For this post, we thought we’d take a look at our most recent campaign with Dell and Intel from a different perspective: that of our Summer 2016 Marketing Intern. It’s not every day that you win a national contest sponsored by by top Fortune 500 companies and are given the immediate green light to execute your entire campaign in just a matter of weeks with zero ramp up time. So, we called in for reinforcements. Enter recent TCU graduate, Cody Cox.

This summer, I joined the Consuro Managed Technology team as their Marketing Intern. I just graduated from Texas Christian University, where I earned degrees in both Graphic Design and Entrepreneurial Management. While I’ve had a few graphic design internships, this was my first position that was more business-oriented. I was excited to delve into a position that would give me experience in marketing, social media, event planning, and promotions.

Consuro has been a Dell Premier Partner for over five years, selling and implementing the entire Dell portfolio to businesses across the country. They regularly team up with Dell to co-host in-person events promoting a specific Dell product or solution. Dell Storage is in the midst of moving toward a more unified storage solution, and in doing so, has developed the PS and SC series – formerly known as EqualLogic and Compellent.

When I joined the team, Consuro just won a Q2 North American Dell Partner contest. With dozens of entries, they were selected to receive funding from Dell and Intel to execute an extensive marketing and events proposal Consuro designed highlighting the PS and SC series. The proposal was for a three-part luncheon series that culminated in a grand-prize helicopter trip to Rough Creek Lodge, and I was brought on for the summer to help the Consuro and Dell teams make it all happen.

The Consuro team aptly gave the summer event series a theme, “The Sky is the Limit with Dell Storage.” Each of the luncheons took place in esteemed clubs in Dallas (City Club of Dallas), Fort Worth (The Fort Worth Club), and Las Colinas (La Cima Club, all of which are located at the top of various high rise buildings. At each luncheon, attendees were treated to an amazing view and had the opportunity to win giveaways or one of ten spots on our grand-prize helicopter trip. Attendees were truly able to “dine in the cloud.” Yes, we used that joke often this summer.

To set the stage for the campaign, I worked with the marketing, design, and sales teams to develop invitations, eblasts, leave-behind brochures, direct-mailers, and social media promotions to drive traffic to each of the events. I was surprised by how much planning goes into hosting events like the luncheons. Getting people to attend is only the first of many steps; there were so many other things to consider. We worked with venues to decide on seating arrangements, menus, parking for attendees, necessary equipment, and much more. We worked with vendors to acquire giveaways for the event, such as the XPS 2-in-1 tablets, Latitude 2-in-1 tablets, and custom Yeti 30oz Ramblers.

We collaborated with our engineers and the Dell team on presentation content, making sure we gave attendees all of the necessary speeds and feeds information they needed while really highlighting the benefits of upgrading your storage.

Once the events began, I tracked attendees, tablet winners, grand prize helicopter trip winners, people who RSVP’d but could not attend, and everyone in between. I learned quickly that in a marketing initiative like this, the follow-up communication is just as important as the events themselves (if not more so!).

  

We hosted the grand prize trip to Rough Creek Lodge in early July. The team drove down to Glenn Rose to meet our lucky winners as they arrived by helicopter via Epic Helicopters from Fort Worth. We all spent the day enjoying the wonderful weather, and everyone was able to take part in a number of activities including fishing, golfing, massages, mule-riding (the motorized kind), and archery. The day at Rough Creek was a perfect culmination of all the work the team put into this campaign.

   

Working with Consuro this summer was an amazing opportunity to learn about so many different facets of marketing. The team at Consuro was so much fun to work with – the small business atmosphere makes it incredibly tight-knit and welcoming, while their strong vendor relationships with powerhouses like Dell, Microsoft, and Intel gave them an enterprise-level of professionalism.  Everyone was so helpful and willing to put up with the constant stream of questions from the new intern. In just three months, I learned to use a multitude of programs, was able to track the impact of marketing campaigns from concept to completion, helped to plan four large events, and was lucky enough to see all of my business education in action.

Check out our full photo album here!

Cody Cox
Consuro Managed Technology
2016 Summer Marketing Intern