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Force4 provides strategic and holistic public relations and marketing services aimed at helping you achieve your business goals.
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About Force4
We deliver communications and digital marketing strategies that drive visibility, credibility and sales conversion rates for B2B technology companies worldwide.
Our Clients
Testimonials
“I have worked with Cara, Peggy and team three times now at three different companies. Each time they have been my choice for professional, high-quality services, content and partnership. Our spokespeople have been particularly impressed with the Force4 thought leadership program, both for the ideas they bring to the table, the quality of writing and of course the results. I look forward to continuing our great partnership together!”
I’ve run marketing teams at major enterprises and at startups where we need to build everything from scratch. This is the PR and marketing team I always come back to. They make magic happen, building plans and programs that earn coverage results that are directly tied to supporting the demand-gen plans I’m rolling out. They truly understand marketing and what needs to happen to show results for me and my team. Love these guys!
I cannot stress enough how great Force4 has been for Napatech. The performance, quality, consistency, and results have been among the best I have had the pleasure of working with in my career.
Cara and the Force4 team were instrumental in our marketing efforts to develop and deploy content for multi-touch demand-gen campaigns to move net new leads through the buyer’s journey. Equally adept at strategy, tactics and execution, the Force4 team was integral in planning the campaigns, developing high-quality content that directly addressed our customer care-abouts and delivering it before deadline. I would highly recommend them for any B2B technology marketing effort.
As a small start-up with large aspirations, we needed a partner who would help force-multiply our team and deliver results. Cara and team helped develop our communications strategy, delivered on our outreach goals and played a number of roles across public relations, content creation, social media and creative. Our success in building awareness for Respond Software helped lead to our successful exit. I’m sure we’ll work with them on our next adventure.
I have been continuously impressed by Cara and team’s ability to deliver high-quality results consistently, both on time and under budget. They have been able to adapt to shifts in corporate focus with agility while ensuring that launches, campaigns and deliverables are sure-footed, seamless and on-message. Able to work across business units to ensure corporate buy-in and integration, Force4 has been a critical extension of our team.
We began our work with Cara and team with the goal of elevating the awareness of our innovative vNAS SDS offering with a strategic partner. The team was an intrinsic element of our success, through media and analyst relations along with a partner program that set up and facilitated meetings with potential targets. When we were acquired by Pure Storage, the team was a key part of making it happen. We are looking forward to the opportunity of working with them again.
We were thrilled with the results and coverage Cara and team secured for us. Encryption is a highly technical field and increasingly crowded, but they promoted our thought leadership to secure coverage and placements in the publications that our customers were reading.
Cara and team are fantastic to work with. Not many agencies can weave the technological benefits of a solution into creative storytelling, but they can. Their knowledge of the demand gen funnel resulted in content that was aimed at my different prospects’ needs so my team always had new, targeted assets for outreach. I’m looking forward to the opportunity of working with the team again.
Compliance is a huge motivator for our customers, but there’s a lot of FUD and confusion out in the market that clouds the air. It was fantastic to have a partner in educating the public, customers and regulators about the intersection of compliance and security. Cara and team worked with me to create a thought leadership strategy to ensure that we had messages that directly addressed customer compliance concerns in every sector.
I’ve led marketing departments at all kinds of infrastructure technology companies, and it’s rare to find an agency that covers the content ideation and creation part of the game in addition to media relationships. I had been used to writing our own press releases and content, and it was a wonderful surprise to discover that Cara and team brought idea development AND the writing big guns to the table. This was in addition to the full portfolio of other PR and marketing services they offered. It is a pleasure working with them and I look forward to bringing them onboard in the future.
Our SaaS solution was at a pivotal point, and we were looking for a marketing strategy that would boost our awareness and visibility in the U.S. market and help drive inbound leads for the sales team. We needed a PR team with the media relationships and creativity to make the case for us in a crowded market and an unprecedented news cycle. Cara and team have been wonderful to work with and have brought strategic thinking, execution and results to the table for our solution and our overall marketing plan. They are an awesome team and have meant the world to me as an individual and to LMS365.
VergeSense has a long list of happy customers, and we were looking for a way to help bring their voices forward as public references for the media. We selected the Force4 team to design and run a white-glove customer reference program that could meet both VergeSense’s and our enterprise customers’ goals. Our customers are now excited by the opportunities that the Force4 team has custom-curated for their own media coverage goals, and we are thrilled to be able to illustrate the real-world business benefits of the VergeSense offering through customer use cases and success stories.
I have worked with this team across several data analytics companies and have greatly appreciated their creativity, output and work ethic when it comes to creating stories from data. We recently navigated a very turbulent news cycle where a few of our competitors were being caught in negative stories and faced harsh criticism in the press. Due to our communications strategy and focus on our technological differentiators, we steered clear of the drama with coverage that was 100 percent positive and on-message.
I’ve worked with tech and business leaders at IBM and beyond throughout my career and know first-hand how hard it is to carve out time for thought leadership alongside everything else on a packed schedule. The Force4 team has been invaluable for tailoring ideas and angles and shepherding our subject matter experts and executive spokespeople through the process of sharing their expertise and best practices for our customers and partners in ways that help them succeed in their business. And they’re a ton of fun to work with.
I’ve been delighted to work with this team. Cybersecurity is a crowded and dynamic space, and Force4 does a top-notch job of cutting through the hype to the technological differentiators and business benefits that analysts immediately look for.
Force4 brings experienced, tough strategic marketing and comms management to the table, which is essential for success. Cara and her team are the go-to partner for multiple Talons Ventures portfolio companies, which is the best way I know to demonstrate how highly I endorse them!
Our portcos are constantly looking for guidance on the best way to break into the U.S. market. I’ve been glad to have the Force4 team as a resource for sharing ways to deploy a communications strategy to get maximum impact in a crowded space.
The Force4 team is a fantastic ally for us. It’s rare to find a PR partner that puts as much investment and strategic planning into a startup’s success as we do on the funding side, and we have seen it give our portfolio companies a competitive edge that they just can’t get with a consultant or a more tactical ‘starter pack’ agency.
Nordic and Baltic tech founders are looking for experienced, capable and hands-on marketing partners to help take them to market globally. Cara, Peggy and the Force4 team is the out-of-the-box resource I refer our portcos to for that level of expert guidance.
“As a location data company, we love telling stories with data. Force4 is an amazing creative partner for getting these stories into the outlets that our audiences read and making them sparkle with detail and relevance. As a result, our lead gen has gone through the roof: from an ROI perspective, we more than doubled our lead generation through direct brand awareness – a 2x in contributed deal flow in six months. I recommend them to anyone!”
Case Study
How does Force4 help its clients succeed?
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BUSINESS OUTCOMES
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Extensive positive and on message media coverage for the company’s Series B funding.
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Over 300 pieces of coverage on funding round, with visibility in top-tier business press read by investors, customers and prospects.
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GOALS
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Secure top-tier business, tech and trade coverage of CloudZero’s funding news.
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Increase awareness of CloudZero’s business benefits and technological differentiators.
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Position company as a leader of cloud cost intelligence.
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Build credibility through technology analyst influencers and other third-party validation.
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STRATEGY
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Defined positioning and messaging framework to create a compelling narrative.
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Used “exclusive first” to secure big media hit and to drive additional coverage.
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Conducted an aggressive pre-briefing schedule of analysts, influential media, industry observers/researchers to pre-seed field for successful announcement and buzz creation.
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RESULTS
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Over 300 pieces of coverage on funding round including features in TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Fortune, Boston Business Journal, SiliconAngle, WSJ Venture Capital and Axios Pro Rata.
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Business Outcome
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Thought Leadership in XDR | 620% increase in SOV in one year | Successful exit with acquisition by FireEye
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Goals
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Launch and establish Respond Software Analyst as the industry’s leading XDR engine built to accelerate investigations for security operations teams.
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Set the stage for a successful exit.
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Strategy
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We created strategic, high-impact messaging that communicated the company’s superiority in knowledge, experience, technology and solution breadth.
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We drove a focused program for Respond Software to increase awareness. This program ensured that we generated consistent, quality media coverage (550+ articles), rapid response to issues and media-driven thought leadership, and supported engagement via social media.
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We worked closely with leading industry analysts to define the XDR category positioning Respond as a leading innovator in the space.
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We managed submissions for top-tier awards programs, including SC Media Awards and Cyber Defense Magazine InfoSec Awards.
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Bested competitors Expel.io, Secureworks, Trust Wave, Artic Wolf and Sumo Logic with 620% increase in Share of Voice in 15 months, positioning Respond for successful exit.
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Results
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Respond Software was acquired by Fire Eye.
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620% increase in SOV over 15 months.
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550+ pieces of coverage in a variety of top tier publications including DarkReading, Threatpost, Forbes, INSIDER and more.
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Business Outcomes
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Boosted visibility and successful acquisition | 2200% SOV increase in 15 months
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Goal
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Canadian startup looking to expand into the U.S. market and find an acquirer
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Strategy
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We developed and executed a full-scale thought leadership program for Tugboat Logic.
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We developed a custom survey to generate quantitative data to offer exclusively to key media contacts.
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We successfully inserted Tugboat executives into trending news cycles as expert commentators on topics such as security and compliance best practices.
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We raised the visibility of the company and demonstrated market traction through partner engagement and customer momentum.
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Results
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2200% SOV increase in 15 months | Successful acquisition by OneTrust to help target the SMB market based on established value prop.
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Business Outcome
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Established new market category | Maintained leadership position for 7+ years | Consistent global top-tier business press coverage
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Goals
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Create a new category and gain visibility for the MiFi, the world’s first mobile hotspot
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Displace competitor as market leader in mobile connectivity space.
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Strategy
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We created the strategic messaging framework to pinpoint the product’s value proposition.
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We kicked off the campaign by pre-briefing leading industry analysts to test the message and secured analyst champions to act as references for the media.
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We gave the New York Times an exclusive to break the story and conducted an aggressive product review program that included launches with over 50 carriers worldwide over the next several years.
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Results
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Established the MiFi product category.
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Elevated Novatel Wireless into the #1 position for its entire product line and held that position for seven years.
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Secured massive amounts of top-tier coverage domestically and internationally that demonstrably accelerated retail sales.
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Coverage highlights included repeated endorsements in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, BBC, PC Magazine, Engadget and many, many more.
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Business Outcome
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Grew the community to over 3 million in 4 years | 29,000 articles | +50 awards
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Goals
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Conduct a PR program to grow the Cisco certified community from 600,000 to over 3 million in four years.
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Strategy
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We launched the world’s first social learning community – The Cisco Learning Network – that became an industry-wide portal where IT students and professionals around the globe learn, share knowledge and find job opportunities.
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We created a Cool Jobs in IT campaign to promote success stories across exciting markets such as fashion, travel and entertainment. This elevated awareness of the vast job opportunities in IT networking and the benefits of having a Cisco Certification.
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We won all the awards. By placing first in all learning awards, we established credibility and awareness for The Cisco Learning Network.
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Results
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Grew the Cisco certified community to over 3 million in 4 years.
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Helped Cisco to differentiate its brand, create loyal customers, mine for marketing insights and influence the market.
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We were so successful that Microsoft hired us to promote their own internal learning tool to their 90K sales and marketing staff.
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Business Outcomes
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Category leadership in managed mobility services | Top-tier business press coverage | Gartner MQ Leader
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Goals
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Build awareness for DMI’s mobility solutions with leaders in commercial markets.
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Strategy
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We leveraged our relationships with key media outlets and the company’s proven track record working with all U.S. federal government agencies to introduce the CEO to leading influencers in the press and analyst community.
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We booked and managed deskside interviews with press and analysts in Washington DC, New York and Boston to position the CEO as a thought leader in the mobility space.
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We orchestrated a pipeline of thought leadership articles to build credibility along with successful product launches and customer wins to showcase the company’s traction in the commercial markets.
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- Results
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Business Outcomes
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CEO elevated as an industry luminary | Consistent global top tier tech, trade and business press coverage
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Goals
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Re-establish brand recognition while positioning CEO as go-to resource for banking security.
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Strategy
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Set up media tour to show accessibility of a complex solution to financial and security media.
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Conducted thought leadership campaign to educate the market.
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Positioned the CEO as the go-to resource to targeted editors seeking to understand a complex landscape.
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Results
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Secured on-message and positive coverage in targeted top-tier media, including the Wall Street Journal, Inc., eWeek, Washington Times and ZDnet.
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CEO was elevated as an industry luminary, returned to for comment again and again by tech, trade, vertical and business press.
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Business Outcomes
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Successful IPO | Category leadership
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Goals
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Design and launch communication strategy to facilitate and support a successful IPO.
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Strategy
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We designed a series of pre-IPO campaigns to positively impact market perceptions about the company.
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We developed concise and consistent messaging that communicated the company’s value prop and aggressively started raising awareness.
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Six months before the IPO, we developed a high-level marketing white paper that defined the market, their products and position that was used throughout the pre-IPO process by analysts, investors and press. We also created several case studies that described customer wins.
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Just before the quiet period began, we briefed key press and analysts on substantial news to generate press coverage throughout the quiet period, and in conjunction with the IPO.
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Meetings with major analyst groups ensured that the company was fresh in the minds of the analysts when investors called for background information.
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Results
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Successful IPO with sustained positive press coverage on the company.
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Business Outcomes
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Successfully acquired in under two years | Category leadership in application performance monitoring
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Goals
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Launch and establish the company as a category leader.
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Strategy
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We developed strategic messaging highlighting Perspica’s technological differentiators in machine learning and the business benefits of its novel approach.
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We used the messaging foundation to develop a series of content pieces that raised visibility of the company and reinforced thought leadership, including press releases, contributed articles and trend-based media engagement.
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Results
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Cisco acquired Perspica to support and accelerate its AppDynamics vision in just under two years.
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BUSINESS OUTCOMES
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Successful IPO | Category leadership
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GOALS
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Drive awareness for Napatech as a leading supplier of the world’s most advanced intelligent network analysis adapters and software that enable guaranteed visibility of performance and operation in networks, applications and data services.
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Maintain visibility with key stakeholders following successful IPO
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STRATEGY
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We designed and deployed a series of pre-and-post-IPO campaigns to positively impact market perceptions about the company.
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Meetings with major analyst groups ensured that the company was fresh in the minds of the analysts when investors called for background information.
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We leveraged our relationships with key media outlets and the company’s proven track record to secure an ongoing cadence of positive media coverage.
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Orchestrated a pipeline of thought leadership articles to build credibility along with successful product launches and customer wins to showcase the company’s traction in the commercial markets.
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We amplified awareness of the company and its traction in the market through a targeted social media program
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RESULTS
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Sustained positive press coverage on the company before, during and after the IPO
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Successfully positioned the company as a leader in industry analysts reports
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Grew social media following from inception to nearly 4000 followers
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Maintained leading competitive share of voice consecutively year/year
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Business Outcome
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Successfully acquired in under one year | Thought Leadership in SIEM
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Goals
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Raise awareness of AccelOps and build credibility with partners, customers, media and industry analysts.
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Strategy
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We created messaging that communicated the company’s superiority in knowledge, experience, technology and solution breadth.
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We worked closely with strategic partners to create an atmosphere of support through press releases, marketing materials and media coverage.
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We demonstrated innovation through success stories and best practices.
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Results
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AccelOps was acquired by Fortinet in just over one year.
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Business Outcome
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Successfully acquired in under one year | Thought Leadership in PaaS
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Goals
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Establish Stackato by ActiveState as the leading commercial Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution for the enterprise.
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Raise awareness with strategic partners, customers, media and industry analysts.
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Strategy
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We created strategic, high-impact messaging that communicated the company’s superiority in knowledge, experience, technology and solution breadth.
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We worked closely with partners at HP, Microsoft and Cisco to create an atmosphere of support through press releases, marketing materials and media coverage.
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We demonstrated innovation through success stories and best practices.
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Results
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HP acquired ActiveState’s Stackato business to enhance its HP Helion Platform in less than six months.
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Business Outcome
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Successful exit with acquisition | Thought Leadership in software-defined storage
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Goals
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Find a strategic partner to take its innovative software-defined storage and virtual cloud solution to a global market via acquisition.
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Strategy
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Launch and drive a strategic partner program designed to connect M&A influencers at partner companies with Compuverde leaders to discuss GTM overlap and mutual business cases.
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We secured meetings with Pure Storage, NetApp, VMware, IBM, Cisco, Hitachi, Western Digital, Ericsson and others to present the Compuverde offering and illustrate how its technology would enhance their go-to-market and solution portfolio.
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We complemented the partner program with a full-scale media and analyst relations program designed to raise awareness of the technology’s differentiators.
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Results
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Pure Storage pushed past other prominent suitors to acquire Compuverde.
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Business Outcomes
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200K B2C and 4,000 B2B Net New Leads | 70% engagement rate | 20% Net New Lead Conversion Rate
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Goals
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Encourage new and existing B2B and B2C customers to re-skill and upskill with Cisco certifications.
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Strategy
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We developed strategic demand-gen campaigns to drive net-new leads through the buyer’s journey
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We created compelling marketing content designed to engage leads through awareness to purchase stages in the buyer’s journey.
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Results
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Yielded 70% engagement rate.
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Secured ~200K B2C and 4,000 B2B Net New Leads.
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Achieved 20% Net New Lead Conversion Rate (Engaged to Purchase).
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100+ pieces of content to drive prospects through awareness, considerations and purchase phases.
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Business Outcome
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Increased Visibility for Certn |215% increase in SOV in one year | Top-tier business press coverage
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Goals
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Secure top-tier business, technology and trade coverage on recent Certn funding.
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Raise visibility of Certn funding announcement with targeted audiences including investors, customers and partners.
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Strategy
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We created strategic high-impact messaging positioning the company as a leader in the space using the funding as a news hook to showcase their momentum and competitive differentiation.
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Used “exclusive first” to secure big media hit and to drive additional coverage.
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Orchestrated series of targeted thought leadership bylines coordinated timing for maximum impact.
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Results
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We generated wide exposure to business, technology and targeted vertical media.
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Secured coverage in targeted publications, including VentureBeat, Forbes, BetaKit, BusinessExaminer, Fortune and many more.
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Business Outcome
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Acquisition | Thought Leadership in MDR with over 700 articles in 6 months
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Goals
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Launch and establish Versive as a leading provider of AI and machine learning solutions for the cybersecurity market.
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Set the stage for a successful exit.
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Strategy
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We created strategic high-impact messaging that communicated the company’s superiority in knowledge, experience, technology and solution breadth.
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We drove a focused program to increase awareness of the company and its automated security engine. This program ensured that we generated consistent, quality media coverage (700+ articles), rapid response to issues and media-driven thought leadership, and supported engagement via social media.
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We developed and executed a full-scale media and analyst relations program to secure analyst champions for references and inclusion in reports that raised awareness of the company and its technological differentiators.
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We amplified visibility of key spokespeople including Mudge in thought leadership articles and rapid response commentary on industry issues and cybersecurity breaches.
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Results
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Versive was acquired by eSentire in 7 months.
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700+ pieces of coverage in Financial Times, CISO, AIThority, InformationAge and more.
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Business Outcome
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Market research lead campaign resulted in top-tier business press and broadcast media coverage | 1,000 pieces of coverage in one year
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Goal
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Raise visibility of PiiQ with targeted audiences including investors, customers and partners.
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Strategy
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We developed and executed a full-scale thought leadership program for PiiQ.
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We leveraged telemetry from the company’s social media analytics platform to generate quantitative data to offer exclusively to key media contacts.
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We successfully inserted PiiQ and its executives into trending news cycles as expert commentators on topics such as social media bots’ impact on stock trading, social media disinformation, and public sector and government vulnerabilities.
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Result
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Secured positive and on-message feature coverage for PiiQ in targeted publications including CNBC, INSIDER, Dark Reading, NASDAQ, Wall Street Journal, CSO and more.
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Business Outcome
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Wide exposure for the company’s launch | 700 pieces of coverage in 7 months | 800% SOV increase
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Goal
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Launch the company and raise visibility of Vaultree with targeted audiences including investors, customers and partners.
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Strategy
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We created strategic, high-impact messaging positioning the company as a leader in the space, using the funding as a news hook to generate positive visibility.
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Used “exclusive first” to secure a big media hit and to drive additional coverage.
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Orchestrated a series of targeted thought leadership bylines with leading influencers on its Board of Advisors; coordinated timing for maximum impact to build momentum.
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Results
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We generated wide exposure for the company’s launch in targeted business, technology and vertical media.
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We secured positive and on-message feature coverage for the funding news and launch domestically and internationally in targeted publications including the VentureBeat, The Irish Times, Dark Reading, Security Week, Silicon Republic, Pitchbook and others.
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Business Outcomes
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Wide exposure for the company’s launch | 335 pieces of coverage on company launch
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Goals
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Launch the company and raise visibility of Theom with targeted audiences including customers, media, analysts, investors and partners.
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Secure top-tier business, technology and trade coverage on funding news.
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Strategy
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We created strategic, high-impact messaging with differentiation from other cloud security providers and promoted the benefits of Theom’s “data bodyguard” approach.
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Used “exclusive first” to secure a big media hit and to drive additional coverage.
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Orchestrated a series of targeted thought leadership bylines with leading influencers on its Board of Advisors and coordinated timing for maximum impact.
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Results
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We generated wide exposure for the company’s launch in targeted business, technology and vertical media.
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We secured positive and on-message feature coverage for the funding news and launch in Fortune, VentureBeat, Dark Reading, Security Week, Silicon Valley Business Journal, PitchBook, MSSP Alert and more.
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Business Outcomes
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Boosted visibility | Recognized as leader of world-class learning solutions
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Goals
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Demonstrate Microsoft as a leader for sales, marketing and services readiness in the technology industry
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Establish industry thought-leadership position
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Strategy
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We created strategic, high-impact messaging that clearly articulated the value proposition.
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We booked and managed an analyst roadshow to educate the influencers, including 15 analyst groups such as Forrester, Gartner, IDC, Aberdeen and Brandon Hall Research.
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We established team members as thought leaders asked to speak, contribute articles and be included in discussions regarding corporate learning and readiness.
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We curated and managed submissions for top-tier awards programs.
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Results
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Increased awareness of Microsoft’s strategy and vision with analyst influencers and secured positive media coverage.
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Positioned the CLO as an industry luminary with keynote addresses.
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Secured industry accolades with top-tier awards.
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Got recognized as leader of world-class learning solutions and influence the market.
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Resources
