Lotus Knows

August 4 2009

This morning at the IamLotus User Group in St. Louis, IBM Vice President Kevin Cavanaugh announced a new marketing campaign called "Lotus Knows".  The theme of the campaign, which will feature end-user-focused advertising and awareness on a worldwide basis, is to help users answer the question "Do you know Lotus?"  Vignettes and examples will answer that question with common daily ways that Lotus software can help the user be more productive and effective.  

The excitment in the room at IamLUG was clear.  Twitter is abuzz with "Lotus knows..." examples and reaction to the announcement.  Moreover, Kevin's call to action for the IamLUG attendees -- and the Lotus community -- was understood.  This is going to be an interactive effort.  We know that you know what Lotus knows better than anyone else.  In the coming weeks, you'll have several opportunities to help develop the "Lotus knows..." messages.  Things start off with a "Lotus Knows Jam" planned for the week of August 17th; from there, there will be opportunities for you to submit testimonials, videos, and more to contribute to the messages.

You'll start to see "Lotus Knows" show up in advertising and media later this quarter in the US.  "Lotus Knows" will run for at least 18 months and will be a worldwide campaign.  Initially you'll see it in print media, banner ads, and "out of home" impressions.

It has been an incredibly exciting process to bring this announcement to IamLUG today, and to be a part of the extended team involved in the development of the themes and messages.  The real work has been done by Kristen Lauria's Lotus marketing organization, with many key contributors sweating the details.  It was not easy to align IBM's entire marketing community around the best approach to reach the end-users who are such a key influence on IT decision-making today -- Kristen and team navigated the process very effectively.

I'll write more about "Lotus Knows" in the coming days, and I'll be assisting with the Lotus Knows Jam in two weeks.  I'm expecting to see (actually, I already can) some pretty cool "#LotusKnows" tweets on Twitter -- keep them coming, we're listening and will be using the best ones.  You asked for it, and here it is -- now let's all make the effort successful, together.

Ed Brill St. Louis, MO USA Category:  Lotus Knows  Add/View Comments [52]

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  1. 1  Palmi  | 8/3/2009 12:05:34 PM

    Great news , I´m looking forward to seeing this in action.

    We are must better and we can proof it.

  1. 2  Tim Tripcony http://www.timtripcony.com | 8/3/2009 12:08:26 PM

    Fantastic! Can't wait to see and be a part of it...

  1. 3  Ports http://www.mrports.com/ | 8/3/2009 12:21:52 PM

    Lotus Knows how good Lotus Knowts is :)

  1. 4  Ports http://www.mrports.com/ | 8/3/2009 12:22:56 PM

    And how cool a server is Lotus DominKnows

  1. 5  Michael de Haas  | 8/3/2009 12:24:19 PM

    Excellent news! No matter how big the team involved is, I personally have little doubt that you were the prime mover on this and many of the other reactive responses. So, a big thankyou!

  1. 6  Mark Hughes  | 8/3/2009 12:26:17 PM

    Sounds great! Cant wait to see something...!

    And out of curiosity how does Lotus know which route the cab should be taking to the airport?

  1. 7  richard  | 8/3/2009 12:40:35 PM

    Outstanding!!! Well done to everyone involved. This is exactly what lotus notes needs

  1. 8  Pete Hampton  | 8/3/2009 12:51:07 PM

    Ed, fantastic news!! You can be certain that we will all be 100% behind this. The community have been asking for this and you have delivered. Well done to you and the team.

  1. 9  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/3/2009 1:02:59 PM

    Before this goes too much further, I am just a bit player in this. The real work was Chris Crunney, Colleen Hayes, David Hsu, Bilal Jaffrey, and many other players in Kristen's organization as well as IBM marketing overall.

  1. 10  Edwin Kanis  | 8/3/2009 1:04:17 PM

    great announcement, for sure we will bring this foward in The Netherlands the coming months!! thanx Ed

  1. 11  Stuart McIntyre http://blog.collaborationmatters.com | 8/3/2009 1:14:34 PM

    Lotus Knows that 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'.

    However, thus far I think this has real potential, as can be seen by the response at IamLUG, the hundreds of #lotusknows tweets and the great ideas that are already being promoted.

    Lets hope that this is the start of something big ;-)

  1. 12  Jim Casale http://www.jimcasale.net | 8/3/2009 1:21:15 PM

    Great job everyone. I am looking forward to seeing a #LotusKnows commercial on CNN weekends instead of the MS commercials say absolutely nothing of substance (Economic Sunami)

  1. 13  Kevin Pettitt http://www.lotusguru.com | 8/3/2009 1:35:40 PM

    @12 - CNN, NPR, CBS/ABC/NBC evening news would be great. My favorite though would be MSNBC. Hey, what does the "MS" stand for again? ;-)

  1. 14  Mikkel Heisterberg http://Http://lekkimworld.com | 8/3/2009 1:47:36 PM

    So happy I could cry!

  1. 15  Henning Heinz  | 8/3/2009 2:10:07 PM

    I never shared the opinion that the main IBM Lotus problem is marketing so I am following this with interest.

  1. 16  Christian Drenth http://www.dominoasaservice.nl | 8/3/2009 2:24:56 PM

    This is great news! Lotus Knows what IT is all about! Congrats to all people involved.

  1. 17  Adam Osborne http://www.preemptive.com.au | 8/3/2009 2:34:09 PM

    Fantastic news - please add Canberra and Sydney airport to your list.

  1. 18  Brett H  | 8/3/2009 2:35:06 PM

    Be still my beating heart! This is fantastic news Ed.

    I'm looking forward to the fruits of your labor in pushing this beyond IBM's traditional marketing themes.

    BTW "Lotus Knows" is awesome!!!

    So happy... so happy...

  1. 19  Mat Newman http://www.isw.net.au | 8/3/2009 2:36:03 PM

    Looking forward to the first Lotus Advertising seen down-under for many years - it IS a WORLD-WIDE campaign, right Ed?

    Fantastic news that end-users (read CIO/CFO/CEO) will get the opportunity to see that Lotus is still around, so the next time I mention it as a solution I wont get the "what - people still use that" response :-)

  1. 20  Thomas  | 8/3/2009 4:21:45 PM

    Do you still think that the world will be reacting on Ad's ?

    Lotus needs to outreach to normal end users and to developers who have never heard of the platform... why isnt the client free of charge (for private) usage???

  1. 21  longLiveLotus  | 8/3/2009 5:00:39 PM

    Aha - "Air Cover" = advertising carpet bombing.

    about time, well done all Loti, much needed. What sayeth you now Mr. Buchan?

    :-)

  1. 22  Frank Cseh http://twitter.com/fcseh | 8/3/2009 5:14:40 PM

    I really hope that the marketing campaign called "Lotus Knows" will be not just a shell for promoting INM's Websphere !!!! Right ?

    @fcseh - on twitter

  1. 23  Keith Nolen http://www.knproductions.com | 8/3/2009 5:20:50 PM

    SWEEEET! I am really looking forward to this!!

  1. 24  Kevin Mort http://www.theglobalmind.com | 8/3/2009 7:11:09 PM

    @12 - LOL I hate those ads. They really do say nothing at all.

  1. 25  Andrew Pollack http://www.thenorth.com | 8/3/2009 7:26:03 PM

    If the campaign does nothing more than show existing customers that money is being spent on the Lotus brand, it will have gone a huge way toward helping us, as business partners, continue to support the platform in client locations. Customers may finally be reassured they're not the only ones "still using" Notes. It will also help license renewals as customers stop putting off maintenance in their ever delayed attempts to migrate (delays caused by the sheer lack of anything as good to migrate onto).

    If it is successful at showing existing customers how much more can be done with the platform, the customers will win, and business partners will win in a big way.

    If it goes as far as to win over some new customer sites, it's a win for everyone.

    Good luck

  1. 26  Nelson Morris  | 8/3/2009 9:44:24 PM

    The moment my users start telling me/clamoring for new features of Lotus products that I don't yet know about will be a welcome day.

  1. 27  William Lefkovics  | 8/3/2009 10:19:34 PM

    It has been about 20 years since the Nike "Bo knows" commercials, so I guess sufficient time has passed for a rehash.

  1. 28  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/3/2009 11:28:45 PM

    Nice. It's not a rehash -- the tagline of "Do you know Lotus?" is intended to invite curiosity about Lotus software -- something fairly different than how smrt a ballplayer is.

  1. 29  Roland Reddekop http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/sanitycheck | 8/4/2009 2:06:44 AM

    The goal of a sustained Lotus Ad campaign IMHO would be to instill into the minds of key decision-makers that Lotus is still around yet isn't "legacy", is RAD APPLICATIONS yet does a lean mean email, isn't free or even necessarily cheap yet competes cost-effectively against the "Cloud"...and so on. But mainly simply creating refreshed brand rethreading more positive synapses when the name Lotus is mentioned would be excellent achievements.

    The only worry I have about "Lotus Knows" is that depending on how its done it can either exude confidence or smack of arrogance...like Lotus Knows what's good for you. Hopefully, all adds are tested against a neutral audience who can sense if L.Knows is straying into haughtiness.

    Also hopefully the things Lotus Knows are not too abstract and disconnected from what us developers typically develop to help the company along. For example, in sample shown at ilug OGS we have "Lotus Knows the best route to the airport" posted on a cab. That's not really the sort of app we'd build. That's more of a G. Maps or other direction-finding Internet service, which yes we can certainly surface in a Notes-app or channel through a widget, but its not true Lotus Notes functionality.

    Read my blog where I ask if the Lotus Notes needs to be rebranded

    { Link }

  1. 30  Benoit Dubuc http://www.benoitdubuc.com | 8/4/2009 6:05:17 AM

    I totally agree with Roland: the message has to make it to business decision makers. I just lived the case where it was decided to go ahead with Sharepoint, even though licenses will cost a big pill of dollars - and in these tough economic times, I can't figure out why this is happening since they already have Notes. I believe management were sold to .Net and Sharepoint, but I realized no one in the company heard about Domino 8.5, the xpages, DAOS and all the new features of Notes/Domino. Who am I to go see management and explain to them that their decision might need to be revised while explaining what Notes really is and how good it compares to Sharepoint and .Net in many aspects?

    Ed, you probably know more than anyone else: how many times did we see management decisions based on some article in a business paper and what other employees are saying? In my particular case, it seems that a person with a lot of influence used to work for Microsoft, therefore pushing a lot on their products, and probably bashing Notes along the way. It all made sense to management, as they didn't have proper information on the new Notes, and the decision was made!

    Stories like "data is not accessible in Notes, Notes is legacy, can't find good resources" were heard way too often in my part of the world. The results today is that Notes has to be "marketed" from scratch, just like when 4 came out, and in the mean time, a lot of companies switched to "other" systems.

    I still think that this marketing campaign will be extremely good, as it will be timed with some managers that will realize the costs of the switch, and may revert to Notes again. in the mean time, I guess I'll have to learn Sharepoint and try not too bitch too much about that product!

    So way to go IBM, but please also make sure that management is aware of the new Notes.

  1. 31  Michael Kobrowski  | 8/4/2009 7:51:37 AM

    Wow, I don't read blogs much yesterday and missed the announcement!

    Thanks Lotus Marketing team (sometimes we weren't sure there was one!) and especially Ed (I know you are humble, but hey). How the HECK did you get that through the IBM Big Blue marketing wall? Are they changing too? Wow!

    Nice to see all those discussions in blogs (and probably over beers too?) about targeting end users and not just the IT management finally worked.

    Show real world examples people who aren't in the yellow bubble will 1) understand 2) kinda find exciting.

    How about that guy with the personal productivity software, can we highlight him?

    Of course Foundations - show small business saving $$$ (show the USD like MS does in the anti-Macbook ads) by not buying MS servers and support personnel/consulting and instead using Foundations (or instead of showing the USD show the product they were able to purchase instead).

    Show how open and cool IBM Lotus software can be. That it works on different Linux flavors. That it works on Mac and iPhone.

    On a personal note - without Lotus I couldn't have gained a foothold in the IT market here in the US. Back in Germany I did both pretty much 50/50... first Novell and Lotus, then MS and Lotus. But since coming to the US its been more Lotus than MS...right now kind of 90 Lotus / 10 or less MS - and my supervisors are very much into Linux and want to see the MS servers gone :-D

  1. 32  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 8/4/2009 8:19:11 AM

    "How the HECK did you get that through the IBM Big Blue marketing wall?"

    I heard an interesting story about that... ;-)

  1. 33  Lisa Duke http://www.simplified-tech.com | 8/4/2009 9:22:04 AM

    Lotus knows this is going to make our lives a lot easier! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

  1. 34  Roland Reddekop http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/sanitycheck/ | 8/4/2009 10:56:27 AM

    @31

    you suggested "How about that guy with the personal productivity software, can we highlight him?"

    I think you mean Eric Mack and his eProductivity application. I concur with your suggestion. Eric is well-spoken and his product is a great add-on to fill in the weak spots of the vanilla Notes PIM's which happen to be the same weak spots of GMail and Outlook.

    Link:{ Link }

  1. 35  Ryan Heathers http://www.eProductivity.com | 8/4/2009 2:12:37 PM

    Ed, this is great news. Thanks for your part in putting it together.

  1. 36  Bilal Jaffery http://www.bilal.ca | 8/4/2009 2:32:52 PM

    Love the excitement! Love it!

  1. 37  Bilal Jaffery http://www.bilal.ca | 8/4/2009 2:34:20 PM

    In fact, I have changed the theme of my blog to 'Lotus Knows'. More to follow and Thanks Ed for everything!

    We will be following this very closely. Twitter, Google Alerts, Flickr, Linkedin, PlanetLotus and personal IM streams. Feel free to engage any of us.

  1. 38  Charles Robinson http://www.cubert.net | 8/4/2009 2:58:41 PM

    It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. :-)

  1. 39  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/4/2009 5:50:50 PM

    @38 Charles, I expected more than that from you -- any not-a-blogger could make that observation. :-D

  1. 40  Charles Robinson http://www.cubert.net | 8/4/2009 8:45:58 PM

    Maybe I'm maturing. :-) I decided to wait and actually see what you're doing before I express an opinion. Hopefully I actually see the ads. That will be the first test.

  1. 41  Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 8/5/2009 7:03:40 AM

    Do you know Lotus? An interesting line, will the ads on TV be a black and white view of R2 with a modern colorized view of R8.5?

    Almost Wizard of Oz like, lotus knows their no place like Home(tab that is).

  1. 42  Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 8/5/2009 7:03:50 AM

    Do you know Lotus? An interesting line, will the ads on TV be a black and white view of R2 with a modern colorized view of R8.5?

    Almost Wizard of Oz like, lotus knows there is no place like Home(tab that is).

  1. 43  Gerry S  | 8/5/2009 7:06:07 AM

    Wish I had thought of this years ago, oh wait....

    LOL. Great news.

  1. 44  Prabhakaran  | 8/5/2009 7:18:58 AM

    this is great news. Thanks for your part in putting it together.

  1. 45  Paul Robichaux http://www.robichaux.net/blog | 8/5/2009 12:32:48 PM

    @40: what Charles said. It's certainly interesting to see Lotus launch a broad awareness campaign given that none of their competitors (Google, MS, Oracle) are doing anything like that. Can't wait to see the ads.

  1. 46  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/5/2009 12:36:14 PM

    Actually, Paul, Google is also doing a broad awareness campaign that just launched. Techcrunch had an article on it. So we have to compete for mindshare right about now.

  1. 47  Jim Casale http://www.jimcasale.net | 8/5/2009 2:27:32 PM

    @45 What do you call the barrage of MS commercials on Saturday morning cable news? I see at least 2-3 commercials an hour during CNN Saturday mornings. Wouldn't that be considered an "awareness campaign?"

  1. 48  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 8/5/2009 7:07:08 PM

    @45 - Now that's just ridiculous

    { Link }

    { Link }

    { Link }

  1. 49  Paul Robichaux http://www.robichaux.net/blog | 8/5/2009 11:22:25 PM

    @47, @48: OK, you caught me. I was thinking "messaging and collaboration" when I wrote that. MS and Oracle don't normally advertise their messaging and collab solutions separately, although they do lots of broader brand-awareness campaigns (plus product-specific campaigns for individual products).

    @46: I missed that, Ed-- first week at a new job and all. I'll check it out.

  1. 50  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/6/2009 8:34:36 AM

    @49 actually, I hear that Google has billboards on the 101 in the valley...since you have relocated, perhaps you'll see them. or perhaps the media coverage of Google's campaign is overrating it. :-)

  1. 51  Dan King  | 8/7/2009 7:24:53 AM

    Just to add my voice - this is great news, can't wait to see something here in the UK

  1. 52  Christoph from Germany  | 8/18/2009 7:31:26 AM

    Hello Ed,

    will there be a private edition? I'm working in a company with 2k Notes using employees. They are common with Notes at work, but they have to use another client (Outlook Express, Web mail, ...) at home on their private computeres?