Federal IT on a Budget – An Award-Winning Marketing Campaign

The Federal IT market is saturated with events-based marketing programs – with weak value propositions for the government customer.  So, how do you get Feds to show for a new show?  More than just a show, how do you engage Federal IT decision makers around key issues to establish important relationships and qualify sales leads? DLT, and its partner Red Hat, wanted to develop an impactful, high-value, and high-credibility marketing program to cut through the clutter and engage Federal IT decision makers on an issue which is central to their mission in a time of fiscal austerity.  That program was Red Hat’s “Federal IT on a Budget” Program. DLT and Red Hat contracted with MeriTalk, the government IT network, to develop a program that would deliver real value to Federal IT decision makers.  And, in the current economy, that meant building a program that would allow Federal agencies to focus on how to save money. The team launched an integrated marketing campaign based on a research study that identified and quantified Federal agencies’ IT savings opportunities in cloud, virtualization/consolidation, and open source.  The team launched the program with a research study, “Federal IT Bailout” report that powered an online savings calculator – a free-to-use tool for the Federal IT community. Based on the success of our Federal IT Bailout study, we then hosted a Webinar with Federal IT executives on the research study results that drove more than 200 registrations.  DLT, Red Hat and MeriTalk then leveraged the energy from the study to found a new face-to-face Federal IT conference – Federal IT on a Budget Forum. In 2010, GovMark Council, a not-for-profit forum that facilitates education and networking for senior-level marketing executives who serve the government Information Technology and Telecommunications (IT&T) market, recognized the success  of Federal IT on a Budget. DLT was honored with both Best Partner Marketing Program and Best Overall Marketing Program during the Fifth Annual GovMark Awards. In the end, close to 1,000 leads were generated from Federal IT on a Budget. The DLT 20th Anniversary Art Piece.