Twilio — Intentionally Clever or Accidentally Genius?

This story was originally published here.

Twilio is a success story. It has done many things right, the intentional focus on software developers being one of them. Their “Ask Your Developers” billboards around San Francisco were a part of a solid brand awareness play, described in great detail by their CEO Jeff Lawson in his book by the same name. I think they may have gotten more than they asked for with this slogan.

But first, let us try to understand why this slogan.

Why “Ask Your Developer”?

What did Twilio create? They:

• solved a hard problem (“communications infrastructure”)
• for a large audience (software developers)
• in a growing category (number and frequency of scenarios needing automated customer communications, is exploding)
• through an elegant, user-friendly product (intuitive API that abstracts away the underlying complexity)

A combination of these things made sure that developers loved them. Twilio knew it. But they also knew that this was not enough.

• They didn’t want to sell only to developers working in their individual capacity. The commercial prospect of that business segment is not huge.
• They didn’t even want to limit their appeal to small developer-oriented teams where developers have decision-making authority around technology spending. That is a great segment to target, especially with the rise of startups and entrepreneurship in recent years. However, Twilio had bigger plans.

Slightly related but potentially sidetracking note: Btw, let us be honest. If Twilio really wanted to go only after developers, then who is the slogan “Ask Your Developer” talking to? They didn’t need to run billboards persuading developers to ask their.. uh.. developers. More on this later.

• Twilio wanted to go after Enterprises, who tend to be the largest consumers of technology. Irrespective of what business enterprises are in (high-tech, energy, retail, financial services, etc.), they invariably have significant need for developer-oriented services (like Twilio). As a result, they have huge technical teams (developers, IT, DevOps, etc.). These teams influence decision making, but someone else (higher up) usually calls the shots.

So “Ask Your Developer” is essentially an appeal to a non-developer person (the “business person”) who may be in a decision-making position. The idea is that Twilio is so ubiquitous and loved among developer teams that all you (the “business person”) need to do is to ask a developer in your company, and they will tell you how amazing Twilio is.

Does it work?

Anyone who works on brand, will tell you how difficult it is to measure the impact of brand campaigns. But most people know, when they work. The “Ask Your Developer” slogan has many benefits:

1. Virality: Sure, people noticed these billboards in San Francisco, and were intrigued. More eye-balls mean more awareness, more people engaging with you, and eventually more customers. However, direct eye-balls on these ads is only one part of the story. An even more powerful outcome of this campaign was the fact that it got talked about — in social media, in tech publications, on TV, in podcasts, on dinner tables, among other avenues. It got talked about to the extent that the CEO felt it necessary to write a book with this name.
2. Urgency: I pointed out earlier that the language of this message (“Ask Your Developer”) doesn’t seem targeted at developers. It is meant for decision makers. However, imagine if you are a developer and you see this ad. You immediately think that this company called Twilio, is claiming that all developers already know about them (“Am I missing out on cool trendy tech?”). In fact, Twilio is telling the “business people” in your company to ask you about it (“Am I expected to know this for my work?”). So, clearly this message creates an urgency for developers to learn about Twilio, in addition to spreading awareness among decision makers.
3. Philosohical belief: There is another aspect to this message — one that speaks to a problem deeper than those that are addressed by product features. Brand marketers call it “The Philosophical Problem”. In this case the philosophical belief is that developers are creative problem solvers and ought to be important constituents in business. When developers see themselves and their craft being the central characters in the marketing messages of a well respected multi-billion dollar company, they connect with the company in a way, the benefits of which are hard to overstate.

Such messaging cannot work for everyone. However, for product-led companies with a focus on end-user experiences, the love and loyalty of the end-users can create a powerful brand as well as a vehicle for acquiring business customers. Twilio got it right and is reaping the benefits.