Aruba Instant On – B2B Product Launch Campaign Creative & Planning

  • Guy Habgood
  • Emmanuel Odunaike
  • Isabelle Phillips

Aruba Networks are an industry-leading global network solutions provider. They’ve been changing the network game for years in the enterprise space, bringing smart digital experiences with their sophisticated network solutions. Small to Medium Businesses are the largest and fastest growing business sector, but Aruba previously had no presence there. They saw an opportunity to leverage their experience as network providers and enter the space with a set of bespoke wireless products, designed with small businesses in mind. Aruba were set to launch these products to partners at the annual Atmosphere Conference in Croatia and needed a campaign to bring it to life.

The brief

Our brief was to develop a campaign strategy to leverage Aruba’s enterprise level experience, expertise and trust into the small and growing business segment. This needed to demonstrate an understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities in the fast-growing SMB sector. With the output being a defined sub-brand, unifying campaign idea, and messaging that extends across different market verticals and can be applied to a variety of content assets and media.

Planning and strategy

We identified three challenges surrounding this brief. One – the threat landscape was being shaped by the dual forces of increasingly sophisticated attacks which are hard to detect and the proliferation of BYOD, IOT and Cloud which generate overwhelming numbers of false positives. Two – security professionals had a dilemma, needing to open up the network for mobility and digital transformation, yet at the same time protect against attacks. Three – there was fierce competition for the best analysts who can provide a more sophisticated threat response.

The key challenge was the fierce and well-established competitor landscape – all offering similar, often cheaper competitive solutions. In order to develop a compelling campaign message, we needed to identify what set Aruba apart, and why they had authority to be in the small business space. Not only does Aruba believe in the quality of their products, offering a one-year warranty, but they’re a big player in the wired and wireless networking space, recognised by Gartner as a Leader in Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure for 13 consecutive years. So our campaign proposition was simple – Experience knows best.

Creative execution

To execute the proposition of ‘Experience knows best’ effectively, we needed a simple but powerful campaign idea. Our execution brought to life the fact that Aruba’s enterprise-level capabilities, experience and expertise have been squeezed into one simple but powerful SMB network solution: A big deal for small business. Championing growing businesses, Aruba’s small ‘box’ solution is packed full of potential.
A unique campaign visual language and copy platform built upon the Aruba brand, but introduced a fresher and more modern style to better fit with the intended audience.

Our audience research highlighted the major considerations for business owners, which in turn informed the campaign messaging. The messaging was then adapted to suit specific touch-points within the targeted customer engagement plan – focusing on product features which addressed specific business problems to achieve a positive outcome for business owners.

Campaign deployment

We developed a multi-touch campaign plan along with a comprehensive toolkit which included a range of assets for deployment by individual regions, covering every touchpoint in the marketing funnel. The toolkit included targeted emails, digital banners and social assets along with a campaign microsite and landing page which featured gated assets including an explainer video and infographic.

The campaign is currently being deployed in over 10 regions worldwide and we're currently working on a new phase approach for 2020.