The technology solutions brand’s latest marketing push features the star athlete in a series of broadcast, online, and radio advertising executions
Technology solutions provider, CDW, has launched its all-new ‘Charles Barkley is Trapped in the Internet’ integrated brand campaign. The NBA Hall of Famer adds a fresh twist to the firm’s long-running ‘People Who Get IT’ push set to appear on national television and radio.
The initiative will also feature extensive online, digital, and in-person engagement. The campaign’s story line is simple yet engaging. Barkley is trading in his desk at Gordon & Taylor to go on a trip. As he’s going through airport security, something goes awry with his smartphone and he finds himself trapped in the internet.
Enter CDW, whose technology experts and partners will help rescue the pro athlete. While the brand and its partners work to save him, Barkley keeps busy. He visits top web videos, wanders through video conference calls and learns what it’s like to be a popular meme.
CDW’s partners in the effort include HP, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, APC, and FireEye. The public can also help save the basketball player by visiting CDW’s mission control website and using the social media hashtag #SaveBarkley. The company’s offerings surround multiple client sectors such as business, government, education, and healthcare.
Barkley has anchored CDW’s brand campaigns since 2012, engaging CDW’s audiences in a memorable way using humour to effectively deliver simple, clear messages that resonate with IT professionals and business leaders alike. Directed by Joe Pytka, the ads will run during the Monday Night Football broadcasts on ESPN, as well as during college game day and other sporting events on ESPN, ABC, and Westwood One.
The campaign features broadcast, online and radio advertising, a dedicated website that will feature new content throughout, social media, and internal engagement programmes, sales enablement, customer events, CDW.com promotions, and public relations support.
“The approach for this campaign is a light-hearted take on the integral link between technology and business, and how CDW’s technology solutions help our customers achieve their goals,” said Neal Campbell, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of CDW.
