Perhaps it should surprise no one that HP's riposte to 12 months of considerable turbulence is to get more personal. Its personal systems group's (PSG) first-ever global brand campaign is a clear bid to amp up its emotional appeal, after a year that saw it bid goodbye to celebrity CEO Carly Fiorina and undergo significant restructuring under new chief Mark Hurd. And as regional point person on the project Dennis Mark points out, the timing could not have been more perfect.
Newly resurgent following a period that saw it make the headlines for many of the wrong reasons, HP has roared back to life in 2006, posting profits of US$1.5 billion in its second quarter, up 51 per cent from the year before. And it is the newly consolidated PSG unit — which comprises PCs, notebooks and handhelds — that is driving this growth, its global revenue increasing at over twice the rate as HP overall. Understandably, Mark, vice-president of HP's PSG and SMB (small and medium business) marketing for Asia-Pacific and Japan, is bullish.
Planning for the campaign itself commenced in October 2005, with HP keen to ensure a truly global project — rather than a US idea that runs worldwide. "It's truly global and not an afterthought to the US campaign," explains Mark. "The creative development also involved our team here. We called it a creative kitchen, where we assembled talent from around the world — it certainly brought all our voices together and pretty much came up with a campaign that is useable worldwide."
For the agency world, of course, one of the key components of the initiative was HP's global review — which saw it appoint US shop Goodby Silverstein and Partners to lead creative, and split global duties among McCann Erickson and Publicis Groupe.
"When we went through the whole planning process, we looked at the whole value delivering chain to really leave no stone unturned," says Mark. "Hence, the agency appointment was part of the equation, but there were many other things we changed too."
Mark, a 14-year veteran of HP in Asia, often speaks of PSG's new direction in terms of "excitement". In particular, he points to the non-traditional channels that characterise the campaign, from a branded show on MTV, to a major use of viral media. It is these aspects, he feels, which will enable Asia to truly localise the ongoing blitz.
"At the onset, we established a fairly flexible deployment model, which we will customise to each invididual country," he adds. Mark's own role can be seen from a similar perspective. As he explains, the regional marketing team "defines a certain framework and direction" for the 17 countries under his remit. For Mark, the constant challenge is to demonstrate strong return on investment, even for a 'softer' brand campaign of this type. "We are able to use certain measures to establish our success in this area, but it's definitely something we need to master in this area," he says. "And we do cascade this requirement to agencies — it is a very closely linked engagement model, so that we can visualise results and responses."
A key component of Mark's relentless focus on ROI has been his work in building HP's back-end marketing infrastructure over the last three years. He speaks fondly of the website, call centres and sales forces that have all been significantly upgraded, not least because of their role in helping him effectively gauge results. "The exciting part has been that through the use of portals and call centres, we were able to make marketing much more measurable in a much more real-time manner," he notes.
Mark's experience at HP covers the full range of marketing, from sales to development to product through to strategy, and he even counts a two-year stint at HP China on his resumé. As he puts it, it is Asia's diversity — and HP's ability to connect with that diversity —that is the key opportunity going forward. "The advantage is that governments and people are really adopting the use of IT in their everyday life," he says. "This is bringing the next wave of products that is very much developed in Asia for the use of Asians."
