Computer Associates International Inc., Islandia, NY, has named the romann group, New York, to its $10 million interBiz account.
Romann will handle interactive and advertising work for interBiz, the online business applications division of Computer Associates that seeks a leadership positioning in its niche. Other agencies that pitched for the account include Agile, Greenstone/Roberts and kzs.
“Many companies that are Computer Associates and interBiz customers are traditional bricks-and-mortar enterprises, and like many others, they're struggling to enter the e-business world,” said Gary Layton, vice president at interBiz.
“So our purpose for the site was to create a place where all the aspects associated with the transition of a bricks-and-mortar business into an e-commerce hybrid will be explored,” Layton said.
The site targets CEOs, chief financial officers and chief information officers at potential Computer Associates clients, universities, analysts and the media. As agency of record, romann will not only build the site but also advertise it to reach this audience. Romann last year recorded billings of $100 million.
Computer Associates, a $6 billion company, claims 20,000 employees worldwide. Its interBiz e-commerce division uses Computer Associates technology to help clients in supply-chain management, financial management and banking.
Sponsored and conceptualized by interBiz, the new Web site will be noncommercial. Though the design is still being worked out, it will boast sections that cover return on investment and payback analysis issues, case studies, and relevant news and information on e-commerce.
“We saw this was a category that suffers from information overload,” said P.J. Lehrer, senior vice president and account director at romann. “We want to get all information in one place. Our vision for the site is to have both depth and breadth, but we want to isolate the most important articles for these people.”
Lehrer said that romann intends to provide a soup-to-nuts solution for interBiz's site — from upkeep to content and advertising. The task at hand is to make the site useful for both bricks-and-mortar and hybrid marketers, with a highly personalized element.
A combination of online and offline media is part of the plan to promote the site. This includes keyword buys on portals — the word “CEO,” for instance — and banner ads. E-mails and a presence in business magazines and newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal will plug the site.
“While we're the sponsor of the site, the site is intended to discuss and review issues associated with the transformation to e-business,” interBiz's Layton said. “Our hope is that by raising these issues and by offering these companies this information, that we'd have an opportunity to present for their business if and when they may want to make the change.”
