The Challenge

Interactive Intelligence offers an innovative approach to integrated business communications. Using proven, open standards it can deliver high functionality across the whole spectrum of communications, at a significant cost benefit over its competitors – which include industry giants such as Cisco – and at the same time deliver tremendous operational efficiencies.

The traditional IT audience already had good awareness of Interactive Intelligence. But the company needed to pitch at the top level of its target customers, to demonstrate that the time was right for a new approach. At the same time, the economic climate was driving those prospects to pull major purchasing decisions further up the food chain.

With a large number of vendors pitching to a small number of CIOs, it was vital that Interactive Intelligence found a way of cutting through the noise to make its distinctive voice heard.

The Response

Whiteoaks tackled the challenge with an initial 12 month campaign based around high impact coverage. The intention was to dramatically boost the share of voice enjoyed by Interactive Intelligence, not just in column inches but in thought leadership.

The focus was on placing Interactive Intelligence and its senior staff as the authorities on key market issues. Critical to this was very fast response work to pounce on hot topics as they emerge and make sure the Interactive Intelligence viewpoint was heard. That meant building close relationships with editors and with industry analysts, and quickly it became their standard practice to include comment from Interactive Intelligence.

The partnership between agency and client was greatly helped by the commitment of Interactive Intelligence’s charismatic founder and president Don Brown who made himself available for media tours and briefings whenever he was in Europe. Local staff also became recognised for the quality of their opinions and views on the wider industry.

Comments and opinion pieces, together with a good stream of case studies and testimonials – in print and video – demonstrated clearly and very visibly that Interactive Intelligence is a trusted brand which delivers on its promises.

The Result

An independent audit of press coverage, weighted to reflect the high level audience sought, was commissioned from Apollo Research. The researches evaluate 170,000 stories from Europe and the US each month, valuing them according to prominence, themes and influences.

To determine the initial success of the Whiteoaks campaign, coverage of Interactive Intelligence in the first half of 2008 was compared with its previous positioning in the first half of 2007. The results were astounding, with its share of the voice rising by 460% year on year.

As a result of the Whiteoaks campaign the Interactive Intelligence share had risen to 24.9% according to the independent Apollo ranking, far exceeding the industry average of 18.8% and even the press share of Cisco – a $30 billion company – at 20%. It was second in its sector only to Avaya, from whom it had taken a significant proportion of coverage.

The Interactive Intelligence proposition depends on a very high degree of brand recognition and comfort with those at the very top of its potential customers. The immediate impact of the Whiteoaks approach was to massively increase that recognition. The campaign continues with further opinion leadership and demonstrations of the company’s success through more case studies.