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| Engage PR Newsletter, Volume V, Issue
2 September 5, 2007 |
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UMA Launches Nationwide in the U.S.Engage PR congratulates Kineto Wireless on the first major Universal Mobile Access (UMA) service deployment in the United States. On June 27, T-Mobile USA launched its new "HotSpot @Home" service nationwide. The new service allows T-Mobile's cellular customers-using specially designed UMA-enabled dual-mode phones-to transfer seamlessly between Wi-Fi and cellular networks, improving coverage where users need it most, in the home and the office. Kineto Wireless is the pioneer of the UMA technology HotSpot
@Home is based upon, and the company has been a vocal proponent and
leader in UMA-based fixed-mobile convergence
strategies. In addition, Kineto's UMA client software is included in dual-mode phones from major manufacturers, including Samsung, BenQ, HP, and others. Samsung's t409 is being used in the HotSpot @Home deployment. For more information about UMA, visit www.UMAToday.com.  PostPath-Commissioned Analyst Survey Sheds Light on Issues in Email MigrationThe PostPath Email and Collaboration Server is the industry's first drop-in compatible alternative to Microsoft Exchange. In June 2007, Engage PR and PostPath enlisted the help and expertise of Osterman Research to conduct a survey of messaging decision-makers in organizations that were thinking of or planning to migrate to Exchange 2007 to determine their key issues. The survey revealed respondents were most concerned with the challenge of the Exchange migration, e-discovery and compliance issues, email and mobile devices, and email storage. This survey provided PostPath with hard data that served to highlight the struggles and concerns facing decision makers in its target market and also confirmed the desire of enterprise customers for an Exchange alternative Engage PR leveraged the survey findings, and the media buzz surrounding Exchange 2007, to schedule briefings with reporters that led to six comprehensive articles covering the survey findings from publications such as Network World, Internet Telephony, and InfoWorld. Most important, each article articulated PostPath's key messages and helped raise market awareness about the availability and benefits of an Exchange alternative.  |
Yipes Acquisition Makes Headlines Worldwide
In July, India-based Reliance Communications announced its agreement to acquire Engage PR client Yipes Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of managed Ethernet services, for $300 million. The company called on the EPR team to provide strategic advice and manage an extensive media outreach plan to promote the announcement of the largest acquisition in Reliance's history. The EPR team advised client executives through the press-release process as Reliance, Yipes, and Norwest Venture Partners, a primary investor in the company, all worked to finalize the announcement. Because the announcement was issued on U.S. wire services in the middle of the night, the EPR team was on the phones as the sun rose on the West Coast. In less than four hours, Engage PR had scheduled and hosted telephone briefings with Yipes executives and reporters from The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Dow Jones, Network World, Telephony, and Light Reading. The acquisition has now been covered in more than 180 news articles around the world. By working with Yipes to articulate the story and spread the message to key reporters and industry analysts, Engage PR helped the company achieve the highest level of media exposure it has seen to date. Yipes will continue to operate as an independent company during and after the close of the deal, and Engage PR will provide continued support as a valued partner to the new publicly held company.  Establishing Riverbed as a Market LeaderWhen Engage PR started working with Riverbed Technology in July 2006, the company was busy gearing up for its initial public offering (IPO) in the fall and looking for PR support to increase its visibility as the market leader for wide-area data services (WDS) solutions. Although Riverbed was well-known among industry trade publications, the EPR team was tasked with introducing the company to key reporters and increasing its overall visibility with the business press. In January 2007, Engage PR began promoting Riverbed to key business press reporters. The goal of the program was to educate the media on the value of Riverbed's solution as a strategic investment for corporations looking to improve global business continuity and network collaboration over the wide area network (WAN). With ongoing, proactive outreach, Engage PR helped Riverbed establish solid relationships among the business press and garner results that exceeded team targets. Following are key program highlights:
By increasing business-press exposure of top executives and successfully promoting Riverbed's technical and thought leadership, the PR campaign helped grow the company's mindshare and further differentiate it against competitors such as Cisco and Juniper.
Engage PR Helps Create Awareness for Xangati and Its New Product CategoryTypically, end users alert IT to application and network performance problems-not the other way around-forcing IT personnel into reactive mode and preventing them from focusing on proactive, strategic issues. Xangati's Rapid Problem Identification (RPI) technology corrects this unproductive model by giving IT the actionable information it needs to uncover core problems before they can adversely affect the productivity of end-users. Xangati sought out the services of Engage PR because of its repeated success in helping define and promote new product categories. The early education process is of paramount importance in such market-defining campaigns, so the joint work began in February 2007, well before the product introduction. The team's initial efforts began with key message testing with press and analysts to ensure that the RPI problem statement was easy to understand and could be clearly represented to Xangati's core customer-base-network operations. Those foundational efforts were instrumental to a successful June 2007 company and product launch. The company's first tour orchestrated by EPR included more than 20 key press and analysts, which exceeded initial goals. Coincident with the launch, EPR also worked with Xangati to place contributed articles, trend pieces, and response opportunities in top trade publications to promote educational awareness. The company launch was a great success, resulting in eight articles that positioned Xangati as the thought leader in the RPI space; analysts also strongly endorsed the solution. Perhaps the greatest testament to the success of the launch, however, was the significant number of new prospects requesting meetings as a result of the positive press coverage. Alan Robin, Xangati CEO said, "That's real proof of the bottom-line value of PR."
An Afternoon at the GardensEngage PR's recent community service project with Piedmont Gardens retirement community provided a wonderful chance for employees to meet with some local, lively seniors. The team spent the afternoon with residents talking about their families, travels, and life in the Bay Area. We coordinated games and activities, and had a designated area for residents to meet EPR members' dogs. The time flew by and we made some great friends. In PR, we are communicators, so it was natural to spend time visiting with those who had so much to say. This profession teaches each of us that some of the best experiences are had when we take the time to listen to people's stories and learn how their successes, heartaches, and triumphs contribute to the world in which we live.
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