• by Larissa Faw , March 3, 2015

When Pegasystems decided to launch its first-ever paid corporate visibility campaign, the app developer/software provider and its agency The Think Tank (T3) could have developed a more traditional -- yet blander -- business-to-business campaign. Instead they decided to shake up the industry by engaging in some trash talking. 

The "Pega Can. Can Salesforce?" multimillion-dollar brand awareness campaign is  aimed at C-suite executives in customer service, sales and marketing. And it challenges the status quo by directly comparing its suite of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications with the better-known Salesforce.

"The CRM market is changing, and it's breaking down into segments,” said Pega Chief Marketing Officer Robert Tas. “There are applications, including Salesforce.com, which we believe are well-suited for the lower end of the market. For more strategic applications, where flexibility and scale are critical, there's Pega," he said. "There's a dialogue happening among customers in the industry about this shift. This campaign puts the spotlight on that dialogue and the questions customers are asking today. It is designed to raise awareness of Pega and our applications, which are used by many of the world's leading brands to drive business transformation and solve complex customer engagement challenges."

The campaign's content runs across traditional, digital and social media platforms, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, IDGTechNetwork, Mashable, LinkedIn and Twitter. It will also include a number of content integration programs with business media including Fortune, Bloomberg and Forbes.

Meanwhile, this outreach is part of a broader initiative to boost Pega's overall brand awareness through efforts that include a new microsite that features competitor comparative checklists, a white paper, analyst reports and case studies of Pega's clients.

"This campaign [presents a] clear message that connects C-suite executives, business owners, marketing and sales leaders and other decision makers to the brand and the value its software delivers," says T3 Chief Creative Officer Jay Suhr.

T3 first began working with Pega last year.