Although many business aren’t fully aware of it yet, the Internet of Things (IoT) will create dramatic gains for personal and workplace efficiency over the next 10 years.

Our research showed that 51% of small and medium size businesses are unaware of it and the situation in Eastern Europe is even less favorable.
This provided Telekom with a huge opportunity to present itself as a market leader, and build its presence in the category.

Telekom could educate its customer base about the Internet of Things, the cloud based solutions that promise to transform lives and business processes.
To be successful, the focus had to be not on the nerdy details of software but the people and innovation that would simplify customers’ live and help them share.

We needed to explain why this new form of “sharing” would be central to the vision of Telekom for the future and in line with its classic brand promise: “Life is for Sharing”.

Our goal was to make Telekom the first choice for business customers looking to take on a network that was ready for the new wave of IoT solutions by demonstrating our position at the forefront of development.

Our focus would include the markets that were least aware of the IoT, with activity stretching from Germany and Austria, through to Hungary, Romania, Montenegro and Greece. In all the message would run across eight markets.

The Internet of Things is complex. It is about machines, coding and to be frank, it is a very dry and nerdy topic. All too often the companies that develop IoT innovations tend to baffle business customers by focusing not on the benefits of their solution but the software behind it.

We knew that the best way to promote the opportunities presented by the IoT was to showcase the most useful developments in this nascent space. We needed to present the very best IoT ideas from across Europe in a single,
convenient location.

Our solution would create a shortlist of the very best IoT ideas from across Europe by engaging developers and customers. We would create an exciting campaign focused on the incredible benefits offered by the Internet of Things.
To make that idea a reality, we had to split our strategy into two parts: first we had to engage software developers, encouraging them to participate and contribute new solutions for assessment by the small and medium sized businesses. This phase of the campaign would be highly targeted.

Second we would let our small and medium sized business targets vote for the applications that they thought were most likely to be productive.
Both target audiences – companies submitting IoT ideas and small and business companies voting – were incentivized via the chance to win a marketing campaign, with local markets also running targeted activity featuring the local winners once they had been selected.

An added benefit for submitting companies would be the chance to work with Telekom on their business model, marketing and promotion, the areas that software companies are traditionally weakest in.

Through this targeted approach, we would showcase the very best in IoT development, educate our business base about its potential as well as demonstrate how relevant it was to them today.

In doing so we would highlight how potential business partners needed to be future proof, while also showcasing Telekom’s position as the most future-facing mobile network.

We identified valuable Internet of Things solutions with high sales potential for Telekom’s business portfolio. Despite a limited budget, the campaign generated a phenomenal reach on the Business Wall of Fame platform: 750,000 page impressions with 420,000 unique page visits.
From a media perspective, the success story continues – ever y single platform performed ahead of industry benchmarks:
– We delivered more than 28m impressions across all channels and markets.
– Video consumption performed more than 50% above the norm.
– CTRs for LinkedIn banners hitting 116% above the norm.
– Social media activity generated more than 775,000 engagements (likes, shares, comments).
From a business perspective, we succeeded too:
– In total 161 different apps were submitted for consideration.
– 42,000 business customers voted generating valuable sales leads.

Business Wall of Fame helped to position Deutsche Telekom as a great partner for developers and customers in the most compelling, exciting and innovative market of the future: the Internet of Things.