Infosys Limited - Marketing Department of the Year
Company: Infosys Limited, Bengaluru, India
Entry Submitted By: Interbrand
Company Description: Infosys Limited is one of the top 10 IT services companies of the world that provides next generation digital services and consulting. With nearly four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises in 46 countries, we navigate our client's digital transformation and expertly steer them through their digital journey.
Nomination Category: Marketing Organization / Professional Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Department of the Year
Nomination Title: Infosys marketing team
In 2018, 61% of Infosys’ revenue came from transforming US businesses. However, the brand continued to be mostly perceived as “an Indian outsourcer”. To solve this and build the image of a digital transformation partner, Infosys embraced a new strategy to position itself as navigator for businesses in the digital world. From 2018 to 2020, the marketing team, took various steps to bring this perception shift to life.
Over 97% of Infosys’ business was repeat business and hence the marketing team prioritized the top 20% of their customers driving 80% of their opportunity funnel to shift perception in the mid-term (18 months+) and drive pipeline in the near-term (6 months+) through sustained digital-first engagements.
As a result, in just three years, Infosys experienced a 29% increase in its brand value, bringing it to $8.4bn as ranked by Brand Finance’s Global IT Services 2021 list. The list also shows how Infosys- the fastest growing company in the top 10 – has risen to claim a spot among the Big 4 IT services companies with a 19% YoY. In the same period, the marketing team also grew its marketing-driven sales pipeline 2.15 times from $3.4Bn to $7.3Bn https: //brandirectory.com/rankings/it-services/
Leading with its Navigate-your-Next narrative targeting priority clients, the marketing department drove humanized communication to engage clients through a pervasive always-on digital campaign while leveraging Account-based Marketing to deepen relationships with key client accounts and associated CXO leaders. Fully automated metrics-tracking made progress on brand and pipeline KPI as shown below:
Our annual brand research shows that the Top of Mind recall for Infosys increased from 0% in 2018, 3% in 2019 to 5% in 2020 among the top 20% of its clients.
Associations shifted for the brand as below:
(i) 2018: Outsourcing, Innovation, Thought Leader
(ii) 2019: Digital Delivery, Transformation, Domain Expertise
(iii) 2020: Digital Capabilities
Aided associations have also steadily increased across key parameters with a marked decrease in the outsourcing association:
(i) Digital Capabilities:
2018: 5% | 2019: 8% | 2020: 14%
(ii) Strategic Partner:
2018: 3% | 2019: 4% | 2020: 6%
(iii) Consulting Expertise:
2018: 1% | 2019: 5% | 2020: 6%
(iv) Outsourcing Partner association (This has decreased as desired):
2018: 15% | 2019: 11% | 2020: 10%
In terms of revenue, marketing programmes drove/influenced the following achievements in 2020:
-Infosys ABM was credited with influencing over a billion dollars of pipeline and several hundred millions worth new wins
-Infosys was rated as a “Leader” in 42 digital and 16 industry analyst ratings Accounts worth $100 M+ expanded by 45% with 20 accounts in 2018 to 29 in 2020
-Brand Finance rank jumped forward by 72 ranks https: //www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/2021/recognized-fastest-growing-top-ten-brands2020.html
While most businesses market to a wide spectrum of clients and prospective clients, Infosys marketing identified 20% of accounts with 80% revenue potential – i.e (1) accounts promising digital revenue, (2) accounts that could benefit from deepened customer relationships, and (3) accounts with on-going large deal pursuits. The team then created a unique always-on digital marketing plan to:
-Invest in a best in class marketing technology stack
-Drive insight-based client need discovery: Using intent data from tools like Bombora & Demandbase
-Amplify account-based marketing: Using Madison Logic for content syndication, to display personalized ads and LinkedIn ads to shift perception and drive demand
-Personalise Re-marketing: Using Adobe Test & Target to render more relevant user experience
As a result, 3741 contact (of which 37% are CXOs) were engaged QoQ. Client advocacy increased substantially with 12% of top customers offering to engage on an Infosys platform or offer a public testimonial.
The perception shift driven by Infosys marketing team through this effort, within its priority customer base is signicant because just three years ago in 2018, Infosys’ image was dominated with Outsourcing associations (15%) while associations around digital capabilities was only at 4% and was cluttered along with other key industry competitors such as Competitor 1(4%), Competitor 2 (6%), Competitor 3 (4%), and the like. In 2020, Infosys finally managed to break away from the laggard pack and led with digital association at 10%, right behind long-time leaders Competitor 4 (13%) and Competitor 5(20%).
1. Proof of Revenue Growth Numbers:
- This article shows the revenue growth% as well as the digital growth%.
https: //www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/infosys-37-8-growth-in-digital-portfolio-leads-to-strong-9-8-growth-in-fy-20--301043576.html
-The Investor presentation attached with the application shows how $100Mn accounts have increased over the years on Page 19
2. Brand Finance Global IT Services- 2021 list:
The following links along with the “2021 _ Brand Value Ranking League Table” PDF attached with the application directs you to the list and its findings.
https: //www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/2021/recognized-fastest-growing-top-ten-brands2020.html#: ~: text=Infosys%20(NYSE%3A%20INFY)%2C,its%20Global%20500%202021%20report .
https: //brandirectory.com/rankings/it-services/;
3. Attached PDF ‘Infosys - Transforming Marketing with Data, Analytics, and Insight’ is a case study to show how using Account Based Marketing was used to get more revenue