Marketing A Path To Unicorn Status!

I have built, managed, and helped run marketing campaigns for a company called Gurobi Optimization. They use mathematical optimization (MO) to solve complex problems for companies globally including Amazon, Google, Apple, FedEx, and many more. 

Analytics can be broken down into a number of stages, these include Descriptive Analytics - what has already happened. A good example of this is Google Analytics. Then there is Predictive Analytics which tells us what couple happen in the future. Finally, there is Prescriptive Analytics (aka Mathematical Optimization or Decision Intelligence) which builds on all of the data collected in descriptive and predictive models to tell us what should happen and provides the single best option, it can account for millions of variables to efficiently show the best solution. An example of where prescriptive analytics is used would be Google Maps, to provide the best route for a user to take. Gurobi’s solution does this for Google and without it, we would be provided with endless options of what could be the best route without actually showing us the single best option.

Today, Gurobi faces stiff competition from AI and Machine Learning models but for now, they are still the preferred method for complex decision-making models. The company has a goal to become a billion-dollar organization which led me to devise a campaign to target an untapped audience, one that was bigger than their current niche and would allow them to realize the growth they wanted. 

The main target audience for mathematical optimization has traditionally been Operations Researchers or Operations Analysts but there are few of these within organizations, I lead a plan to target Data Scientists with a new line of messaging coupled with making the product accessible to this audience. Data Scientists generally lean more on AI and machine learning (ML) models, instead of competing with AI and ML the message centered around the idea that AI and ML were more powerful when used with MO - if a data scientist wanted to find the optimal solution they needed to add MO to their data ‘toolbox’. Our campaigns were aimed at senior data scientists with a ‘fear factor’ that if they ignored this message they would become irrelevant in the data revolution which included AI, ML, and MO as a package. 

Gurobi continues to grow and instead of shrinking under the pressure of growing AI awareness they are riding the wave and are part of the discussion when it comes to optimal business solutions, the next stage of growth is to also be part of the quantum computing discussion which I was researching for them and which I would love to explain more on a call.