Phil Filleul of Sun Microsystems Discusses its Innovative MiFID Podcast with WPF

The Sun MiFID podcast is one of my favorites. Not because I enjoy listening to it, as it is targeted to a very specific group – business and IT management of banks. Not because the subject matter might interest the general public, as the podcast consists of interviews of bank managers and analysts on the subject of MiFID – a controversial and technical new Banking regulation which European banks must comply with later this year.

However, the innovative way in which podcasting is used has turned the MiFID podcast into an industry standard show, and produced significant direct and indirect ROI for the company behind the podcast - Sun Microsystems. Sun and its MiFID product line are leveraging the podcast to win many multi-million Euro MiFID deals in a very competitive environment.

At Sun, there was and is no corporate podcast or corporate podcast policy. Rather, it was an innovative third party vendor and Phil Filleul of Sun's MiFID product line that initiated the activity with a specific opportunity in mind.

Looking for ways to create quality leads for its MiFID solution, the MiFID marketing division employed several tools and had a budget for generate leads. A creative vendor pitched an interesting idea - rather than use "cold-call" marketing, why not create a MiFID interview-via-podcast series focusing on the controversies and views relating to the new regulation. The target interviewees - decision makers at the major banks who are also the decision makers in the buying process. The goal - use the interview as a way to create quality leads, gain valuable insight into customers, and position Sun as the best supplier.

Time to market was rapid, as the team was wise to identify and comply with internal policies, and use already-available budgets. Also, in order to gain credibility, it was crucial to position the podcast-series as vendor-neutral, and not just a Sun sales tool. Getting the first one or two interviews was a bit difficult, but very quickly the idea quickly caught on in the industry, with high-level management and analysts most willing to be interviewed for a podcast listened to by the industry.

The results by any measurable target were great: cost per lead, cost per quality lead, accumulate valuable customer insights and thoughts, and position Sun's solution as innovative – all this while having fun as well.