IBM faced the challenge of changing perceptions of their mainframe product as the cloud was becoming more popular. They launched a marketing campaign called "The Engines of Progress" featuring stories from major clients like Walmart and Visa about how IBM's mainframes helped transform their industries. The campaign included videos, events, and a student competition. It was highly successful, generating over 100 million social impressions and increasing IBM's annual revenue by 20%.

1. Case Study: How IBM Changed Perception
& Increased Revenue by 20%
If you ask most people what they think a mainframe is, most will likely get
visions of black and white photos of antiquated computers housed in an IBM
backroom. As the Vice President of Z Systems Marketing for IBM, it’s Deon
Newman’s job to change that perception.
Believe it or not, all of us are connected to a mainframe multiple times each
day. The stats might actually surprise you. For example:
 80% of all corporate data resides or originates on mainframes.
 55% of all enterprise applications need a mainframe to complete
transactions.
 30 billion business transactions are processed on mainframes every
day.
It’s staggering to consider how much we touch this technology when most of
us don’t think of this as relevant technology.
In his presentation, Deon shared a great case study of how IBM created a
series of marketing campaigns to bring relevance to their mainframe product
and create a more contemporary approach for the way the product is used.
Below is a case study of how IBM took on a challenge of changing industry
perception head on.
Case Study: How IBM Changed Perception of
Their Product & Increased Revenue by 20%
YOY
The Challenge
The whole industry is abuzz with moving all information to the cloud, which
can quickly make a product like IBM’s mainframe, seem irrelevant. As the 50
year anniversary of one of their most popular products was quickly
approaching, they knew it was time to transform the brand and reposition
their offering.

2. The Journeyof Brand Transformation & Repositioning
IBM had a new technology coming out in January of 2015 and the
50th anniversary of the launch of the mainframe 50 in April of 2014. Many
people wanted to run away from the term “mainframe” because it was
associated with a legacy concept (which in the IT world is a dirty word). The
company used this milestone as an opportunity to project and flip the
perception.
Instead, they focused on hitting some of the milestones and focus on what
the product enabled, including helping put a man on the moon and ticketing
systems for airline companies.
The team at IBM developed a client led communication program called “The
Engines of Progress”. They went into some of their biggest clients, and
enabled them to tell their own stories about how they have changed their
industries and the world.
The Engines of Progress clients included Walmart, Visa and First National
Bank. Each in their own right have had an impact, and here are their stories
in their words:
walmart - https://youtu.be/3C4PJ2bJbRk?list=PLezLS0Tuqb-5CQ66kegl-
YzHvUso8CpcL
VISA - https://youtu.be/s-bkCz4zQaw?list=PLezLS0Tuqb-5CQ66kegl-
YzHvUso8CpcL
1st National Bank - https://youtu.be/Y4 -k-QaEgdg?list=PLezLS0Tuqb-
5CQ66kegl-YzHvUso8CpcL
Part of what you’ll notice is that IBM leverages modern themes throughout
this entire campaign and that they aren’t pushing their product. Within this
series, they focused on brands that are leaders and seen as market movers.
The other great thing about this client-focused campaign is that leadership
within these companies wanted to be involved in the campaign. These videos
helped tell IBM’s story digitally and the clients saw this as an association
with something very iconic to be proud of.
In addition to celebrating what IBM had accomplished with current clients,
they also wanted to start focusing on cultivating Generation Z. They created
an academic initiative that included 180,000 students around the world, in
1,400 schools in 70 countries. They created a contest called “Master the
Mainframe” which was a three round gaming contest designed to introduce
mainframe gaming to the new generation.

3. IBM Master –
The five finalists of the contest were brought on stage were highlighted as
part of the 50th anniversary celebration. IBM was able to bring the next
generation of skills into the fold to celebrate the anniversary of one of their
first products.
Results
Beyond the feel-good vibes that the campaign created, it’s important to
determine if IBM was successful in changing the minds of their customers,
potential customers, and their community at large. The results, speak for
themselves. The campaign had:
 More than 100 million social impressions
 There were over 150 articles written about the campaign
 More than 75 events supporting the campaign were hosted around the world
 Additionally, 20-30 of IBM’s clients ran their own events to support the
campaign.
 This was incredibly inspiring and worked to reactivate IBM’s 400,000
employees who learned a lot more about the platform throughout the
process.
 Overall, revenue has increased 20% year over year
The lesson of this experience wasn’t that IBM sold a lot of mainframes
(which they did) but that they found something contemporary with a
credible story and linked these two things to help market and sell their
platform.