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Is there glamour & ROI in semiconductor marketing?!

A marketing case study on humanizing a brand, people to people marketing, and ROI

Sander ArtsAug 2014

SMM: Stanford UniversityTwitter: @sander1arts

• “Global”

• Worked at Royal Philips / NXP

• Now: at ATMEL; one of world’s leading microcontroller, IoT and touch solution providers

• Participated in, and drove lots of change on all continents

• Private and listed companies

• Live and work here in the Bay Area

• Am thoroughly excited to be here…AND…..I am….

Who is this guy?

…Dutch...

Change?

Atmel Corporation?

•Founded in 1984

•2013 Revenue: ~$ 1.4B

•Over two Decades of Microcontroller Innovation & Leadership

•At the heart of the Maker Community since its inception

•~5,000 Employees

•Blue Chip Customer Base

•Headquarters: San Jose, CA

An this is what we sell…yeah, really…

We sell to…

What about budget?

Question is: in the day and age of ‘the web’, how much $$ do you need?

So, how glamorous is ‘semiconductor’ marketing?

Let me ‘market’ this to you for a second: GoPro3

Wait: let me try this: here is the the GoPro3

Does that work in semiconductors as well?

(How) Can semiconductor marketing (B2B!!) be truly engaging (and have ROI)?

So, what if you look a little deeper at Atmel and its products?

I looked around; what are the ingredients to work with?

It starts with a good product, and this is what people say about the product….LOVE ???

This is some of the packaging…Robots? Norwegian Gods?

The AVR man ?!

Hundreds of thousands of people talk about the technology in communities…

….globally….actually…Now, that’s appeal…!

Macro trend: The Internet of Things (IoT)

“During 2008, the number of things

Connected to the Internet exceeded the

Number of people on earth” Source: Cisco July 2011

“By 2020, there will be 30 billion connected devices” Source: ABI Research May 2013

“By 2018, 50% of the internet of things solutions will be provided by startups which are less than 3 years old. We can estimate what the internet of things will be like now. But we know that most of the things that will exist in 2018 we can’t even conceive of because they haven’t been invented yet.” Source:

Gartner

The Enabler of the Arduino

At the heart of the heart of the Maker CommunityArduino Uno; millions of boards sold

Maker Communities Around the World

Over 1,000 maker communities around the world

Which is at the heart of the ‘Maker Community’

Arduino (Atmel) powers 90+% of all 3D printers…

Facilitates Makers:• Rapid prototyping • Reduced costs • Accelerated time to market

Arduino democratizes technology…to a ‘kid’ level

…and it creates new markets, industries and millionaires…

“There were over 160 Arduino [read: Atmel] Projects on Kickstarter of which 103 successful, collecting 7 M USD in funding"

Did you know that ?Quote from CEO of Kickstarter

That's a potential of 103 companies founded on Atmel

What are the marketing ‘mega’ trends, and what

should then be a marketing strategy that works for the

company?

…the B2B Buyer Landscape…“The Internet is going to be big ”

93% of B2B purchases start with an internet search

70% of the buying process is complete before prospects engage with a live salesperson

Source: SiriusDecisions

It is the age of the customer

Customers engage differently; we don’t own our brand anymore

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2014/05/07/how-personal-emotions-fuel-b2b-purchases/

Emotional connection and B2B !?

“71% of buyers who see a personal value in a B2B purchase will end up buying the product or service.

In fact, personal value had two times the impact on the buyer than business impact did”

“The survey found that personal value, perhaps better read emotional value, overwhelmingly outweighed logic and reason in driving purchase decisions”

Corporate buyers are people…

FeatureFeatureFeatureFeatureFeatureFeature

BenefitBenefitBenefit

Feeling Feeling

Opportunity to engage on emotional levelWe can differentiate, be more ‘sticky’, and build deeper emotional connections…

one directional push online engagement marketing

one directional communication online conversation

From: GOOD (now) To: GREAT (2013/14)

customer info gathering online lead nurturing

ad hoc single channel approach Integrated multi channel approach

key account focus multi customer approach, digital

generic messages contextual messaging

creating awareness creating ROI & revenue

What do great marketing organizations doMoving from ‘good’ to ‘great’ in Atmel

Audience

Order Sample

Seminars

SoftwareJoin Community

Customer and Support

Videos

Site Registration

PR

SEO

Events

Supply Frame

CoOp

Product Folder

Selector Guide

End Equipment Applications

Live Contact

Education Session

Check Price or Inventory

DatasheetApp Note

Dev Kit

RFQ

Orchestrated Campaigns Towards ROIEfforts towards closed loop marketing with more reach

‘Digital’ Enables us to service ‘long tail’ customers on top of Key Account Management

Key & regional accounts

Distribution Smaller accounts

Large market; high volume, lower $$ per transaction, higher margins (?)

Allows more sales with more customers; ‘dependent’ on ‘willingness’ to support

Large accounts, high $$, lower margins (?)

“Social” enables us to engage deeplyIt is ‘always on’

So, what did we do?

Changed the organization, and started to create assets; digital

assets that can ‘travel’ online and can be measured….

…and…

“We are a media company that sells semiconductors”

……created a ‘crazy’ proposition for the marketing team so that my team ‘feel’ the stretch and know the direction…

Started With a Marketing Vision (still valid) Engage in and outside Atmel, build preference, and help us win !!

3

I want Atmel to be the #1 customer engaged semiconductor company with the deepest reach

• “Digital is like hydrochloric acid, it burns through everything”Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, VivaKi

• The 4Cs of Marketing have become more important and relevant than the traditional 4Ps. The 4Cs include:

• Content• Context• Connection• Conversation

• B2B and B2C are dead:• It is all about ‘people to people’ marketing, and

engagement

Snapshot from the framework

…it all about this combination of skills in the team…

Dare to stand out!

Break the rules

Try things!

Fail, and fail fast!

Working like this…Competence, leadership, and collaboration are key, with the right balance between in and out source, aligned towards the goals of the global campaigns…

4/23/20142014 Internet Platform Roadmap

Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Microsite Publications Brochure

Technical ArticlesPress Release

Videos

Blogs

Infographic

Embracing ‘content marketing’, global campaign management, and communities…

Invested in ‘social media’Pssst…..this is customer engagement and support…

Blogs…

04/12/2023

Push towards becoming a media company

© 2014 Market Edge

SEO efforts and content creation are paying off

We also started to humanize the brand

and started telling stories…

…a story on Atmel, AVR, Makers, IoT, Coolness, Entrepreneurs, Maker

Enablers…

Started to do design contests

Contest also ran in CHINA!

04/12/2023Atmel ToT ‘Big Rig’ & AVR Campaign

…where people engaged and did our marketing for us

…which created a winner…who was very happy !

04/12/2023

“Wow!, what a surprise in very early morning Netherlands time :) Thank you very much, I also have to say thanks for organizing such a contest. I couldn't be happier right now!”

We handed him his prize at Embedded World...

…hosted him at the Maker Faire in San Mateo

© 2014 Market Edge

And his story is being told in the market…

© 2014 Market Edge

…and we helped him in his biz thinking…

10/05/2012

What else?

Online and offline combined

• We are combining ‘analog’ and ‘digital’• Touching people online and in person

• We put a show on the road: technology on tour

• A traveling Atmel circus packed with technology

What else?

From an ‘eighties action figure’ to an online hero…?!

With rigorous execution and ‘sticking with it’, stuff like this

‘happened’….

Maker Faire social media………Larry Page was spotted by our very own Quin!

Retweets by Mythbusters

© 2014 Market Edge

04/12/2023Atmel ToT ‘Big Rig’ & AVR Campaign

10/05/2012

Then, one morning, this happened…

AVR man took a trip to DC (and Tweeted it)He was there ahead of me; he travels at the speed of the web

© 2014 Market Edge

“Are you even a semiconductor company?”

10/05/2012

What the truck !?“I like big trucks and I am not gonna lie”

Free content…

“OK, this is all very cool, Sander, but does this have ROI ?”

There is always the anecdotal evidence…Never that impressing in a board room…

“I felt like Atmel is getting younger and younger since last year, Atmel has been more and more involved in different kinds of media exposures no matter traditional media briefings or social media promotion.” -------- Shao Lefeng, EETimes China

“We knew Atmel for a long time as a leading semiconductor company who is great at MCUs. Today, Atmel’s introduction of its relationship with makers refreshes my mind about this company! It’s interesting.” After Sander’s press meeting in Beijing Maker Space, ---------- Xu Junyi, Compotech China

© 2014 Market Edge

So, I tried to ‘claim’ some other successes…

• XX sign ups

• All attendees expressed interest to attend again once a new topic is introduced

And showed more ‘traction’‘making noise’ & ‘touching people’……mwah…

Social Media Reach

YouTubeFacebook Twitter

LinkedInGoogle+

• Ranked top 5 social semiconductor company in September 2013• #1 most-viewed partner in ARM’s Connected Community• Social influence score among the highest in the industry

Blog

Accolades

Growing Network of Partners & Media

Pinterest

Growing Network of Influencers

Source: Klout

A board room and a cloud score?? Good luck with that!

Social Media Influence

Atmel has 3rd largest ‘social’ footprint of all semiconductor companies

Independent research:

“Who’s winning the social media battle in the semiconductor industry?”

Source: Publitek

(People) still not convinced?

Yeah, that happens….Let’s try to show results over the ‘campaign axis’…..

9 Months into our AVR campaign…

• AVR Campaign landing page visits: XX

• ~XX% increase in datasheet downloads

• ~XX% increase in application note downloads

• ~XX% increase in all documents downloads

* Results compared to previous AVR product launch stats

• XX+ video entries globally• XX+ views on AVR contest

videos• XX+ votes

To date: XX AVR eval kits and XX samples shipped

• Campaign landing page visits: XX• XX% increase in datasheet downloads• XX% increase in application note downloads• XX% increase in all documents downloads• More than XX SAM D20 eval kits and XX samples shipped (to date)

11 Months into Our ARM Campaign…

* Results compared to SAM4L Stats - 8 weeks Post Launch

• Driving significant traffic to campaign landing page

• XX% increase in automotive page visits

• XX% increase in datasheet downloads

• XX% increase in all documents downloads

• ~ XX video views

3 Months into our automotive campaign …

Snapshot of preliminary campaign results

* Results compared to previous 3 month automotive product stats

Zooming in further……..why the hell not?!

“For South America this is very, very important because we do not know all the customers in my region, and the leads helped us to find them…. [customer name] was a very small company in 2011, and 3 years later they won a bid with [customer name] and now they are placing PO’s. Pls keep ATMEL team sending the leads!”

  Sales ManagerATMEL Latin America

4/23/2014

“Are the leads helpful?”Long tail: Feedback from South America…

“Actually it [GKA Dashboards] helped to find a new opportunity. I got a notification that one person at [customer name] was looking at Atmel.com. I sent him an email that we would be happy to support him directly for any questions, samples etc. He sent an email back and told us about this new opportunity he was working on. We visited the customer and we are now working on a real project opportunity with him. I can see every day that this guy is busy on our webpage and I do use that information”

GKAM

4/23/2014

“Are the leads helpful?”

Key customer: Feedback from (GKA Dashboards)

• XX Million visits (+XX%)

• XX Million unique visitors (+XX%)

• New visitors to Atmel.com (+XX%)

• XX Million page views (+XX%)

• XX Million total document downloads (+XX%)

• XX Million datasheet downloads (+XX%)

• XX Million search traffic (+XX%)

• Growth of marketing database (+XX%) (Apr–Dec)

Marketing Programs results in more people engaging with our contentAtmel.com YoY

Source: Google Analytics

Funnel and MQL Progression

Inquiry

MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)

SAL (Sales Accepted Lead)

SQL Qualified Prospect

Creates Opportunities

NPI, Campaign Highlighted Programs, Integrated Marketing, SEO, Contacts (Paid and Earned)

• First and foremost, I hope I have inspired you…

• You’re smart, so you have already thought of this yourself..but…this can be done for any brand and any biz:

• Chemicals• Transportation• Financials• Agriculture• ….etc

• There is communities everywhere; engagement potential, opportunities to humanize the brand…

• There are key value propositions and/or features to products and services that can be leveraged

How could some of this help you?

In closing…

• Twitter: @sander1arts

• Phone: +1 4088399780

• Email: sander.arts@atmel.com

• Am on LinkedIn, Facebook etc….

How to get in touch…

I wish all of you the very best and lots of success