How IBM marketing maintains corporate values … and changes everything else

IBM, the technology giant, is using agile marketing as it seeks to engage with consumers in impactful ways.

Two-and-a-half years ago, when Michelle Peluso joined IBM as svp/CMO, she took her marching orders from Ginni Rometty, IBM’s chair/president/CEO.

“Know your values,” Rometty insisted, “but be willing to change everything else to constantly be essential and be relevant.”

It was a right-time, right-place, right-message combination for Peluso. As CEO of Travelocity (2002–2009), Citi’s global chief marketing and internet officer (2009–2013), and CEO of Gilt (2009–2016), she was a powerful proponent of agile marketing, an approach that traces its roots to software development and relies on the collaborative effort of self-organizing, cross-functional teams.

And IBM, under Rometty, has embraced the...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands