Adam Gartenberg's Blog

New IBM Ads: Why Information Matters

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• Author: Adam Gartenberg
• March 8, 2010
• Category:  IBM  SmarterPlanet  Advertising 

Our advertising group just posted five new Smarter Planet ads, focused on the way data, information and analytics can reshape the way companies operate today and the ways in which we can make our world a better place for everyone.





My personal favorite is the one featuring IBMer Jeff Jonas.  The analogy he makes in the ad to crossing the road based on what the road looked like 5 minutes ago is the best I've seen to date as to why organizations need to keep pushing as close as possible to working off real-time information, not historical data:

If you were to stand at a road, and the cars are whipping by, and all you can do is take a snapshot of the way the road looked five minutes ago. How would you know when to cross the road? 9 out of 10 organizations still make decisions this way every day using out-of-date information. The organizations that are most competitive are going to be the ones that can make sense of what they learn as fast as they learn it. That's what I'm working on. I'm an IBMer. Let's build a smarter planet.

I also found the remarks from John Cohn closing out the end of the 2 min piece to be very insightful: "The more we instrument the world, the more sensors we put out, the more data we collect, you might think that we'd get inundated, but it's actually the opposite.  The more data you collect, the clearer you see."

Links:

• Playlist: Why Information Matters
• A Smarter Planet Relies on Data Analysis

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Comments

1

Graham Dodge | Website: | 3/8/2010 2:04:55 PM GMT

'A Smarter Planet' don't mean diddley-squat to a SMB who's trying to choose between Lotus Domino and MS Exchange. All it does is brand IBM software as stuff that's used by the large corporates rather than small business. I think we (BP selling to SMB) would be far better off if IBM just trashed the whole 'Smarter Planet' theme and saved the advertising dollars... or better still, spent it on 'Lotus Knows'.

2

Adam Gartenberg | Website: http://www.adamgartenberg.com | 3/8/2010 3:44:49 PM GMT

Hi Graham,

I would of course love to see us put even more money into the Lotus Knows campaign, but the whole point of the Smarter Planet campaign is to elevate the discussion from "which product is cheaper/which has feature X" to "which vendor and Partner can help me run laps around my competition." Taking on that mindset is a huge game change, regardless of the size of the company you're working with.

Yes, IBM's done its share of ads focused on things like rethinking a city's traffic grid, but we also have many, many SMBs that are seeing the benefits from the same Smarter Planet solutions. We asked boutique clothing retailer Elie Tahari to join us on stage at our annual IOD conference because they're using real-time data and analytics (just like in the ad) to react faster and cut costs. And they do it all with a TWO PERSON IT organization. I've got to imagine there are similar companies out there taking a similar view to collaboration.

We have a number of resources available for business partners around SMB and Smarter Planet: http://www-2000.ibm.com/partnerworld/pwhome.nsf/weblook/smb_smarterplanet.html (and I would love to pass on any feedback on what else you would like to see)

And as for the SMB that says to you "that's just for the big guys?" Chances are they're going to continue to just be an SMB (assuming they even stay around at all). The SMB that says "I can do that, too" - they're the ones that are going to keep you busy for a long, long time.

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Graham Dodge | Website: | 3/8/2010 4:47:04 PM GMT

"Smarter planet"..."Intelligent power grids" ... yeah, that sounds great, but if IBM can't answer the Right Here! and Right Now! technology problems that IT managers and CEO in SMB are facing today around storage costs and security and web access then you have no chance of getting customer mindshare for the bigger issues.

Oh? IBM can answer those storage and security and web access problems? With Lotus software? What a pity that the customers didn't find out about it before they migrated to the Microsoft stack but IBM was so busy selling 'big picture' stuff that they forgot about their bread and butter SMB clients.

As for the SMB that says "that's for the big guys", well they makes up the majority of the SMB market and THEY are the ones that will keep me busy for a long long time... if they don't switch to MS Exchange first. It's only after we gain their trust (by solving their immediate problems) that they'll let us tell them about a bigger picture.

And how is it working for IBM so far? Where are the hordes of customers migrating from Exchange to Domino? You might live on a 'Smarter Planet' but I live on this planet and I really think IBM has lost the plot on advertising.

C'mon 'Lotus Knows'... at least that mentions a brand name.

4

| Website: | 3/9/2010 1:19:14 AM GMT

When I watch the Smarter Planet ads, I think "cool music, important-sounding topics, nice production values...how in the heck does IBM factor into this? There's only an implied connection between getting a Smarter Planet and IBM, and I don't think that works. It makes me think too much. Get a little more specific about how IBM is actually causing the Smarter Planet to come about.

5

Eric Herber | Website: http://informix-zone.com | 3/9/2010 11:53:31 AM GMT

These advertisings are just crap, not even worth the time watching them (:-

Why doesn't IBM show concrete solutions that help to build a Smarter Planet like Trafficmaster did with the great functionality of IBM Informix ?

{ Link }

That would help to spread the word about IBM technology, not those irrelevant advertising spots with no concrete reference of technology (:-

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