How IBM Offset the Impact of a Down Economy on Event Attendance

Company: IBM
Contact: Sandy Carter, Vice-President of SOA & Web Sphere Strategy, Channels & Marketing
Location: Armonk, NY
Industry: Computing, B2B
Annual revenue: $103,630,000,000
Number of employees: 398455
When IBM had a sneaking suspicion that the faltering economy might have a dire effect on
registrations for its annual IMPACT conference, it devised a plan that in addition to trying new
promotional tactics involved forging better relationships with, and maximizing conversions
among, those who could attend.
That strategy paid off in more ways than one, as you'll learn when you read how Sandy Carter
turned a sweeping industry challenge into a long-term win for the organization.
IBM is the world's leading provider of computer products and services. Nonetheless, in today's
economy, even the big guns need to rethink marketing strategy if they are to keep pace with
previous years' results.

How an Automotive Dealership Used Voice Marketing to Supplement Sales,

Boost Customer Retention
Company: Mike Miller Hyundai
Contact: Russell Herman, Service Manager
Location: Peoria, IL
Industry: Automotive, B2C
Annual revenue: Confidential
Number of employees: 50

While automotive dealerships across the country struggle to remain in business, to get through
the current economic downturn Mike Miller Hyundai has focused on customers who have
already bought cars from the dealership.
Using Vontoo technology, the dealership routinely sends out voice messages that remind
customers of overdue services such as oil changes and maintenance checks, at a fraction of the
cost of direct mail.
As a result, its service bays have been filled 20% above capacity on average, and customer
retention is up to around 52%, 13 percentage points higher than the national average for
Hyundai dealerships.

How an Email Marketing Solution Startup Signed up 300 Customers in 7 Days

Company: Mad Mimi
Location: New York, New York
Industry: Marketing, B2B, B2C
Annual revenue: Confidential
Number of employees: 6

Mad Mimi, a small email marketing service based in New York City, launched its public Web
site in April 2008. Competing in an overcrowded field, Mad Mimi wanted to secure a unique
position by offering more features for less money.
Mad Mimi's marketing challenge was to create a big splash in the deep pool of the email
marketing industry, attracting enough users to start a ripple effect in the marketplace.
But, as an essentially homegrown effort, it simply had no advertising budget. "Our marketing
approach was to invest love, sweat and some serious thought into the interface of our little
application," according to Gary Levitt, founder and CEO of Mad Mimi.
That is, the application itself was to be the message. And, without a budget, the only solution
was well-thought-out viral effort targeting certain segments of the tech community, including
blogs.

How One Website Doubled Its Ad Revenue

Company: PlanningFamily.com
Contact: Noah Anderson, President and CEO
Location: Costa Mesa, Calif.
Industry: Online Publishing
Annual revenue: $5,000,000
Number of employees: 10

PlanningFamily.com President and CEO Noah Anderson knew his site offered a strong value
proposition for advertisers, but convincing them to advertise on his site on a cost-per-thousand
(CPM) basis, without any guarantee of clicks... in this economy? Well, that was another story.
So Anderson introduced a new performance-based program: Advertisers pay only for the real
leads they receive, thereby diminishing the risk of advertising on his site.
This approach allowed PlanningFamily to connect with a new advertiser base, and over the past
year the company's ad revenues have doubled as a result.

How a Small Company Went Global (Without Breaking the

Bank)
Company: Lingo24.com
Contact: Christian Arno, Founder and Managing Director
Location: London, UK
Industry: Translation Services
Annual revenue: $6,300,000
Number of employees: 105

Lingo24 is a UK-based business that used to derive around 70% of its sales from the domestic
market. In 2006, it sought to expand operations internationally, both to increase sales and to
diversify its revenue sources as a means of protecting itself from fluctuations in the currency
markets.
Through the strategic positioning of offices across four continents, and by translating and
localizing its website for other markets, Lingo24 has been able to make significant inroads into
the international arena. It now derives more than 50% of its revenue from abroad.
Lingo24 is a UK-based round-the-clock translations service, which Christian Arno started from
a spare room in his parents' house just after graduating from Oxford University in 2001.

A Fresh Way to Use Email as an Interactive Tool

Company: Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp.
Contact: Jill Trecker, Manager of Guest Loyalty
Location: San Diego, Calif.
Industry: Restaurant
Annual revenue: Confidential
Number of employees: Confidential

Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., which operates a restaurant chain, had more than half a million
customers on its email list. But the company wanted customers to do more than print out
coupons. It sought to build customer loyalty by using the email channel as an interactive tool.
Challenge
Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Garden Fresh operates 102 casual-dining, buffet-style
Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants in 15 states. The company had an enviable
500,000-plus membership for its Club Veg email listbut wasn't using it to its fullest
advantage, instead leveraging it primarily as a one-way marketing channel.

How AAA Went to Where Its Members Needed Help: Social Media Sites
Company: American Automobile Association (AAA)
Contact: Janie Graziani, social media manager
Location: Heathrow, Fla.
Industry: Insurance, Travel Services
Annual revenue: Confidential
Number of employees: Confidential

Based in Heathrow, Fla., and founded in 1902, the American Automobile Association (AAA) is
a not-for-profit insurance company known primarily for providing emergency roadside service,
maps, and other travel services. It has more than 50 million members.
With an increasing number of its members starting to talk about AAA via social media, the
company decided it needed to start listening and engaging.
AAA noticed that an increasing number of members were voicing issues and complaints via
social media instead of calling their local AAA office. AAA understood that it needed to be
aware of these conversations, not only to be responsive as possible to customers but also to
make sure member concerns do not snowball into PR crises.

Three Small (Biz) Steps to Increased Product & Service Sales, Recession Edition
Company: Paul Hyland Salon & Day Spa
Contact: Shelly Hyland, co-owner
Location: Crystal Lake, IL
Industry: Professional services, B2C
Annual revenue: Confidential
Number of employees: 30

For Paul Hyland Salon & Day Spa in Crystal Lake, IL, there was no question about it. Increased
competition in a luxury industry that was bound to get hurt in this economy meant the small
business needed to intensify its marketing efforts and show consumers it is here to stay.
By using low-cost email marketing and coupons and launching new-client referral and reward
programs, the 30-person salon is doing better than it was pre-recessionwith growth in both
service and retail product revenues, double the volume of new clients, and an increase in
existing client loyaltyall while the beauty spa industry as a whole continues to falter.
No doubt many, if not most, sectors are feeling the pinch as consumers continue to watch their
spending in the current economy, and luxury services such as salon and spa services are
certainly within those ranks.

How the Obama Presidential Campaign Leveraged Mobile Marketing to

Generate Support, Increase Participation and Outreach
Mobile marketing offers a sense of immediacy and intimacy that few other media can. Such
timely connection is what the Obama for America Presidential campaign leveraged to establish
deeper relationships with supporters, provide them with breaking news, and motivate them to
become active contributors and promoters.
A first in American politics, it was likely the first mobile campaign to be launched on such a
massive scale. And it proved an effective device for organizing and getting out the vote, thanks
in large part to a targeted approach that turned a nationwide program into localized operations.
This study shows how the Obama for America campaign was able to establish an opt-in list of
more than 2.9 million Americans and provide them with the tools and inspiration to get directly
involved in the campaign.

How a Company's Word-of-Mouth Strategies and Customer

Focus Helped Grow Its User Base 150%
Company: FreshBooks
Contact: Saul Colt, 'Head of Magic' at FreshBooks
Location: Toronto, Ontario Canada
Industry: Small business services
Annual revenue: Confidential
Number of employees: 28

What's the quickest way to a small-business owner's heart? Make his or her life easier. Torontobased FreshBooks was founded on that ideaspecifically, taking the pain out of small-business
expense tracking, billing, and invoicing. That service, however, is not all that has made the
company what it is today.
While businesses around the globe have been faltering, five-year-old FreshBooks has grown
from close to 300,000 users to over 750,000 in the past year, and much of that can be strictly
attributed to word-of-mouth.
How'd they do it? Through a level of service that might best be described as refreshing.