Objective
Buddy Media develops social media enterprise software that helps companies manage their brands globally within social media with its scalable, secure architecture and data-driven customer insights from initial point of contact through point of purchase.

Our objective was to first define the brand’s competitive positioning and communications strategy and then execute it in a manner that would allow Buddy Media to become the world leader in this highly competitive market segment.

Challenge
Over the last 24-months, social media has exploded as the dominant online communication medium. During this time Fortune 500 companies (Buddy Media’s target audience) have been racing to establish a presence within social media. Our challenge was twofold. First we had to establish the need among the world’s most astute marketing professionals at the world’s largest brands for social enterprise management software. Second, once we’d created the category, we needed to dominate it.

Dominating a new category is easy if you don’t have anyone to compete against. Unfortunately Buddy Media is not alone in its ability to provide companies with the ability to manage, moderate and track the performance of their social media platforms. Other companies such as Involver, Vitrue, Wildfire and Shoutlet offer very similar capabilities oftentimes for a fraction of the cost.

Strategy
In the summer of 2010 we created an integrated marketing campaign that positioned Buddy Media as the leading software-as-a-service provider for Facebook. Our launch campaign was built on the premise that Buddy Media is the market leader in providing “Power Tools for Facebook” to the world’s largest brands (measured by marketing spend). Launched in September of 2010 “Power Tools for Facebook” positioned Buddy Media within its target audience of Fortune 500 CMO’s as the preeminent social media enterprise software and led to four-fold growth in sales overnight.

In our most recent campaign, launched last fall, we expanded the brand’s focus from just Facebook to include a broader representation of social media applications including Google+, Twitter and YouTube. The “Power Your Connections” campaign features original art created by some of the most renowned illustrators from around the world, each of whom has sought to express their interpretation of the power of social media to a brand’s marketing communications. As with last year’s campaign, our strategy and creative execution has been integrated into website design, targeted banner advertising, Facebook Page design and Facebook advertising, eNewsletter sponsorship, trade shows, customer appreciation events, affinity items, direct mail, campaign email, business-to-business print and billboards in airports throughout the United States and Europe.