Give the data a question people want to debate
Give partnership data a question people want to debate, so the data contributes to an audience conversation rather than becoming a standalone technology demonstration. The 2017 IBM and Wimbledon campaign took its cue from Wimbledon's "in pursuit of greatness" brand promise and invited IBM Watson to join the debate around "What makes great?" Historical data captured through IBM's partnership with Wimbledon supplied depth, while Watson's live social listening brought in the conversation happening during the tournament.
The practical lesson is to connect the partnership's accumulated knowledge with a topic audiences already want to discuss. Make the technology's contribution visible through what it adds to that discussion, then give interested people a route to explore its capabilities. The 2017 campaign recorded 106K unique visits to IBM's landing site and 434 software trials initiated, leading to £550k sales in three weeks. Audience engagement and opportunities to explore the software were both part of the campaign, rather than treating visibility for the association as the only goal.