Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Situation / Challenge
Everyone knows Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) as an elite provider of technology to business and government. Yet HPE Security – the business unit that develops and deploys cybersecurity software – suffers from having its own identity overshadowed by that of its parent HPE, as well as the consumer technology brand of its one-time sibling, HP, Inc. HPE Security’s challenge has been to find a balance between trading on the corporate HPE brand while building its own identity as a trusted enterprise security solutions provider.
Sage helped HPE Security meet this challenge through a multi-pronged communication program that expanded HPE’s brand into the world of federal cyber security – the one technology application where federal requirements lead those of the business sector, not the other way around.
Approach
Sage deployed its full discovery process – including executive sessions, technical interviews, competitive benchmarks, and brand audits – to identify specific goals and tactical requirements for HPE Security’s federal program. We then worked hand-in-hand with HPE Security’s leadership to craft distinctive messaging that would work well across a variety of media and stakeholders.
Part of our discovery process identified the need for a compelling thought-leadership campaign – built around HPE Security’s own technical and business leaders – that would have high cut-through and credibility in a noisy federal market. Our goal was to inform and assure the market that HPE had a unique cyber security vision that embraced change and supported open standards. Our resulting multi-year campaign included these key elements:
Advertising – Sage worked closely with HPE’s corporate marketing resources to develop federal-specific creative that met their strict brand guidelines. Our choices not only reinforced corporate creative running in broader IT markets, but added an element of depth that came with addressing the world’s most important security market. We brought this refined view to a carefully balanced mix of media that included trade and newspaper print, geo-targeted digital, and out-of-home around the nation’s second busiest public transit system. One of our innovations was development of a custom trade publication, Government CISO Journal. This newsletter aggregates cybersecurity articles across multiple government media channels, while saving HPE significant creative development costs.
Collateral – Sage’s sales support effort took two paths. We re-organized the client’s existing collateral resources into a more coherent and customer-centric portfolio. We also developed collateral and other sales tools that specifically addressed top federal initiatives like Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM).
Website – Sage developed a campaign microsite designed to work seamlessly with the parent company’s web infrastructure, while streamlining its federal-specific outreach and pipeline.
Social Media – Sage developed a comprehensive social media plan that included both ghostwritten content from HPE Security’s executives and aggregated cyber security news and views from across the federal sector. We managed this content through a proactive editorial calendar with the flexibility to respond to federal developments in near real time.
Event Planning – Sage developed and deployed a federal-specific annual event tied to the client’s existing annual HPE Protect Conference. Our invitation-only executive event was designed to serve as both a breakout for attendees to the full conference, and as a stand-alone single-day event. Sage worked with HPE Security to develop a compelling agenda, attract high-visibility federal speakers, and manage the end-to-end mechanics of the event, including pre-event promotion and registration.
Research – Sage worked with HPE Security and its partners to develop, field, and compile primary research on cyber security demands within the federal market. We were then able to share an aggregated view of these insights as original content in PR, advertising, web, and social media.
Results
Our comprehensive campaign produced these accountable results:
Publications – Our Government CISO Journal went out to more than 16,000 executives across federal agencies and the contactor community. Its compelling content also provided a steady resource of sales contact information as readers downloaded white papers and research promoted within the newsletter.
Webinars – Our pair of webinars attracted more than 400 attending executives whose agencies spanned all major federal, state, and local missions, plus influential institutions in the contractor community.
Events – Both of our annual federal-track events attracted at least 70 senior federal executives and contractor leaders per event.
Coverage
