Talking B2B Tech Marketing with Chief Marketing Officer at NTT Ltd

05 Minute Read

Ruth Rowan

Chief Marketing Officer, NTT Ltd

Career Highlights

Appointed NTT Ltd’s first Chief Marketing Officer in July 2019
Previously Global CMO at Dimension Data
Combined 20 years experience as a marketing leader at BT and Oracle
Now based in the UK after 5 years in Hong Kong

How do you approach the task of relaunching a B2B tech brand in the midst of a pandemic? That’s the question that Ruth Rowan has been tackling over the majority of her time as Chief Marketing Officer at NTT Ltd, one of the world’s largest technology companies. She’s come up with a compelling set of answers that can act as inspiration for any tech marketer navigating the path ahead.

Ruth was appointed CMO for the newly created NTT Ltd., formed by the coming together of over 30 separately branded companies, in early 2019. Her first task was to build a new brand identity – and it quickly became clear to her that a sense of purpose would sit at the heart of it.

Three women bustle around the NTT offices

“We spent a lot of time talking about the role of big companies today – and the need for businesses to step up and play their part in making the world better,” she says. “That’s no longer seen as the sole responsibility of governments – and we felt a call to action to play our part. In a way we were fortunate going into the pandemic, because we had recently done all of this work around our purpose, vision and values – and so that has been front of mind in terms of the decisions we’ve made as a business this year.”

NTT’s purpose is succinctly and boldly expressed across its website and LinkedIn Page in the phrase, “Together we use technology for good.” It’s a boldness about purpose that stands out – and as Ruth explains, it’s a boldness and simplicity that is central to the marketing strategy going forward.

“Firstly, it has a real impact on our ability to attract talent,” she says. “When we ask new employees why they chose us, so many are saying it’s to do with this passion about the positive impact of technology. It’s also true that companies in the B2B space are increasingly asking for aligned purpose when it comes to the businesses they choose to work with. Tender processes increasingly involve questions around shared vision and goals, and commitments in areas like carbon neutrality. Purpose is increasingly essential for your right to bid.”

The changing nature of B2B partnerships has helped to inform the NTT brand that Ruth is building. Partnership is also playing a vital role in the process of building it. “We’ve invested quite heavily in strategic partnerships, because they enable you to communicate on many different levels without having to do the hard work of making adverts and pushing them out through multiple channels,” she says.

A woman blows confetti from her hands. Text overlay states ‘Together we do great things’

Standing out among the partnerships that NTT has formed is its role as a Business Avenger for the United Nations – and its high-profile sponsorship of a professional cycling team, the Tour de France and the NTT IndyCar Series in the United States. These sport and sustainability partnerships play distinct roles within the marketing strategy: one building credibility around purpose and forming valuable B2B relationships; the other, engaging decision-makers at scale while telling compelling stories around technology in action.

As a Business Avenger, NTT is one of a select line-up of companies that have signed up to a campaign supporting a decade of delivery for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “The SDGs give us this blueprint for what needs to be addressed and we can see a role for technology in helping to meet each of the goals,” says Ruth. “It’s a partnership that’s been very successful for us, both in terms of forming relationships with other Business Avengers – and fast-tracking our ambition to be perceived as investing in the world.”

As Ruth explains, the value of sport comes through the opportunity it provides to tell stories that resonate all the way down the funnel.

“We only engage in partnerships where there’s a direct link to reputation as well as reach – an opportunity to build our story,” she says. “Sport has the power to unite because almost everybody responds to it in some way – but the Tour de France also gives us a story that helps to build awareness in our target client base of what we can do for them. High-performance cycling is one of the fastest-growing sports among senior decision-makers in business, so it aligns perfectly with our target buying group. We also have the ability to deliver our key technologies to transform how the race is viewed. It delivers a really cool case study around connectivity, security, collaboration – everything we do. It fits very well with how Sales and Marketing actually work together today. Gone are the days when brand was wholly separate to demand. It’s all part of the same motion within the business, albeit with different skills that complement one another.”

A shot of the back of a cyclist wearing a NTT sponsored t-shirt

The Tour de France is a high-profile example of NTT storytelling in action – but it’s just one example of a tactic that is playing an increasingly important role for the business. “It’s not just who we are but what we do, and particularly what we do for other people, that helps to build brands,” says Ruth. “A library of stories has been really important for us in expressing what kind of business we are. One of the first things we did after launching the brand was go out and find these amazing stories of things we were already doing for customers and partners around the world. Part of the power of marketing is finding those magic nuggets and bringing them to life.”

For Ruth, another key part of the magic of marketing involves simplicity. She believes in the power of a clear message, consistently repeated, to activate organic networks and resonate across countries and cultures. And that’s exactly what she experienced first-hand when the new NTT brand first launched behind the simple hashtag #Hello.

“We used this simple word that’s so powerful in every country where we operate,” she recalls. “The campaign was designed around capturing attention and then giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves. I remember waking up on October 1st with literally hundreds of WhatsApp messages on my phone. They were pictures of people first in Asia, then in Europe, then in America, all standing in front of these giant blue posters with this one word on them. Imagine a network of 45,000 employees all posting that same content at the same time – passing it onto their contacts and their partners. When you have a simple message and the patience to endlessly repeat it, it’s amazing what impact you can have.”

It’s a thought that perfectly sums up Ruth’s blueprint for building a meaningful tech brand in a time of disruption: being clear about what you stand for and never tiring of finding new ways to demonstrate it.