To get an edge, we connected with the targets as people. We engaged with them on a level beyond their professional motivations. We found our key insight: BDMs and ITDMs have a personal passion point that naturally lends itself to business content integration: golf (played golf 12+ days in last year: BDM i139, ITDM i183 according to our proprietary national panel survey & IPSOS Affluent Study 2016).

Inspired, we partnered with Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Custom Studios, a trusted brand and staple in our audience’s daily routine (net WSJ any channel last 30 days: BDM i113, ITDM i149), to create a unique branded content program that combined data & Microsoft Cloud technologies to impact and transform the game of golf.

We called it “Transforming the Course.”

Leveraging our audience’s personal passion for golf, while demonstrating the benefits of Microsoft Cloud, we established that Microsoft Cloud get them to the next level.

We established a strategic partnership with Gil Hanse, a renowned golf course architect, to reimagine the process of golf course design.

Microsoft Cloud aggregated all the data sources Hanse would manually calculate when designing a golf course: topography, weather patterns, player preferences, complex budgets, and more. Using that data, Microsoft created a cloud-based tool that revealed key attributes of over 13,000 golf courses. Empowered with this innovative tool, Hanse was able to correlate groundbreaking new insights into his new golf course designs.

The story was launched within a WSJ custom content hub and distributed via interactive infographics, co-branded media, social amplification, and targeted rich media.

A skybox unit on the print cover of WSJ, a first-to-market floating spread in the technology section, and a branded cover wrap successfully drove readers to the content online. This edition of the WSJ was delivered to Microsoft Ignite Conference attendees– host to 20,000+ ITDMs.

“Transforming The Course” successfully delivered results, including over 26% brand lift among both audiences across three key attributes for Microsoft Cloud:

• “A Leader in Cloud Solutions for Businesses”: (+36% BDMs/+26% ITMDs)

• “Can meet my evolving business needs”: (+37% BDMs/+32% ITMDs)

• “Is a technologically innovative company”: (+30% BDMs/+27% ITMDs)

Additional surveys also recorded:

• 93% of BDMs and 96% of ITDMs agreed that the campaign makes them feel Microsoft is a trailblazer as it relates to enterprise-based cloud solutions

• 87% of BDMs and 93% of ITDMs rated “Transforming the Course” content as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’

• Among BDMs: 92% reputation lift, 88% consideration lift achieved

• Among ITDMs: 97% reputation lift, 91% consideration lift achieved

• 92% of BDMs and 100% of ITDMs claim taking “any action” as a result of seeing the campaign