A 40-year-old data company. A staid brand. A bloated team. An acquisition waiting to be earned.

⚙️

01 The Problem

40+ person marketing team built for 1985. Brand built like a textbook. Ad spend built like a leak.

✍️

02 The Work

Stepped in as interim CMO. Reorganized by industry. Cut the jargon. Built a real funnel. Hired our own replacement.

🎯

03 The Result

Acquired by TIBCO Software in October 2020. Two-thirds of ad spend cut along the way. New CMO seated cleanly.

The Mandate

Step in as interim CMO. Streamline the operation. Then hire your own replacement.

The Work

Five things, in order.

  1. Restructure the team.
  2. Rebuild the brand.
  3. Cut the ad spend.
  4. Hire the CMO.
  5. Then write the exit.

What We Did

Six pillars of transformation.

01 Marketing Operations Restructure

Reorganized 40+ people by industry, not function. Hired and trained a new SDR team to bridge sales and marketing. Wrote the CMO job spec and ran the search.

02 Voice of the Customer

Interviewed buyers outside ibi's historic base. The language we heard became the foundation for the rebrand, the content, and every campaign that followed.

03 Re-brand

Replaced a flat, conservative "Information Builders" mark with the new "ibi" identity — interconnected, generative, modern. New website. New collateral. New posture.

04 Applied Marketing & GTM

Rolled out new product concepts and packaging. Stood up vertical-specific positioning so ibi could enter new markets with credibility, not press releases.

05 Content

Audited every blog, white paper, and case study. Cut the jargon. Shortened the formats. Put the customer back at the center. Reclaimed thought leadership in data and analytics.

06 Demand Gen Overhaul

Built a real funnel. Built the dashboard executives could read. Cut advertising spend by two-thirds while the pipeline got healthier.

The Work, Applied

Before. After.

Logo & Identity

Before

  • Conservative palette missed the tech-forward story.
  • Staid, flat mark suggested a company stuck in 1985.
  • Said nothing about ibi's role across modern industry.

After

  • Interconnected, responsive, generative.
  • Creativity and technology at the heart of the brand.
  • A ubiquitous, invisible force — finally on the page.

Branded Content

Before

  • Text-heavy. Jargon-heavy.
  • Company-centric — not story-centric.
  • Bloated. Difficult to skim. Built to be ignored.

After

  • Streamlined and scannable.
  • Customer's voice up front.
  • Built in plain language. Built to be read.

Website

Before

  • Built to inform — not to generate leads.
  • Jargon-heavy and hard to follow.
  • Company-centric language drowned out the customer voice.

After

  • Built to perform as a real lead-gen engine.
  • Customer voice on every page.
  • Surfaces the generative nature of the company.

Acquired · October 2020

TIBCO.

40+ Team · ⅔ Spend Cut · New CMO Seated · Exit Closed

"100 YARDS ultimately played a critical role in helping ibi write a new chapter in its long, accomplished story."

One Question

Did this make you think differently about your own marketing org?

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