Here’s one that caught our attention. On the Friday two weeks after the Super Bowl, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) ran a full page ad touting the work they, along with Aruba Networks, did in Levi’s Stadium to enable the movement of a record amount of data (over 10TB) over a Wi-Fi network.
Full pager in The Wall Street Journal (Feb 18)
Note: HP acquired Aruba, a leading provider of next-generation network access solutions for the mobile enterprise, almost a year ago.
A Mobile Sports Report (MSR) post offered more details about this accomplishment:
- The Super Bowl 50 crowd broke last year’s previous Wi-Fi record of 6.23 TB by halftime, and ended up with the 10.1 total after recording traffic from 6 a.m. local time until 11 p.m.
- Of that total, 9.3 TB was used by fans on the free Super Bowl network and another 453 GB was used by media at the game.
- The remainder of 370 GB was used on dedicated internal operations networks
So that was an amazing technological achievement. But what we really liked is that it provided a frame of reference for those not quite sure about what HPE is and does.
We know Hewlett-Packard corporate broke itself into two companies late last year. The “Inc.” HP equals “ink” as in printers and hardware. The “E” HP is supposed to be enterprise. But what do the E’s do?
The visual in this ad and the supporting collateral provide a good indication.
AWSI, HPE’s Super Bowl achievement was pretty darn cool. Furthermore, we were very impressed with the integrated marketing campaign they put together to tell their story.
The ad’s call to action encouraged a visit to www.hpe.com/gamechanger.
An article, a case study, a video… they had all the “food groups” ready to go.
Plus, they had this:
Answers the Aruba question.
What a ginormous proof point!
AWSI, if HPE can leverage this experience for other enterprise challenges, they should be off and running as a spun-out entity.
One more thought (actually a ponderable)…
What’s up with the rectangle?
The puzzling green rectangle.
The green block is definitely not HP-like at all.
We decided to do a little digging and found this piece where HPE’s CEO Meg Whitman provided an explanation:
…The logo is simply a green rectangle and the name of the new company on a white background with a black sans-serif font. Whitman said it is supposed to represent simplicity which reflects the company’s past, and a window, so to speak, into the future. It’s meant to fit with CEO Meg Whitman’s discussion about HP’s focus on “ideas” and the idea economy…
Ah, so it is a window! Okay. We won’t dwell on that one too long. However, if YOU want to learn more, click here for the official statement, and here for a piece that is very logo-centric.
And There’s More! HPE Leverages Social Media…
It makes us a bit cray, cray to see enterprises (Fortune 500 types) building social media campaigns. Really? Like who wants to follow a big enterprise company (or data center for that matter)?
But we had a wait, what moment when we saw the way HPE’s Twitter (@HPE) campaign came to life.
One @HPE Tweet
It was / is really, really cool. They leverage video and pictures and more. Their Twitter is a fun read actually. For sure, it feels like the company is way dialed into the needs of the idea economy. Yes, another proof point.
We heart the thoroughness of their communications efforts.
ASWI, HPE’s playbook is worth emulating in spirit.
#SCMF!
-The Gang
10TB on two… Omaha! Hut, hut! How @ArubaNetworks connectivity scored big at @LevisStadium: https://t.co/GAgreSa4Gs pic.twitter.com/sgYZ4iR248
— HPE (@HPE) February 19, 2016
Bonus Content
Cool infographic too!
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