How NOLA Marketing Became a Tech Exec’s Bat Phone

 

Martin Hall has always worked on the cutting edge of technology. From Internet standards and protocols to open-source software, from security to big data analytics, AI, and generative AI, he has led business initiatives and teams, built products and companies, and championed standards. Throughout his career, Martin has been deeply involved in all levels of marketing, from strategy to tactical execution, to ensure that he and his teams have the resources needed to mobilize ideas into results.

 

First Encounter with NOLA Marketing

As Martin’s big data analytics start-up, Karmasphere, grew, so did the demand for messaging and materials to support the sales team. A colleague referred him to Emily Matthews at NOLA Marketing, who he was told would “parachute in and get stuff done quickly and efficiently.”

“My colleague told me that Emily was quick. That was an understatement,” said Martin. “She hit the ground running at lightning speed and took us with her.”

The first step was to create a messaging and positioning platform. Although the project was strenuous overall, it was especially challenging due to the limited availability of subject matter experts and stakeholders. “Because of the difficulty in pinning down our people for interviews and workshops, Emily adjusted her approach. She did a lot of pre-work that allowed her to extract information without taking much of our time,” said Martin.

“The draft messaging and positioning doc that Emily put together was spot on and provided the foundation for the rest of our materials,” said Martin. Using the approved messaging and positioning platform, content for the new website, collateral, gold deck, and emails was created with minimal support from the Karmasphere team. “Within a short time, we went from struggling to deal with the chaos of an emerging market to having a compelling story and supporting tools to effectively engage with our prospects, customers, partners, and the press,” said Martin.

 

Another Call to the NOLA Bat Phone

FICO acquired Karmasphere for its big data analytics platform. The platform capabilities were to be integrated into the FICO portfolio as a self-service solution for enterprises working with large volumes of structured and unstructured data in cloud and on-prem infrastructures. Martin reached out to Emily to help develop the messaging around this new offering.

“We needed to educate internal and external audiences not just about the new offering, but also about big data in general and how the rich FICO dataset could be harnessed to drive insights and decision making. Once again, Emily came through,” said Martin. “She helped us create concise, easy-to-understand messaging. Emily also helped us with the gold deck and website copy that expedited sales engagement and subsequent adoption of the new capabilities by customers and partners.”

 

BIG Bat Work at Intel

“When I got to Intel, I picked up my NOLA Bat phone right away. I had joined a very strategic, but early-stage open-source software project that was to be showcased at a major industry event in less than 90 days,” said Martin. “It was a complex, cloud-based solution that supported advanced analytics leveraging AI, machine learning, and deep learning without heavy reliance on data scientists.” Since this solution was open source under the Apache Foundation, it required an identity and messaging that fell outside of the Intel brand. In less than three months, all of this had to be created and ready for launch.

“Always unflappable, Emily jumped right in and worked with me and our team of developers and data scientists to wrangle a sprawling feature set into tight solution messaging with pillars for the disparate target audiences,” said Martin. “She also oversaw the identity design and supporting materials for the event.”

After a successful launch at the show, the team had to engage the worldwide sales and marketing teams and facilitate their outreach to large enterprise customers and partners of Intel. “We had created some basic materials for Strata, but needed a full suite of collateral, web content, emails, and materials to support PR. Emily used our messaging platform to build the gold deck and collateral. She also conducted more interviews with the team to write business and technical white papers and interviewed beta customers to write case studies,” Martin said.

Martin continued, “One of my favorite pieces that Emily did was a short video that explained our solution ‘on a napkin.’ We used it in our outreach emails and to train the sales team on how to explain it easily.”

 

Sharing the NOLA Bat Phone

“Of course, I share my NOLA Bat phone,” said Martin. “Whether it’s a scrappy little start-up or a big company, Emily will swoop in and seamlessly fill in marketing gaps. Whatever is needed, she will provide a solution. From crafting the web copy and collateral to helping me refine gold and pitch decks, Emily always delivers quickly and without taking much of a team’s time.”

 

Why the NOLA Bat Phone Stays on His Desk

When asked why he continues to reach out to Emily for marketing support, Martin explained, “Emily has the ability to grasp any technology quickly, figure out how a solution fits in the market, and make sure that the messages are differentiated and stand out. Also, I trust her to work with anyone in my organization as well as my customers and prospects.”

“Perhaps most important, I know that Emily will deliver no matter the scale or timeline. No ask is too big or too small for her. No matter what I’ve thrown at her, she has been able to get up to speed and deliver whatever I wanted, in whatever timeframe I wanted, for whatever channel I wanted,” concluded Martin.