Fueling Vendor Partners’ Success with Innovative Digital Channel Marketing

As marketing communications are increasingly going digital, often forgoing traditional media like print and broadcast, tech marketers are looking at innovative ways to differentiate themselves online. Ingram Micro is committed to assisting its vendor partners with a variety of digital marketing initiatives aimed at the reseller channel.

“Big-name tech marketers like Cisco, HP and IBM look to Agency Ingram Micro to help them communicate to resellers and end users more effectively—audiences we know so well,” says Sarah Meegan Blackburn, group manager for U.S. Cisco channel marketing at Ingram Micro. “They rely on our expertise on how to distill their product initiatives into digestible and actionable content that solution providers and customers can relate to. There are so many different ways to communicate with the reseller community today—content marketing, social media, events, podcasts, etc. We help vendors figure out what will work best to achieve their objectives.”

Our vendor partners also rely on us to provide recruitment and retention initiatives aimed at targeted solution providers. To address these demands, Agency Ingram Micro continues to evolve in an effort to stay ahead of general marketing organizations when it comes to understanding the IT channel.

 A Major Award for Digital Innovation

This year, at Cisco’s ninth annual marketing conference in Barcelona, Ingram Micro was recognized with the Cisco Velocity Marketing Innovator of the Year Award for its creativity and leadership in marketing. Ingram Micro was the only distribution partner recognized this year by Cisco for marketing excellence.

In announcing the award, Cisco cited Ingram Micro’s embracing digital in new and innovative ways—which helped the networking giant advance its online marketing strategy and tactics to the channel. For example, recognizing the transformative opportunity that Cisco’s digitalization strategy can bring to resellers, Ingram Micro developed a yearlong digital campaign known as IZATION. The comprehensive effort included a dedicated website that houses a variety of resources, including assessment tools, educational content and an e-book, and it was instrumental in driving incremental revenue for 2017.

“The Velocity Marketing award is recognition that Ingram Micro is truly doing things differently in the digital realm. We’re really innovating,” Meegan Blackburn says. “Cisco’s fiscal year ends in July, and continuing with our digital initiatives in 2019, a key focus will be on providing our reseller partners with a unified messaging and holistic experience—to underscore Cisco’s objective to simplify.”

Additional Creative Recognition 

Innovative campaigns developed by Agency Ingram Micro have earned other distinctions, as well. This year to date, the agency has won eight creative awards, including a Global ACE Award and a Gold ADDY in the Orange County American Advertising Awards show, competing against major advertising agencies and in-house marketing departments. And more and more vendor partners, including emerging vendors, are praising the results they’ve achieved through Ingram Micro’s channel marketing initiatives.

To learn more about Ingram Micro’s channel marketing capabilities and resources, contact [email protected].

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.