InNEVator is an 8-Week, in depth technology accelerator program. TRU has been the marketing partner of InNEVator since their inaugural program. However, in preparation for Spring 2020, the program was undergoing more change than ever before. InNEVator leadership wanted to take advantage of Nevada’s beneficial blockchain climate, and made the transition away from IoT to enter the Blockchain space.
This is our 4th project with InNEVator, but proved to be the most in-depth project we’ve done for them. As our first foray into the blockchain space, we knew success would require sound strategy, relevant design, and attention to the intricacies of the culture around blockchain tech.
Goal: To relaunch InNEVator as premier blockchain accelerator, build strong media partnerships, all while increasing application numbers.
Challenges: Blockchain is a tighter niche with fewer businesses than in IoT, there is more competition in the accelerator space and because of a large number of scammers in cryptocurrencies, trust is at a premium. If the InNEVator rebrand was done poorly, we could be seen as outsiders and lose credibility.
We laid out our options. Historically, our top channel for applicant attraction was direct outbound email, but with a new niche, we had to expand our marketing efforts to include more.
Starting with a slight rebrand, we set off. Drawing inspiration from the tech behind blockchain, we gave the full InNEVator website a new skin. We created an all new set of printed assets. We drew inspiration from the Hash System, and base level code behind the technology, incorporating aspects of this into our designs.
With brand and messaging established, the next step was promotion.
We decided to focus efforts on 6 channels: outbound email, media partnerships with like-minded organizations, paid advertising via social media, paid advertising via channel partners, organic promotion through F6S, and organic social media.
Media and channel partners secured by the efforts of TRU Venture Marketing
We came in to the project knowing that what worked for IoT might not work at all for Blockchain. In 6 weeks reached over 500 companies in the Blockchain space via direct email, Telegram, and social groups. We developed a handful of media partnerships that expanded our awareness in the space, while granting credibility. We’d managed to boost organic rankings on F6S, where we were collecting applications, and even engaged in a paid promotion with the platform. We even kicked off a highly targeted facebook advertising campaign.
The campaign was a truly “Multi-Channel” approach.
With a week left in the campaign we shifted our focus to deeper funnel conversion – following up with any stragglers who had started applications and not finished and circling back with people who had shown interest. Every person who started an application got a personal email from one of our team members.
When InNEVator closed applications January 19th, we had 62 applications completed.
In 8 weeks we helped to generate more applications than any previous cohort.
The best part is that InNEVator accepted 5 companies this year to join the program, all of who received funding for their projects, and temporarily relocated to the Northern Nevada area for 8-Weeks of in depth business building.
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