Tibco Architects Thought Leadership

Let’s face it. When you’re in the business of selling technology that connects different types of corporate computer systems together, things can get pretty dry. And, predictably, most marketing messages that come out of this space are pretty dry techspeak.

Vendors talk about “interoperability within heterogeneous platform environments” and “connectivity through messaging-oriented middleware.”

However, one company, Tibco, has attacked the positioning challenge with a different –- and even humorous -- approach to promote its leadership in this market. The vendor turned to new social media – in this case, YouTube –- to launch a series of humorous videos that carry its message that technology need not be so complicated and head spinning.

The vendor’s videos feature a Ken-like doll –- named “Greg the Architect” -– that has created quite a bit of buzz in its market.

Just recently, for example, BtoB Magazine cited the Tibco “Greg the Architect” campaign with the BtoB Best Award for Best Online Campaign.

As the magazine’s judges put it: “After viewing much well-meaning, essentially hollow advertising showing us our global village photographed just so, it's refreshing to see such low-cost, imperfect creativity as the ‘Greg the Architect’ campaign where, at times, you can literally see the hands behind it.”

Tibco manages to take subtle swipes at its competition in the videos, and also parodies much of the so-called “FUD” (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that characterizes the enterprise software market. On YouTube, as of this writing, the video has been viewed more than 52,000 times. The two follow-up videos in the series have had a total of 26,000 views. For a specialized audience such as SOA architects, those are numbers marketers would be willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach through conventional channels.

As BtoB puts it: “The videos are extremely entertaining—and we don't even know what service-oriented architecture is. We can only imagine the response from the professionals.” 

The service-oriented architecture market is a very complex market, with a lot of conflicting messages. Even the most technically astute professionals often are befuddled by the murky and often-contradictory messages they are being bombarded with by vendors.

Greg is a well-meaning character that wants to help his company move into this next big phase in corporate computing. Viewers are treated to the foibles of this IT employee torn between his desire to do the right thing and a headstrong boss, annoying vendors, and clueless coworkers. (Also played by dolls.)

 There are now three installments in the Greg series. In the first, he is handed the mission of deciding on new SOA products, and has to listen to pitches from three different vendors. Greg gets in some good zingers of his own along the way. His response to a very techie pitch by one very techie vendor team: “I wish I was as confident about SOA as these guys… and you know, still get a date.”

Tibco gains additional advantages from the videos beyond buzz, of course. Those that visit the Greg the Architect site are invited to register online to receive the print version of Tibco’s SOANow Magazine. It's loaded with rich, thought leading content and helps to build a credible connection with prospects. Thus, the vendor is able to engage itself with an active constituency of IT professionals who find themselves in similar quandaries as Greg -- and are likely to be receptive to the assistance Tibco can offer.

As BtoB put it in its award declaration: The Greg the Architect series “gives the people advertising that they want, content that understands the pressures of their jobs and how to do them better. The goodwill generated by both the videos and the journal will pay off in potential customers who know ahead of time that Tibco gets it.”

And, in a not-so-subtle way, professionals may develop a sense that Tibco feels their pain.

Comments

[Computer Consultants Kit]

This is hysterical. I was rolling. What a creative way to turn the dry into a Saturday-Night-Live style skit! As someone who does business development training in the IT services space, I know first-hand that it's no easy feat to get your prospects to laugh. My hats off to Tibco... great job!

Joshua Feinberg

[John Gillett]

Thanks for this great example of transforming a complex technological explanation into an fun fest...surely the business decision makers will remember Greg the Architect long after SOA has passed its buzzword prime.

[Lisa]

Humor in marketing is such a great tool!

A recent MIT study shows that your chances of connecting with a lead drops dramatically after the first 5 minutes and you may as well not bother after the first 24 hours. My company has this really cool dialer with integrated software that will actually deliver each fresh lead directly to a waiting phone rep. It’s pretty amazing.