Snowflake Computing Uses Creative OOH And Online Education To Market The Power Of Cloud-based Data Warehousing

There are lots of consumer-oriented companies celebrating Pride Month in their marketing right now, but those driving along Highway 101 in the Bay Area of California recently have seen how a B2B technology company like Snowflake Computing can offer a unique take on a powerful message.

“THE DATA IS IN: LOVE WINS,” proclaims the billboard, which casts the snowflake in the company’s moniker in a Pride-themed rainbow of colors. According to the firm’s CMO, Denise Persson, it’s just the latest in a series of out-of-home (OOH) creative efforts that transcend traditional themes in cloud computing and recognize the people behind the technology.

“People said they cried when they saw it,” she told B2B News Network. “One of our values is embracing each other’s differences. We want to portray something new, open.”

This is not the first time Snowflake Computing, which offers a cloud-based data warehouse that captures and processes data from mobile devices, the Web and other sources, has used OOH to stand out from industry heavyweights like Oracle and Teradata. Other recent billboard campaigns have included messages like “SWIPE RIGHT: The Cloud Data Warehouse — Love At First Query” and “POLYDATOROUS: The Data Warehouse Open To All Data.” To Persson, the efforts tie back to its core offering while hitting audiences in ways that reflect everyday life.

“Normally if you’r driving up the 101 on the way to Silicon Valley, there are so many boring messages. You could switch the message and it would sound like the same company,” she said.

Billboards are only one of the mechanisms Snowflake Computing is using to raise its profile among enterprise buyers, however. Persson and her team have also launched Cloud Analytics Academy, which offers free training to organizations that might otherwise struggle with moving away from on-premises data warehouse products. More than 5,000 people are enrolled so far. There is also a Cloud Analytics World Tour, which brings a similar educational effort to venues across the United States.

“It was HubSpot that pioneered the industry with a highly educational content marketing approach. That has been completely missing in the world of IT products, and especially when it comes to databases and data warehouses,” she said. “It’s been more product-marketing driven, talking about the product rather than how you’re going to help them through the transition.”

As Snowflake Computing gets better known by IT decision-makers, Persson said her customer-centric approach will only become more critical.

‘You can’t go out with the mentality that we’re the marketing department, so we’re marketing to people,” she said. “Our goal is to enable every organization to become data-driven.”