As excitement for generative AI enterprise offerings grew in early 2023, IBM wasn't at the top of IT decision-makers’ minds. To them, IBM wasn’t resonating as an inspiring, innovative, or adaptable AI provider in the tech space. We needed to change our approach to meet the moment — find a way to introduce the modern IBM to the modern tech professional.

Emotions play a key role at every B2B buying stage, all the way from first outreach to signing contracts. We needed decision-makers to want to work with us, meaning how they felt about us as a potential partner was just as critical as knowing the tech we promised to provide. IBM couldn’t show up as the tech industry’s stuffy older sibling and still keep up in the AI age: we needed to resonate with our audience on an emotional, person-to-person level.

We needed to champion tech leaders where our audience would resonate with them. It turns out IT decision-makers are just like us with commutes, treadmill runs, and shopping trips to do. And, we found, they’re probably listening to a podcast while doing it too, with 66% of IT decision-makers reporting that they tune in to the medium regularly.

That led us to completely reimagine Smart Talks with IBM to shine a light on the AI age’s New Creators: the minds applying technology creatively to push business and society forward. The podcast, hosted by Malcolm Gladwell alongside a curated roster of interviewers, was reframed to address the challenges and potential of the emerging tech—all as told by the people actually doing the work.

We wanted our guests to see themselves in each episode and, by extension, to see IBM as an IT provider that just got them.

It turns out IT decision-makers are just like us. They have commutes, treadmill runs, and shopping trips to do — and, according to our research, they’re probably listening to a podcast while doing it too, with 66% of IT decision-makers reporting that they tune in to the medium regularly.

Luckily, that meant IBM already had a natural place for relatable guests to tell their stories: Smart Talks with IBM, a podcast hosted by Malcolm Gladwell spotlighting our innovations in tech. Over the course of its previous three seasons, we had built Smart Talks into a successful and respected podcast in the tech space with millions of listeners.

Each episode runs for approximately 30 minutes, with the exception of our hour-long live episode. The content is typically narrated by Malcolm Gladwell, who provides an introduction, interludes, and a conclusion guiding the listener through each part of the episode.

Each episode opens with a discussion of the guest and their relationship to AI from an enterprise angle. The discussion focuses on questions like:

● What’s their background? How did it lead them to working with technology in this way?

● What challenges do they face on a routine basis? How did working with a partner like IBM or emerging tech like AI help them circumvent those problems?

Each episode always ends with a discussion of creativity, exploring questions like:

● Where do they see creativity in their day-to-day roles?

● How does that same creativity inform where they think their field might be headed?

While not the typical discussion for a B2B technology podcast, our focus on AI and creativity combined expertise and approachability for maximized impact and emotional resonance.

We also inserted ourselves in the spaces where our audience was likely to be. Our live episode, a conversation between IBM leader Darío Gil and Malcolm Gladwell at iHeartMedia’s HQ during Tech Week NYC for 100 tech influencers and IBM clients was received with enthusiasm.

Measuring Success:

● Live episode generated 39 leads from Top Accounts, creating over $13.1M in pipeline and $49M in marketing associated win revenue

● 130K+ views on videos produced from our live episode

● 2M+ downloads in season 4

● Tens of thousands of unique visitors to podcast’s internal landing page

● Industry accolades like Best Branded Podcast at the iHeartPodcast Awards

● 30-day episode download rates ranked the show consistently among the top 1% most streamed podcasts overall