In alignment with objectives articulated in the Salesforce.org Corporate Marketing Scorecard, Salesforce.org saw an opportunity to drive forward its business objectives through a wholistic content strategy implementation that combined Timed and Always-On content campaigns in a way that prioritized: Brand Awareness, Industry Dynamics, Customer Success, Salesforce Products, and Impact Stories.
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Brand Awareness deals with easily digestible, culturally relevant work that promotes Salesforce.org's vision and values.
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Industry Dynamics deals with trends impacting the greater social good industry and culture.
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Customer Success deals with Salesforce.org's customers becoming quantifiably more efficient and effective in their work.
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Salesforce Products deals with the ins and outs of our technology offering.
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Impact Stories deals with the social good Salesforce.org's community is creating on a micro and macro scale.
This equated to a continual, multichannel release of new content, across the five areas of the Trailblazer Media content strategy.
CONTENT STRATEGY
The Cause of the Month brand campaign ran on Salesforce.org’s social channels from Spring to Fall in 2021. Responding to audience insights, we oriented the program in data visualization. Through data-driven storytelling, we connected customer success to real-world, scientifically verified impact.
The primary visual space is simple; geometric shapes are the grounding force. The format is in a social media-focused size, and we sought to visualize the data in a human way by mixing graphics with animated photography.
The style of the motion is simple, expressed with limited animation so as to emphasize the play between the text and the graphic. The evolution of the data often impacts the illustration in a surprising and emotionally evocative way.
The experience is meant to be entertaining and thought-provoking. The intent is for the content to break through beyond .org’s current customer base, into a wider audience.
DEEP DIVE:
CUSTOMER SUCCESS
The Trailblazer Media customer marketing program sought to raise visibility on the pioneering and innovative work being performed by those within the Salesforce community.
We captured these stories through a docu-style, multimedia creative approach, across web, social, events, learning, and sales.
As one category in Salesforce.org’s integrated content plan, it demonstrated “mission allignment” with our customers, while also delivering a coherent, relevant brand experience.
DEEP DIVE:
IMPACT STORIES
As Sales teams know, prospective buyers typically want to see a product in action before having any serious purchasing conversations. And as Production teams know, that equates to a whole hell of a lot of creative marketing requests.
In fact, not nearly enough Overview Demos were being produced to satisfy the Sales team’s voracious need. Plus, those that were being made kinda sucked, for a variety of reasons. A slow, expensive production process; decentralized ownership without clear accountability; inconsistent branding; densely displayed UI with little information clarity; silo’d business units competing over shared resources -- the challenges were endless.
To address the problem, we knew we needed to overhaul, delicately, the highly politicized, and high-profile, program. Beginning with a content audit, needs assessment, and conversations with customers and internal stakeholders, we charted out a new vision for the Demo program -- one that prioritized speed, volume, and accessibility.
For this approach to work, we knew we needed to enable the organization with an archival footage-based product that leaned heavily on branded templates, delivered within an easy-to-use Design System Toolkit.
Fluid and in constant motion, the templates were designed to create a feeling of ease of use, and incredible performance. The sense of perpetual motion and kinetic typography helped hold viewer interest. Lastly, partnering with our Product UX design team, we introduced a UI Abstraction system to provide a better sense of information hierarchy, emphasizing the area of focus specific to the features or tools promoted in the demo. This let us tell a richer story, faster.
As a result of these changes, we were able to drop production time from 6-8 weeks to 2 weeks, keep costs roughly flat, and scale output by 700% over a 2-year period. Leads generated through this program accounted for the highest converted to Sales opportunities by offer type.
DEEP DIVE:
SALESFORCE PRODUCTS
RESULT
The Trailblazer Media content strategy was a flexible, efficient system for communicating Salesforce.org’s corporate narrative. It tapped into cultural motivators within the social good sector, engaging both current and prospective customers in ways that brought them closer to the Salesforce.org brand and drove action around its core products.
This hybrid creative team operated a 55-person freelance creator network to deliver Salesforce.org's integrated marketing plan, shipping hundreds of campaign, event, social, and web assets a year, including keynote films for Dreamforce and other premier events.
SYNOPSIS
Content strategy is really all about taking creative output and proactively aligning it to marketing objectives. In a B2B context, the idea is to generate more and higher-quality attention on your brand, data from your customers, and heightened consideration to buy from your prospects.
The Trailblazer Media Content & Creative strategy formed the basis of Salesforce.org’s digital-first Corporate Marketing content plan in the lead-up to and through the COVID-19 pandemic.
CREDITS
Jon Fee - Head of Marketing
Will Coleman - Creative Lead
Chloe Morel Haberstro - Operations Lead
Gwenaëlle Gobé - Art Director
Lance Casey - Editorial Lead
Mithra Krishnan - Design Lead
Lori Hamasaki - Motion Design
Andrew Duncan - Sound Design
Kellyn Dunn - Creative Strategist
Production Support
Salesforce Studios
Ripplemakers, Inc.
Bonfire Labs
Sound Off Films
Advocate Creative
CLIENT
Salesforce
ROLE
Creator
Director/Creative Director
Executive Producer
Head of Production