Customer Marketing | Ericsson
Turning a short-term collaboration into a long-term partnership
Background: Ericsson, as a global leader in mobile connectivity solutions, entered the automotive industry through a collaboration with Volvo that started in 2012. When Ericsson came to us in 2015 they had the desire to expand their partnership with Volvo, which was at risk of fizzling out. There was so much more that Ericsson had to offer this customer and they believed that further exciting innovations were possible, but in order to do so, they needed:
To strengthen the partnership bond by crafting a shared history, to help both parties realize how important the collaboration was and provide a platform for all joint communications
To change the way they communicated about their offerings to better engage key stakeholders across different functions in an automotive organization. The historically quite insular automotive industry was being disrupted and needed help, but Ericsson was having a hard time being understood in a completely new industry.
To be equipped with a creative marketing toolkit that would bring to life the value that this partnership enabled for drivers and passengers as well as the Volvo organization
Actions:
Carried out insight work, including interviews with Volvo stakeholders across the organization and automotive execs at other brands
Developed a messaging strategy that would guide Ericsson sales teams in how and what to communicate at top, middle and deeper level interactions
Segmented the different stakeholders by function at Volvo and mapping out personas to indicate technical knowledge level, painpoints, motivations and relevant marketing & sales channels
Created a shared narrative to be used to guide all PR and executive communications
Developed many creative marketing assets for cross-channel customer engagement, including films, digital demos, web, imagery, social media content, thought leadership and presentations
Worked with account-based marketing partners to target key organizational stakeholders with a digital ads and email campaigns
I continued working with Ericsson for the next 3 years on developing this partnership.
Outcomes:
In 2016, the partnership accelerated with new momentum in innovation for self-driving cars.
In 2018, Ericsson signed a 5-year deal with Volvo to become the key provider of digital services in Volvo cars, the largest deal Ericsson had ever had in this solution area.
Also in 2018, the partnership had become so strong that they moved into innovation in the area of sustainable, self-driving trucks with 5G, bringing on additional partners.
By 2019, the partnership had moved into even newer territory, working with mobile operators to leverage 5G and create connected construction and logistics machinery to increase the efficiency and sustainability of that industry.
