The Challenge
From an energy consumption and efficiency standpoint, Nortel’s products have been superior to their competitors. However, because of their smaller advertising budget, Nortel has had a hard time getting this message out.

The Solution
In mid-2008, Nortel launched a volley against Cisco, their biggest competitor. At the center of this campaign was the Nortel Energy Efficiency Calculator. This Adobe Flex-based web application let potential customers configure a hypothetical network setup to determine how much money they could save in energy costs compared to a similar Cisco setup. With products as much as 50% more energy efficient, the numbers could be staggeringly compelling.

The application included dozens of points of customization: from location to determine the kilowatt-per-hour cost and CO2 emissions, to configuring the modules installed in a data switch, to data center cooling efficiency. Graphs and large savings numbers updated dynamically as the user adjusted the configuration. Finally the user could save the report out as a PDF to help them build their business case to buy Nortel instead of Cisco.

The Results
The campaign has been incredibly successful and Nortel continues to invest money into the application to improve its usefulness. Leads converted from the registration page at a rate of 22%. The tool has also spawned more than 10 videos on YouTube, including a response from Cisco.

Medium

Website

Client

Nortel

Agency

Razorfish

Role

Creative direction

Date

May 2008