertising campaign that directed very targeted prospects across America, Europe, and APAC to more details about the Rocket Data Intelligence product. This resulted in a conversion rate of .5% and CTR of .34%, aligning with industry average.
Organic Social Media
V2 manages Rocket Software’s social media accounts—LinkedIn, X, and Facebook—end-to-end. The agency created and posted over a dozen posts on the brand channel to amplify the reach of the survey results. Each post included a graphic—which V2 gave direction to create—that represented the copy to drive more engagement. V2’s social strategy also included incorporating statistics from the survey into Rocket Software’s CIO Bullpen Report social series, which was created in conjunction with NESN and the Boston Red Sox, Rocket Software partners (example here).
Employees and executives at Rocket Software also amplified the reach of the survey via their own social media handles. V2 made it easier for employees to post about the survey through the use of employee advocacy platform, GaggleAMP.
Integrated Approach Drives Engagement Over Time
V2’s holistic, integrated approach to this survey created a memorable brand moment at launch, and generated a halo effect in the quarters to follow that meets both awareness and consideration goals.