Sage Partner With Invictus Games

Name of Organization / Company: Sage Software, Chatswood, NSW, Australia
Category: Award for Innovation in Sponsorships

Entry Title: Sage Partner With Invictus Games

Essay

In 2018, we were a Premier Partner of the Invictus Games Sydney. The partnership was an opportunity to showcase our philanthropic arm, the Sage Foundation which works closely with ex- military veterans in supporting their transition from the military to the workplace. Our aim was to develop an integrated campaign that could work across geographies (primarily Australia, Britain, Canada and the USA), appeal to internal and external audiences and work seamlessly across both paid and earned media opportunities. We needed to build awareness of the work of the charitable Sage Foundation as well as Sage’s brand and products with limited budget.

We joined forces with 50 inspiring veteran owned businesses and leading military non- profits in Australia, UK, USA and Canada, to launch the Sage Power 50. The project showcased the inspiring testimony of former servicemen and women who are building entrepreneurial careers after service. The Power 50 was an online e- book. Video interviews and teaser films spread the stories of these businesses across social platforms including an Instagram takeover. Central to our success was providing a social media toolkit for our Power 50 community to easily share content among their networks too. Many of the Power 50 entrepreneurs became enthusiastic spokespeople for Sage on social and traditional media.

The Sage Salute was developed as a simple, respectful gesture that could be easily shared on social. To demonstrate the concept, Australian TV/radio identity and Invictus Games ambassador, Gus Worland, was approached to demonstrate the Salute (an index finger held across the heart) and promote it to his networks. The Sage Salute also proved popular as an internal communications tool. Many offices created Instagram frames and branded backdrops to help create interest in the concept. At the Games an experiential zone was set up where people could have photos doing the Sage Salute taken in front of an Invictus Games and Sage branded backdrop.

In the lead- up to the Games Sage also worked closely with the organising committee to conceptualise an online Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot to help answer enquiries such as ticket pricing, venue access and transport. The chatbot took the personality of ‘Cobber’, the Games mascot, and was developed under the direction of Sage’s own AI team with input from local high school students. It was promoted directly to the Invictus Games community using social media and traditional PR outreach. The project was a wonderful tool for promoting Sage’s AI capabilities as well as associating us as a Premier Partner for the Games. Furthermore, it helped us to build on our thought leadership position around the topics of ‘ethical AI’ and STEM education.

The campaigns effectively raised awareness of the Sage brand and associated us as Premier Partner. Overall, we helped drive approximately 64,000 organic video views of our Invictus Games content. This in turn resulted in more than 5.6 million social impressions and close to 2,000 ‘mentions’ across Facebook and Twitter with very little negative feedback online.

The digital/social activity in turn helped to drive fantastic results for Sage in traditional PR mediums helping secure 46 pieces of coverage in tier 1 newspapers, TV and radio. More coverage was generated for Sage in Australia across 2 weeks than was generated in the previous 6 months combined. Total audience reach via traditional PR was more than 31 million people.

We saw a 31% increase in website visitation during the campaign period and tracked a 22% increase in total leads generated. More than 16% of these leads became ‘Qualified Leads’ which equated to a 19% increase in incremental sales pipeline value.

Intranet traffic showed nearly 5,000 employees engaged with our Invictus Games campaigns and content. Given the Australian offices house less than 350 colleagues, this speaks to our success at making the campaigns appeal across global markets.