Microsoft kicks off Cloudstanding partner campaign in UK

Nine reseller partners selected to form part of year-long cloudy campaign

Microsoft has picked nine cloudy reseller partners to take part in a year-long marketing campaign to promote its services.

The Cloudstanding campaign is designed to boost awareness of Microsoft's cloud offerings - such as Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite - and nine reseller partners have been selected for it: Accutech, adept4, ClearPeople, Dot Net Solutions, eBECS, Paradigm Systems, Silversands, Softcat and Trustmarque. Each partner will provide relevant content and a company profile.

The idea was thought up by Dutch technology marketing agency Paal15 and following its successful local launch, it is being rolled out across Europe. The campaign has kicked off in the UK already and will run for the next year, with a big initial push running from now until London Tech Week closes at the end of the month. It will be rolled out across the Nordics and Austria in September.

The campaign consists of a mix of billboards - some which feature in London Underground stations - and online content, events, and direct marketing. The target UK audience consists of companies with more than 250 staff, whereas in the Netherlands, companies with between 200 and 250 staff are being earmarked.

"The idea is to create a pan-European knowledge platform," Paal15 co-founder Maarten ten Broeke told CRN. "There was a selection criteria and the idea is to educate people about Microsoft Azure, so all the partners are Azure-certified partners.

"We didn't really have a brief - we had the idea. We have a good relationship with Microsoft and we said 'hey, by the way, we are seeing this problem, because we work with a lot of your partners, about getting Azure to market'. You're not going to get Azure to market by saying 'hey, please buy Azure'.

"The interesting part is, this is based around Azure, but if you look at business continuity or enterprise mobility, they could be included. Azure is just one part of the solution. Now it's focusing a bit on Azure, but I could imagine that next quarter we're going to put in Office 365, for example, as well."

Microsoft sparked controversy last year when suggesting that traditional marketing methods such as events and email campaigns are slowly dying out, adding that digital is the future.

Ten Broeke said that integrated campaigns which marry the old and the new are by far the most effective.

"Only digital is not going to make a difference anymore," he said. "I think the biggest success is in these integrated campaigns. Sure, you need to do email blasts, but content is super important. One of the things which comes with business buyers is that they know they have a business problem, and they want a solution. I think that's the biggest challenge.

"If you're a company, you're not going to sign up purely based on what you see online. You need a touch point, and these touch points are events. That's why you see events are still successful. But events only are not successful. When you're walking around, if there's no brand awareness, people will not buy. It's always a combination."

In a statement sent to CRN, Microsoft said:

"Cloudstanding is an innovative educational initiative which Microsoft is undertaking with our technology marketing partner, Paal15. It follows a successful project which Paal15 has led in the Netherlands and we believe will be beneficial to customers in the UK.

"We look forward to seeing the results of the campaign and hope to support more partners delivering modern marketing campaigns like Cloudstanding to attract and win new customers in the coming months."