Brace Rennels, Director Community Strategy, EMC

SuperNova Award Category

Digital Marketing Transformation

The Company 

EMC is a global leader in IT transformation, using cloud, big data and security technologies to help companies deliver information technology as a service. Based in Massachusetts, the company has over 53,000 employees in 70 different countries.

The Problem

In 2010, EMC’s global marketing division was at a crossroads. Facing an uncertain economy and flat budgets, CMO Jeremy Burton knew his organization had to increase customer engagement if it was going to continue fueling robust revenue growth with existing resources. “We needed to make it easier for customers to interact with each other and with EMC,” Burton explains. “The ultimate goal was to create broader, more connected relationships that turn prospects into buyers and buyers into brand advocates.”

The Solution 

EMC created an external community, powered by Jive Software, called the EMC Community Network (ECN) for prospects, customers, developers and partners who are seeking information, advice and resources on EMC offerings and technology. Community members can ask questions and share ideas in discussions and subject matter groups, and easily find and follow experts and like-minded users. Intelligent search and recommendation features quickly connect users, fostering an entirely new level of collaboration among customers, partners and the company.

The Results

By using its Jive-powered community network to drive B2B customer and partner engagement, EMC has simultaneously increased brand advocacy, customer loyalty and sales while sharply reducing the cost of product launches and other marketing initiatives. As a result, activity and participation are at all-time highs and it’s provided EMC with a highly responsive and cost-effective channel for customer communications and marketing initiatives.

The Technology

EMC Community Network (ECN) powered by Jive Software

Metrics Matter

ECN’s membership has exploded, topping 280,000 by mid-2013. Customers who join the community generate 240% more bookings than those who don’t—an enormous contribution to top-line revenues. Jive has had a massive impact,” says Jonathan Martin. “We’ve begun to unlock the kind of latent business value we didn’t even know existed.”

Disruptive Factor

An example of the dramatic impact is evidenced by EMC’s product launch events. Over the past two years, EMC has transitioned from road shows around the country to virtual launch events delivered via ECN. In a single stroke, EMC has been able to boost event participation from several hundred in-person attendees to more than 10,000 online participants per event—while saving an estimated $750,000 per year in launch costs. In the last year alone, nearly 100,000 viewers participated in EMC’s social product launches. In addition, customers are not only getting EMC’s message, they’re conveying it to other prospects and customers, in effect becoming a highly effective extension of EMC’s marketing team.

Shining Moment

EMC’s vice president of global marketing, Todd Forsyth, says, “We simply could not have had that many conversations with our customers, at any cost, over conventional channels like email and phone. And, with the latest upgrade of Jive, we’re seeing engagement increase by over 60% year over year.”

ABOUT EMC

EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing.  Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information — in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.