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How Akamai took a new AI product to market in days, not months

How Akamai took a new AI product to market in days, not months

Akamai’s brand and digital marketing team used BlueOcean to see where competitors were spending, how they were positioning around inference, and which messages would land, then launched Akamai Cloud for AI with confidence.

Akamai’s brand and digital marketing team used BlueOcean to see where competitors were spending, how they were positioning around inference, and which messages would land, then launched Akamai Cloud for AI with confidence.

Akamai’s brand and digital marketing team used BlueOcean to see where competitors were spending, how they were positioning around inference, and which messages would land, then launched Akamai Cloud for AI with confidence.

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Jeff Spicer

Jeff Spicer

VP Brand, Creative & Digital, Akamai

VP Brand, Creative & Digital, Akamai

3 min

3 min

Days

Days

Days

for research, message testing and channel testing that used to take months

Under 2 weeks

Under 2 weeks

Under 2 weeks

from launch decision to messages in market

5 teams

5 teams

5 teams

digital, brand, competitive, product marketing and comms, all working from the same BlueOcean insights

Company

Akamai Technologies. Cloud, security and content delivery; three decades in internet infrastructure. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Who uses BlueOcean

Brand, digital, competitive, product marketing and comms, plus business leaders asking for Spark access.

Products

BlueOcean brand intelligence and competitive intelligence. Spark.

In this story

A launch with no playbook

Confirming the suspicion

Months to days

Insight stand-ups

Brand is an asset

Akamai has spent three decades building one of the most trusted brands in internet infrastructure. It pioneered the content delivery network, then added cybersecurity and a cloud platform. Now its edge network has become the place where AI models go to work, and the company has to make a brand built for the last era of the internet feel essential in this one.

When Akamai prepared to launch Akamai Cloud for AI, the marketing team had a strong story: inference belongs at the edge, and Akamai has the world’s largest network of points of presence. What it did not have was evidence about how that story would land, or how competitors were positioning around inference.

"We were able to use BlueOcean to do some modeling of our messages, to see what was going to resonate and, more importantly, to look at our competitors and to understand in real time what messages they were putting into market."

"We were able to use BlueOcean to do some modeling of our messages, to see what was going to resonate and, more importantly, to look at our competitors and to understand in real time what messages they were putting into market."

"We were able to use BlueOcean to do some modeling of our messages, to see what was going to resonate and, more importantly, to look at our competitors and to understand in real time what messages they were putting into market."

Jeff Spicer, VP Brand, Creative & Digital, Akamai

Confirming the suspicion, then finding the open ground

Confirming the suspicion, then finding the open ground

Confirming the suspicion, then finding the open ground

The team had long suspected competitors were outspending them in digital. BlueOcean confirmed it, then showed where that spend was going. Rather than fighting for space a competitor already owned, Akamai moved adjacent to it, tested the move in real time and put its dollars where they could work the hardest.

The team had long suspected competitors were outspending them in digital. BlueOcean confirmed it, then showed where that spend was going. Rather than fighting for space a competitor already owned, Akamai moved adjacent to it, tested the move in real time and put its dollars where they could work the hardest.

For the launch, BlueOcean's competitive intelligence showed which competitors were talking about inference and how. Product and brand marketers then used Spark to model how candidate messages might perform and which words described the product best.

For the launch, BlueOcean's competitive intelligence showed which competitors were talking about inference and how. Product and brand marketers then used Spark to model how candidate messages might perform and which words described the product best.

We were able to compress that work from months down to weeks, or in some cases, even days."

We were able to compress that work from months down to weeks, or in some cases, even days."

We were able to compress that work from months down to weeks, or in some cases, even days."

Jeff Spicer

Months to days

Months to days

Months to days

Research, message testing and channel testing took days. Messages were in market in under two weeks. Billboards and social campaigns ran inside a month. Some of those channels, including transit hubs and bus shelters, were new to Akamai; by connecting BlueOcean’s 3rd party brand, competitor and market context data with 1st party intent and CDP data, the Akamai team could choose exactly which placements to buy.

Research, message testing and channel testing took days. Messages were in market in under two weeks. Billboards and social campaigns ran inside a month. Some of those channels, including transit hubs and bus shelters, were new to Akamai; by connecting BlueOcean’s 3rd party brand, competitor and market context data with 1st party intent and CDP data, the Akamai team could choose exactly which placements to buy.

A successful launch, and a faster way to improve it

A successful launch, and a faster way to improve it

A successful launch, and a faster way to improve it

Speed changed more than the calendar. Results reached the team almost immediately, which meant immediate gratification for the people who had built the launch, and a faster, more confident loop for improving it. Akamai built on its early success by tightening the messages that did not quite land and dropping the channels that were not performing, with BlueOcean showing the effect of each change as it was made.

Speed changed more than the calendar. Results reached the team almost immediately, which meant immediate gratification for the people who had built the launch, and a faster, more confident loop for improving it. Akamai built on its early success by tightening the messages that did not quite land and dropping the channels that were not performing, with BlueOcean showing the effect of each change as it was made.

How Akamai uses BlueOcean

Akamai works with BlueOcean at two levels. Week to week, the questions are tactical: are the digital programs working, what is the perception of the brand, has a competitor launched something we should know about. Because BlueOcean reads the market from external signals rather than internal reporting, those answers arrive fast. A competitor's new campaign shows up as a blip on the dashboard, a competitive marketer flags it, and a tiger team of content, competitive and digital people forms around it.

Akamai works with BlueOcean at two levels. Week to week, the questions are tactical: are the digital programs working, what is the perception of the brand, has a competitor launched something we should know about. Because BlueOcean reads the market from external signals rather than internal reporting, those answers arrive fast. A competitor's new campaign shows up as a blip on the dashboard, a competitive marketer flags it, and a tiger team of content, competitive and digital people forms around it.

Over longer horizons the questions are strategic: how the brand has performed over time, which past decisions about brand and awareness marketing paid off, and why a score moved. That is where Spark, BlueOcean's conversational agent, comes in. The team can ask why relevance dipped or how a message change might play in market, get an answer grounded in the same data, and take it into decisions about where to invest next.

Over longer horizons the questions are strategic: how the brand has performed over time, which past decisions about brand and awareness marketing paid off, and why a score moved. That is where Spark, BlueOcean's conversational agent, comes in. The team can ask why relevance dipped or how a message change might play in market, get an answer grounded in the same data, and take it into decisions about where to invest next.

“Every Monday morning, I look at the relevance scores in BlueOcean. What I really want to make sure of is that our messages continue to be relevant to our users and relevant to the market.”

“Every Monday morning, I look at the relevance scores in BlueOcean. What I really want to make sure of is that our messages continue to be relevant to our users and relevant to the market.”

“Every Monday morning, I look at the relevance scores in BlueOcean. What I really want to make sure of is that our messages continue to be relevant to our users and relevant to the market.”

Jeff Spicer

For years demand programs came with cost-per and conversion metrics and brand did not. BlueOcean gives Akamai the same footing on brand, scoring awareness, uniqueness, relevance and differentiation continuously against competitors, and that is the case Jeff now takes to finance and the executive suite: not what marketing cost, but what it did to the one asset no competitor can copy.

For years demand programs came with cost-per and conversion metrics and brand did not. BlueOcean gives Akamai the same footing on brand, scoring awareness, uniqueness, relevance and differentiation continuously against competitors, and that is the case Jeff now takes to finance and the executive suite: not what marketing cost, but what it did to the one asset no competitor can copy.

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See what your next launch looks like with market context

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Bring one product, one competitor set and one question. We’ll show you what BlueOcean and Spark can answer in a 30-minute demo.

Bring one product, one competitor set and one question. We’ll show you what BlueOcean and Spark can answer in a 30-minute demo.

Book a demo

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