As you may have seen posted from some of our more fleet fingered friends, Kristen Lauria, VP of Marketing and Channels, IBM Lotus hosted a round table for those of us in the "Treat Bloggers as Press" program. The topic was the "Lotus Knows" campaign, and let me say that I'm impressed as hell.

I'm not a marketing wizard, so I can't tell you she's right -- but I can tell you that everything she's saying and doing resonates with what I want to see said and done. To me, that means she's a genius.

Keep in mind that even though we've been talking and interacting with Lotus Marketing about the campaign, the public side has really only been serious for about 3 months. The results in the initial market have been profound. The campaign is directed at energizing the core of IT people as well as the movers and shakers that make up the existing customer base every bit as much as any potential new customers -- and it's working.

Key points from the meeting that made me especially happy:

1. Lauria clearly committed to making this campaign stick both in duration and consistency over a much longer period of time than any previous campaign. This one will play out and get through to people in a way that others have failed to do. We're already seeing the result, and it will get better.

2. Now that the first numbers are back from test markets and are so promising, a much broader and much more global roll out begins. The initial big non-U.S. commitment is to Germany but it will move on from there.

3. Recognition of the value added by dynamic local leaders with user groups and other activities will mean those things will be encouraged and supported

I'm very encouraged by what I'm hearing and look forward to how it plays out over 2010 with customers finally starting to feel less abandoned and more as if they're part of something important.