In an effort to promote its technology solutions for the enterprise space, Dell is kicking off a new b-to-b campaign called "Future Ready," created by Y&R New York and VML
The multi-million dollar campaign debuts Wednesday during the PGA World Golf Championships with a 30-second TV spot called "Beat Again," which shows how technology helps a little girl in need of a heart transplant receive a new organ from a donor.
"For companies to grow and thrive in the future, they need to take advantage of new opportunities for innovation," said Liz Matthews, exec director-global brand at Dell. "Healthcare is an example of an industry that is on the forefront of innovation. The campaign really brings to life that technology story in a very human way."
In the TV spot, a mom is awakened by an alert on her tablet, and she wakes up her sleeping daughter for a journey to the hospital. Along the way technology assists them, from a wristband monitoring the girl's health to secure cloud services storing her genetic data to a databank that finds the perfect donor match. At the end of the spot, a voice-over says, "and the mom who gets to hear her daughter's heart beat once again."
"With this campaign, we want to show how we're helping organizations and customers transform the way they work and the way they live," Ms. Matthews said. "This is a b-to-b campaign, but IT decision-makers and business decision-makers are still people."
Joe Rivas, exec VP-global client leader at Y&R New York, said the choice of healthcare as an industry to profile in the campaign made sense because of the "human element."
"We are all moms, dads, aunts or uncles, and human beings. We can put ourselves in the story," Mr. Rivas said.
"It's a place where we could tell the story about Dell's end-to-end capabilities in a strong way. Most people don't know everything that Dell does -- the average business person will say computers first. Showing something like healthcare has more of an everyday appeal, and it can begin to tell the story about cloud capabilities, security, storage and predictive analytics."
The TV spot will run this week during broadcasts of the PGA World Golf Championships, for which Dell is an official sponsor. A 60-second version will run online on sites including CNBC, CNN and YouTube, as well as more targeted IT sites.
The campaign includes social media, mobile and out-of-home placements, and will continue to roll out with new executions during the year. The ads drive users to a microsite, where they can learn more about Dell's technology solutions for businesses.
"We are absolutely focused on a cross-screen digital approach," Ms. Matthews said. "We are focusing on content that enables us to deliver the right message to the right place at the right time."
