Mark Wilson, senior VP-corporate and field marketing at Sybase Inc., said the most important focus for his marketing team this year was creating stronger content that resonated with the software company's target audiences of IT and business decision-makers.

“We continue to embrace the publishing model. Marketing departments look more like newsrooms in terms of creating valuable content,” he said.

To do this, he has hired several former tech journalists to blog on the Sybase website, as well as to syndicate content across social media networks and Web properties.

Sybase features its bloggers prominently on the company's home page, and uses Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media channels to push content out.

“We see strong syndication of that content that's been successful at driving leads,” Wilson said.

He also oversaw the continuation of two Sybase ad campaigns—one for enterprise mobility and the other for capital markets and risk management—and the September launch of a new ad campaign for its analytics products. Sybase used a combination of TV, print, online, outdoor and mobile for these campaigns.

“We're now using mobile in a much broader set of marketing activities,” Wilson said. “When we publish a book, we'll create an e-book or an iBook. For some of our assets, the e-book in terms of requests outperforms the printed book 20 to 1. It's indicative of an uptick in how people consume content and the penetration of content.”

Wilson and his team also increased the use of quick response (QR) codes at events, such as linking attendees to mobile product demos on their smartphones.

“You can create a very engaging mobile experience today,” he said. “The tap rate [a new metric that counts taps on a mobile screen] is rivaling 1999 click-through rates. There is a very high level of engagement from mobile sites.”

—Kate Maddox