Give the AI a role audiences can observe
Give enterprise AI a role in a conversation audiences already care about, with a clear connection between the technology's capabilities and its contribution. For IBM and Wimbledon in 2017, a campaign inspired by Wimbledon's "In pursuit of greatness" brand promise put IBM Watson into the debate around "What makes great?" Watson drew on data captured during IBM's longstanding Wimbledon partnership, alongside insights informed by live social listening, to join and lead the discussion.
The practical principle is to connect the public activity to what the business offers clients, rather than use sport only for visibility. The campaign gave enterprise AI a specific job within a recognisable conversation. Reported campaign results included 106K unique visits to IBM's landing site, 2 million engagements and 434 software trials initiated, leading to £550k sales in three weeks. Those figures describe campaign engagement and commercial outcomes, not a general measure of Watson's accuracy or enterprise AI performance.
Sources: IBM and Wimbledon: Ongoing Campaign Involvement, A game plan for success: how B2B brands can tap into the spirit of sport