Microsoft

Social advertising to stimulate growth in companies

In times when there is a lot of uncertainty, you as a company can offer your target group a lot of added value by sharing content that is relevant to them and responds to current events. Microsoft knows how to respond perfectly to this during COVID-19, and in this way offer added value to
professionals and companies
with their products. Discover
how DEPT® has supported them in this and contributed to Microsoft’s business objectives from a content and social advertising strategy.

Years of cooperation

For many years we have been responsible for the social content and advertising for Microsoft Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Last year we took great steps to optimally contribute to Microsoft’s mission through our social strategy: ”Empower every person and organisation to achieve more.” But how can Microsoft pursue its mission in times of crisis? Where many parties paused their digital marketing activities, we saw this as an opportunity to create added value when everyone needed it.

With an always-on social strategy, we strive
to create more top-of-mind awareness
generate among the target group(s) by regularly and consistently sharing, engaging and interesting updates of the brand. Updates aimed at empowering professionals and companies to get through this crisis.

Dorien Aerts, CMO Microsoft Belux: “We are grateful to DEPT® for the valuable collaboration.

Especially in these unforeseen times, we have managed to get the most out of it in a smart and efficient way.”

Setting up the right social advertising campaign

How do you provide relevant content during one of the most challenging times the world has seen? Working from home is the new norm and that doesn’t seem to change for the time being.

Microsoft has proactively responded to this in collaboration with DEPT® by setting up a social media campaign specifically aimed at working from home during this crisis.

By creating specified content for various sectors (such as healthcare and education), Microsoft was able to show how one of their products, Microsoft Teams, could contribute to working from home more efficiently and effectively.

This content focuses on thought leadership and people empowerment: how can Microsoft help you grow as a person or as a company? And with results!

The campaign strategy

Thought leadership and people empowerment

Due to COVID-19, society had to adapt very quickly to the new standard, which is still evolving. As a company, it is important to be aware of this and to respond to both adapted behaviour and adapted needs of your target group. For example, the strategy for this campaign has provided new insights into how responding to current topics translates into better campaign results. Previously, the social strategy Account Based Marketing (ABM) was used.

This strategy focuses on sharing personalised content by sector to arouse the interest of selected high potential companies, with the aim of generating maximum sales.
However, this strategy is no longer in line with the current situation we find ourselves in. The social crisis COVID-19 challenges us to look beyond these high potential target groups and to offer added value for the broader sectors. The focus is now on responding to current events independent of the sector someone is in, instead of sharing specific content per target group. By thinking more from the needs and behaviour within this society and by sharing that content with a wider target group, the content can resonate with many more people than if the target group has already been defined in advance. Both a teacher and a hospital employee benefit from how you can work from home efficiently and stay in touch with students or patients, making the content applicable within multiple fields of work.

Measurable results

The new social strategy is bearing fruit, the visibility of the brand has greatly improved and the brand identity has been positively influenced by the broad orientation and sharing of knowledge from multiple sectors. This is also reflected in figures, website traffic has increased by +37% and the engagement of the target group has even increased by +86% on social, which has strengthened the relationship between Microsoft and its target group online. The sentiment of the responses was very positive, professionals in turn shared it with their own network.

The new guide for Microsoft’s social campaigns

Due to the realised growth in engagement, sentiment and website traffic year-over-year and the positive added value this adds to our target group, this strategy forms the new guideline for Microsoft’s social campaigns for the coming year. This laid the foundation for other countries within Western Europe. This focused approach and strategy from multiple disciplines contributes optimally to Microsoft’s mission; Empower every person and organisation to achieve more.

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