To launch IBM’s new PureSystems suite to customers, prospects and partners across the nation in a completely new way, GPJ created an innovative “hub and spoke’ hybrid event for the brand that took a special launch experience and distributed it remotely via satellite to physical locations in cities deemed key sales markets nationwide and through a virtual environment.
The event began with the live HD news format broadcast from the VELOCITY television studio in New York City, cutting live to the launch ‘anchor’ event in NYC with 350 attendees awaiting the unveiling of PureSystems. In the studio and at the anchor event IBM played host to IBM executives, product experts and clients discussing the new technology. A professional “news’ team moderated, packaging up each presentation and conversation so that viewers could easily understand each moment.
At the same time, HD video captured onsite was streamed live into a custom event set up with the Virtual Event Center (VEC), the GPJ-designed, always-on virtual platform powered by Unisfair for turnkey experiences such as this. Thousands of prospects tuned into the event via the VEC to not only view the content but to add to the conversation via comments, chat and real-time polling.
This same video feed was relayed to locations in markets calculated by sales to offer the highest density of potential customers, where sales teams hosted VIPs and prospects in thoughtfully chosen restaurants with specially designed viewing suites. Between video presentations screened live, IBM’s sales representatives facilitated PureSystems conversations and took Q&A from the attendees.
In all, the event reached thousands of physical event attendees and thousands more worldwide online across multiple time zones, industries and buying cycles. Conducted in lockstep with IBM’s sales and marketing teams as well as other agency partners, this launch broke new ground for IBM’s marketing team while setting up conditions that allowed sales to not only introduce the product but drive profitable conversations with buyers.
