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Tech Publisher IDG's CMO Discusses The Launch Of Its First Companywide Global Campaign

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Last week IDG, the world’s leading technology media, data and marketing services company, unveiled its first-ever companywide branding initiative. The new branding unifies its corporate identity and showcases the breadth of its global product portfolio to clients and consumers. The firm, known for its popular publications including CIO, Computerworld, Macworld and PCWorld, is evolving from a brand-driven publisher to a global media company that activates and engages technology buyers, offering premium brands and audiences on a worldwide scale. IDG’s new tagline highlights the company’s strategy to connect the world of tech buyers with “Insights, Intent & Engagement.”

Photo courtesy of IDG

I recent spoke with Josh London, the company’s first corporate CMO, about the rationale for moving beyond its historical focus on individual brands. According to London, “We had been a famously decentralized company. Historically, we've been known for our powerful global brands. And we've let those properties do the talking. That has served us well for 50-plus years. As the media market seems to evolve – and you know this better than anyone – marketing is moving from a brand focused buy to a brand and audience focused buy. The world has gotten more borderless and marketers are seeking incredibly specific targets around the world at global scale. So what we found being your traditional house of brands is that when people know us for the full breadth of our capabilities globally, marketers and audiences tend to engage more deeply with us. More comprehensive programs come out of it. And they're surprised and delighted to see what we have to offer.”

London felt it was important to understand current market perceptions of the company before crafting the new brand strategy. “We asked customers and people who vowed to never do business with us again how we're perceived in the market. That was a relatively long research process because we have operations in 97 countries. If we’d ask five people 'What is IDG?' and we’d get seven answers. It was important for us to take the best of what's been done before and then make sure that our [brand] reflects where we're going as a company.”

What challenges did London anticipate in rolling out a new brand program globally? “A marketer's global visions are often ground down by local or regional realities. The fact is, creating and executing global marketing campaigns, as easy as it should be, is actually very hard to execute. So that's one thing that they've allowed us for.”

The program was rolled out internally with a series of posters, a personal gift box for all employees and a corporate brand video. London emphasized, “Now  there's an IDG brand story. We never really told a comprehensive story in a globally cohesive way before. It's important that where we had multiple voices now we want them to come together as one.” The company will also be getting the word out through social media, digital and print advertising, and via events over the coming months.

Photo courtesy of IDG

As a proponent of building brands by delivering great customer experiences, I asked London how the company’s decentralized organization would be evolving to deliver on the brand promise of being a unified partner for marketers. “One of the things that we've heard was because we were so decentralized some customers found it difficult to do business with us. We've gotten better over the years, but this is an important step to improving that. What I mean by that is, there's now continuity there. Customers don't care what our org chart looks like. The customer cares how we do or do not meet their needs. That regardless of where you enter this house, you have consistent customer experience.  So regardless of the door that you walk in, we want to make sure that our people have strategic conversations about how we best serve their needs as they grow globally. And then help them navigate our internal structure without needing a map.”

Often when companies hire a CMO for the first time, there can be significant internal friction as a transformation initiative is undertaken. I was curious about London’s experience as a change agent. “First of all, this is a dream come true -- the ability to play a role in a company’s evolution and at the pivotal point in history where all of these forces emerge to set the stage for one voice. What I was surprised and delighted to see was that there was real support of all the elements of the initiative. This is not simply a CEO’s top-down directed initiative. This is one that is supported at all levels throughout the organization across the world. People have said ‘Thank you. We're so glad that you finally have this function. We've been waiting for this for so long.’"

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