How do you generate awareness for your company when your industry is defined by two Goliaths — namely SAP and Oracle? That’s the question that confronted Infor, a company that develops and sells ERP and other software solutions designed specifically for mid-market companies.

With over 70,000 customers, Infor has a strong mid-market presence — with very low name recognition. (In fact, I had not heard of Infor until I first saw their ad in the Wall Street Journal.)

Although SAP and Oracle have been moving into the mid-market with their own offerings, the market has been very poorly served. Designed for the biggest companies, “Big ERP” — as Infor calls it — was retrofitted for the mid-market, and in the process, has created a great deal of frustration.

“According to market research by analysts such as Forrester, people know of Oracle and SAP, and then you drop way down and a bunch of companies get mentioned, including ours,” says Dave Alampi, Infor’s VP of Marketing Strategy and Services.

“We wanted to move the needle on unaided awareness and preference and wanted people to think ‘Infor’ when they considered a business software solution. We wanted to take the big guys to task and create a campaign that would touch a nerve and connect what people were thinking about the market.”

Here’s how Infor set out to achieve these objectives.

Step #1: Develop a message and test it.

Infor’s Cambridge, Massachusetts agency PJA Marketing + Advertising, developed the campaign, which features the “Big ERP” characters who represent the frustrations mid-market companies have with regard to Big ERP software.

“We gave these characters personality,” says Mike O’Toole, President of PJA. “Our creative staff gave them a fun voice — and this voice worked naturally with the social media elements of the campaign. Infor began testing the “Big ERP” concept message to determine if it resonated with customers and prospects — which it did, in virtually every geography tested.”

Step #2: Get C-suite buy-in.

When asked if they had push back with regard to using social media and the Big ERP characters for the campaign, Alampi and O’Toole both said the top brass at Infor believed the campaign was the right thing to do.

One lesson marketers can learn is that it pays to have marketing strategy that’s based on business objectives and real world research — which is especially helpful when you have a new CMO come in when you’re in the middle of creating the campaign.

“We reviewed our goals with Robert Humphrey, our new CMO,” reports Alampi, “as well as the thinking behind the campaign, the details and media strategy, and our research and test results. He became a strong advocate very quickly.”

Adds O’Toole, “Infor isn’t opposed to social media nor do they believe in doing it just because ‘everybody’ else is. To back up our recommendation for social media integration, we used data from IDG Connect which showed that close to 80% of decision makers in the software adoption process use information from social media channels. We were able to prove that prospects and customers in Infor’s industry use social media to make purchasing decisions.”

Step #3: Create external and internal campaign components.

The campaign, which began running in November 2009, features print ads in business publications, a “DownWithBigERP” microsite, YouTube videos, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

In addition, Infor ran an internal contest for employees on who could develop the best video or submit the funniest photos. To generate excitement, the company created full-sized cut-outs of the Big ERP characters, mouse pads, etc.

“We had lots of employee engagement,” says Alampi, “and over 40 submissions, including three videos, from individuals and groups around the world. Our employees really understand the frustration in the market and are very excited about this campaign.”

Once the campaign went live, Infor and PJA began engaging market influencers by following editors and analysts who write about ERP. “We commented on their Tweets and blog posts and after awhile, they started commenting back. We have over 300 followers now for our Big ERP Twitter feed — and while that sounds like a small number, these are highly influential people,” says O’Toole.

Step #4: Measure results.

Because the goal of the campaign was to raise brand awareness, Infor will be looking at its market awareness every six months and retesting to see how far they’ve moved the needle. The team is also looking at the impact on its sales pipeline and the number of hand raises due to the campaign microsite and traffic to the Infor site plus the 29 country sites.

And, the company will be tracking RFPs and RFIs to see if these numbers increase as well as the impact of social media on the broader conversation. The team is using Radian6 to look at naturally occurring conversation around ERP and the mid-market within the blogosphere, list serves, and social networks.

“We want to know,” says O’Toole, “how much of this conversation includes Infor and how we can increase natural mentions within conversations.”

When asked what other large companies like Infor can learn from the campaign, Alampi said, “You have to follow through. Our CEO, Jim Schaper, wanted to be bold and make a bold statement. As a marketer, you hear this often but once the C-suite sees what ‘bold’ looks like, ideas get watered down or campaigns canceled altogether.”

“Schaper wanted a bold campaign with a sense of humor,” continues Alampi, “and this gave PJA the freedom to develop ‘Big ERP.’ It’s different, it’s getting people’s attention, and people are responding to it. The campaign, which has yet to be launched in Europe and Asia Pacific, is already paying off. In fact, we’ve even received a couple of leads via Twitter, which was completely unexpected!”

“We wanted to bring new life to our brand message — The Science of What’s Possible,” says Clare Hovan, Manager of Global Branding and Advertising for Waters Corporation (Milford, MA).

Clare and her team, headed up by Diane Meador, Senior Director of Worldwide Marketing Services, discussed getting client quotes or doing articles.

“We knew that testimonials had always been the golden key — but we wanted to position the campaign from the customer standpoint — why were they successful, what challenges they had. We wanted customers’ stories and this idea lead directly to doing the stories in video. Why? Because video is powerful and authentic.”

Getting people to talk “on record” proves challenging

Because Waters is in life sciences, getting customers to actually agree to do a video proved quite challenging. Customers didn’t want to endorse one vendor over another or show they might be biased.

And, legal proved to be a huge hurdle as life science companies have policies about employees talking to anyone without “permission.” This is because the employee doing the talking can accidentally let slip something about the company’s processes or tools — a minor slip can give away their competitive advantage.

“We positioned the videos as an opportunity for our customers to talk to their peers about the work they’re involved in and the achievements they’ve made,” says Clare.

“We said, ‘This video is about you, not Waters.’ They didn’t even have to mention Waters. We wanted them to answer questions such as, ‘What makes you go to work in the morning? What stories do you have about advancements in your field? What excites you?’”

Like any new tactic, shooting video comes with challenges

Waters turned to its ad agency, Allen & Gerritsen, for help. Scott Sneath, who is a Senior VP and Group Marketing Director, worked with Clare and her team to define responsibilities and goals. A&G also helped choose an experienced videographer and coordinate customers’ availability.

Says Scott, “We found this video idea quite interesting. Often in B2B, especially with life sciences, it’s ‘peer to peer’ sales. The video campaign addressed this concept perfectly as it showcased ‘rock stars’ in the various life science fields using Waters instruments.”

Clare and her team initially sat down and looked at venues where they could find lots of Waters customers — e.g. tradeshows, conferences, and customer visits to the company’s Milford, MA headquarters.

“We learned early on to plan the interviews months in advance,” says Clare. This gave the Waters team and the customer time to get approval of the questions and the interview by the various legal departments as well as setting up a meeting with the customer at a conference or in his/her office.

The Waters team also learned that it was most efficient and cost effective to set up two days where they could shoot 5 – 6 videos in one location — such as at a tradeshow.

Says Scott, “It really pays to get approvals and have conversations off camera ahead of time, otherwise you burn through lots of editing time if the person hasn’t figured out what to say.”

Waters Customers: In Their Own Words

Customers were given 7 – 8 questions tailored to their job — i.e. if he/she was a toxicologist, one of the questions would be, “Tell us about your work as a forensic toxicologist.”

The team also asked questions such as, “Give us an idea of your relationship with Waters. Why do you have our instruments? Any stories about how Waters instruments have allowed you to make advancements in your field? Where do you see your work going? Where would you like to see technology advance too?”

The videos were then divided into segments: tell us about yourself, innovation, how Waters technology has helped them in their work, what impact they’re seeing in their work, and the future. The videos were completely unscripted — customers were free to answer questions from their own perspectives.

Says Clare, “These interviews gave us huge insight into our customers, their jobs, and their passions. These were very articulate people who had no problem talking about how Waters has positively impacted their businesses. We were very excited to hear their stories.

“For example, one customer, AIT Labs, the largest toxicology lab in the world, had received a blood sample for analysis. Michael Evans, CEO of AIT Labs, explained on video how the sample had come from a farmer who had died in literally a minute while treating his animals with antibiotics. In fact, he was only able to call his wife from his cell phone in the minute before he died.

“An autopsy was done, but cause of death couldn’t be determined, so AIT Labs ran a blood sample on a Waters ACQUITY System. Because the system is so sensitive, it identified a veterinary animal antibiotic in the blood — which was a complete surprise to everyone.

“Long story short, the authorities determined that the farmer must have been running in the barnyard and had accidentally injected himself — and thus died within a minute due to the lethalness of the antibiotic. By using Waters instrumentation, AIT Labs found the cause of death, which was crucial for legal reasons (i.e. insurance) and which brought closure to law enforcement, more importantly to the farmer’s wife.

Results of video campaign

According to Clare, Waters has shot more than 50 videos and has promoted them via print ads, on the Waters website, and on banner ads across market specific sites.

The marketing team has also been promoting the videos to sales who are now using the videos at tradeshows, conferences, and customer demos.

Says Clare, “Now a sales person can say to a prospect, ‘You have the same challenge as one of our customers — listen to his story.’”

“Everyone, from upper management on down, is thrilled with the videos,” says Clare. The next step for the Waters team is to promote the videos via social media.

The July/August 2009 issue of Fortune Small Business features Carousel Designs, a niche baby bedding manufacturer, for its Tool Kit | Makeover story.

David Nies, a marketing and branding consultant with Flexible Executives in Atlanta, praises the company’s two owners for two Website innovations (a gift registry and a tool that lets shoppers customize bedding) but rips into them for a Website video “that shows the factory where muscular workers stuff bedding into shipping boxes.” Says Nies to the two entrepreneurs:

A mom-to-be doesn’t want to see the factory floor. She wants to see your mom — now a grandma — talking about raising her kids while designing beautiful nurseries. She wants to see you, your wife and your children, discussing the importance of a safe, comfortable nursery. You have a great opportunity to become a trusted resource for expectant moms. They can’t get that at Pottery Barn Kids.

The shop floor video is now gone and has been replaced with a terrific blog — that includes video on how to order swatches for baby bedding.

Although this is a business-to-consumer marketing example, B2B can learn something, especially when it comes to replacing those photos of the exterior of a “state of the art manufacturing plant” or video showing machinery working. (Booooring.)

Using Nies’ advice, B2B companies can use video to communicate directly with customers and prospects:

• Interview people in R&D about new advances in technology and how these advances have the potential to change industries.
• Do a Q&A with your manufacturing manager who can discuss how manufacturing has changed processes to lower costs and speed up production — and have him or her walk the factory floor while talking.
• Have two or three customers explain why they do business with you . . . and how your products or services solved their business challenges.
• Have your most gregarious sales person invite people to the next tradeshow.
• Turn your datasheet PDFs into video datasheets the way Cisco did.
• Host a fun event to which you invite prospects and customers and record it. Have it professionally edited, add some funky music, and upload it to your site.
• Do a commercial that’s “different” — such as this Father Day’s video from Cisco promoting a router.

In other words, use video to show your company has some personality. After all, it’s run by people . . . and people do business with people — not buildings.

Do you have examples of B2B video that connects directly with buyers in a fresh new way? If so, please feel free to post a link in the comments.

Watch this YouTube video about how ace reporter Ira Pumfkin tries to get a story about a top secret Cisco product launch.

Very clever! (Hat tip to David Meerman Scott.)

Launched in 2007, the Web Video Marketing Council (WVMC) was established to provide useful information and resources to interactive marketers and communicators about the emerging Web video marketing category.

The WVMC Webiste is full of useful tools and information, including a white paper library.

Even better, it features a library of viral video campaigns. Very cool.

Check it out at www.webvideomarketing.org

Hat tip to Jennifer O’Meara, Marketing Director for the WVMC.

Full disclosure: the WVMC has included my special report, How Workers Access YouTube, in their white paper library.

(And speaking of video, be sure to check out my post at the Search Engine Marketing New England (SEMNE) blog: Help Searchers Find Your YouTube Videos.)