Brief
PopUp Mainframe is a relatively new player in a legacy market, but one with a compelling offer — instant mainframe environments for dev teams. However, they came to us faced with twin challenges: low brand awareness and messaging that they felt lacked clear direction. In seeking to reimagine their marketing, they were looking to gather evidence to help guide their communications and distinguish their brand in the marketplace.
Solution
To escape internal assumptions and build market credibility, we partnered with them on a survey of IBM mainframe decision-makers. The research tested their five core messaging pillars and gathered fresh insight from real users, in order to inform their strategic planning and decision making going forward.
Outcome
PopUp Mainframe used the results to create their Mainframe Market Survey 2025 report to help distinguish their brand in the marketplace, with the data also being used to support the development of their new marketing approach and website. We also wrote and published an article – Insights into the mainframe environment in 2025 – in collaboration with them, to drive further awareness of the research and the PopUp Mainframe brand.
“As a mainstay of high-stakes enterprise computing, the mainframe is a powerhouse production server – but it needs to do more and more to support future needs and can be hampered by a range of factors. At PopUp Mainframe, we wanted to learn the details of what’s blocking mainframe teams from accelerating their output. Vanson Bourne have helped us unearth a range of genuine, topical insights from the mainframe market.”
Derek Britton, Chief Marketing Officer, PopUp Mainframe
