Interoute research

With 23,500 km of network assets in Europe Interoute connects 61 cities and has Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) in 21 European business centres. All the major international incumbent operators including BT use Interoute's network. But whilst the company has a strong share of the wholesale market, until recently it had no presence in the lucrative corporate sector.

Facing the massive challenge of tapping into a completely new market, Interoute worked with branding agency Bite. Operating on prudent marketing budget Bite initially undertook internal qualitative research to understand the business strengths and marketplace needs.

Research revealed Rottweiler PAs

Bite identified IT directors as the key targets and found that this group was the most over-mailed and cynical in the B2B market place. The first challenge would be to get past the fierce PA gatekeeper. This would require both innovation and noise.

Deciding to break into the corporate market by investing more money in approaching fewer, but highly targeted potential customers, Interoute knew those physically closest to its network would be of most value. With help from data analysis and planning specialists PH group, Bite geomapped the Interoute network to find the businesses within 30 metres of its MAN. To avoid data fallibility, students were then hired to literally walk the network to enhance the purchased data with supplementary information such as additional company addresses.