Helping Equinix develop a rapid response to Covid-19

The Client

The Challenge

Equinix has recognized that growing its indirect channel business is key to sustained growth. Equinix’s CEO has a stated goal for the channel to reach 50% of all revenues, up from <10% a few years ago. However, Equinix’s solutions are typically only part of a partner’s broader proposition, therefore Equinix is not always front-of-mind.

When the Covid pandemic hit, Equinix knew that its digital infrastructure solutions were perfect to help businesses respond to the unprecedented pressures on their IT networks – enabling them to rapidly scale and adapt to meet new demands. Equinix’s channel partners, often trusted advisors to enterprise IT teams, had a vital role to play: yet those partners were facing their own upheavals due to Covid.

Equinix recognized that it needed to engage partners with the right story, and equip them with the right tools to meet customers. Given the urgency of the situation they needed to act fast.

Our Solution

The campaign was designed to address two key objectives – first, to build greater partner engagement by helping them navigate the challenges and respond to the opportunities created by the pandemic. OneGTM achieved this through a series of on-demand educational webinars focusing on rapid response and optimisation. These were promoted through a social media email and retargeting program targeting 800 partner accounts.

Second, to generate demand for Equinix solutions by helping customers understand how they could help solve their critical IT network challenges. OneGTM delivered this through a Campaign Toolkit that partners could use to engage their customers around the Covid response themes, titled: ‘Transform to thrive in the new reality’. This toolkit consisted of a range of assets to support an integrated campaign, including eGuides, Video, Emails, Landing Pages, Infographics and a Webinar Kit.

The Results

The primary measure for Phase 1 was partner engagement. 800 partners were targeted and the results in the first 2 months surpassed targets, including 2,500+ views of the webinars, 3,500+ engagements via social media and 1,500+ unique landing page visits.

The campaign resources designed to generate demand were used extensively by partners and contributed to overall 8% YoY revenue increase in 2020 and significant growth from channel – with channel accounting for a new high of 35% of all bookings in Q4. Equinix’s annual report cited Covid pandemic responses as a key factor. Equinix also gained 200+ new customers via channel partners in H2 2020, c60% of all new customers – a record high.

200+ new customers via channel partners in H2 2020, c60% of all new customers – a record high

1,500+ unique landing page visits

2,500+ views of the webinars

What the client said...

The Covid-19 Rapid Response program proved hugely popular with channel partners and helped both our partners and their customers respond to the unprecedented challenges thrown up by the pandemic. It has helped us build greater partner engagement and contributed to significant growth from our channel business in the second half of 2020.

The support of OneGTM was invaluable. Their ability to quickly grasp the technical issues involved and contribute creative ideas about how to communicate the story, and their hard work to deliver all of resources we needed, helped us deliver a successful programme in very quick timeframe

Dierdre Crossan, Senior Director, Global Partner Marketing