Imation strengthens reseller offering with new storage promotion 'Data Elite Premium'

Building on the success of last year's "Data Elite Collection" promotion, which attracted over 400 resellers and 1,000 end users, Imation aims to strengthen its reseller offering as well as incentivise new business end-users.

The web based campaign is aimed at both storage resellers and end users and will be implemented in 19 European countries and soon to be launched in the MEEA.

"The campaign will help differentiate Imation offerings in this market and stimulate sales by enticing resellers and end-users to stock and use Imation products during the promotional period," said Riyaz Abdulla, Regional Sales & Marketing Manager, MEEA, Imation Middle East. "The promotion's objective is to benefit resellers and end-users by stimulating the use of data storage media for back-up and archival operations and to enlarge market opportunities for distribution partners."

"The spotlight of the campaign is a collection scheme allowing the resellers and their customers to claim from a broad range of highly attractive gifts, including: DVD-movies, mp3-players, Hi Fi's, and TV-sets," Hatim Moqbel, Imation's Market Development Manager - B2B for Middle East and East Africa (MEEA). Each participating product represents a specific "collection-point" value. The more points an end-user or a reseller collects, the higher the value of the gift that can be claimed."

Registration, point redemption and fulfillment are all done online at the purposely-built website, which features 9 local language sections.

The website consists of two separate sections.

The reseller section: Resellers will be awarded points by virtue of sales value on Imation storage media, from LTO tapes through to Flash USB drives. For every 2 pounds/euros/dollars spent on Imation products the reseller receives one point.

As an added bonus, the resellers have the opportunity to win a premium trip in 2006. Last year's winners won a luxurious four night trip to Hollywood which included a VIP tour to Universal Studios and the MTV Movie Awards ceremony 2005.

The website holds a registration section and a comprehensive explanation of the promotional mechanics, terms and conditions and benefits to the participating resellers.

The end-user section: available for IT professional who has purchased the Imation promotional network products: 5 packs of DLT IV, SuperDLT 1 and SuperDLT 2, LTO Ultrium 1, LTO Ultrium 2 and LTO Ultrium 3. They can create their own "account" to collect points by entering the unique code found on the packaging of the promotional products.

To further increase impact, first tier distribution partners and their resellers can support the programme with additional sell-in/marketing initiatives. Imation offers a range of advertising and tele-sales support materials and utilises the product packaging to signal the campaign.

"Data Elite Premium" will be running until 31st March 2006 giving resellers and end-users the opportunity to collect as many points as possible.