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| Engage PR Newsletter, Volume VI, Issue 2 May 28, 2008 | ||
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Engage PR Named a "Best Place to Work" for Fourth TimeEngage PR was named a "Best Place to Work in the Bay Area" in the category of firms with 25-50 employees for the fourth time in the past five years. The San Francisco Business Times, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, and Grant Thornton, LLP, presented the award; principal Molly Miller accepted it at a ceremony at the Hilton San Francisco on April 29. EPR was the only high-tech public relations company among the 150 companies recognized at the awards ceremony. These awards are given based on anonymous surveys of employees, who answer a questionnaire about what it's like to work for their employer that covers areas such as culture, benefits, and management. Judging from what we've heard at previous awards ceremonies, employees' answers can be very frank indeed! The people who work at Engage PR are the ones who really judge us for the award, and they're the ones who make EPR a winner.  Introducing Suzanne PanoplosEngage PR takes great pleasure in announcing that Suzanne Panoplos, a long-time colleague and business associate of the agency, has joined us as an account supervisor. Suzanne worked at two former EPR clients; she was director of corporate marketing at CoSine Communications and marcom manager at Ascend Communications. Most recently, Suzanne was director of marketing for Visto Corporation, bringing to EPR both wireless and international experience. Her clients at EPR will benefit from her 15 years of experience in developing high-tech marketing communications and product marketing programs. Suzanne has a strong grasp of engineering and technology concepts, with a particularly detailed understanding of networking, wireless, security, and telecommunications technologies, services, and markets. She is also adept at translating concepts into marketing ideas and messages that resonate with target audiences. With her skills, knowledge, and experience, Suzanne is a strong addition to the Engage PR team. 
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Ways to Successfully Integrate New Media into PR
What are we doing? We're including key words and phrases in press releases and using search engine optimization (SEO) to help ensure that releases rank high in Google searches. To better explain how a technology or feature works, we embed charts and diagrams in releases. We hot-link product names, technology names, company names, and other words to clients' web sites. A release announcing a user conference, for example, might include links to the conference agenda and registration site. At the end of releases we provide links to white papers, data sheets, and more. Over the past several months clients have also begun to integrate video and YouTube into their PR campaigns. About 55.7 million people visit YouTube monthly and view 2.5 billion videos-reason enough to take advantage of this vehicle. Short, believable video clips made with home video cameras work very well. The launch release of EPR client 180Squared on April 7 included a link to a video clip of Amir Littman, vice president of business development, giving the "top 4 reasons for the 180Squared Framework." By the end of April the video had been viewed nearly 240 times, an excellent response considering that 50 percent of YouTube videos are viewed fewer than 100 times. ConSentry posted two customer case studies to YouTube (ConSentry - Fayetteville State University Case Study) (ConSentry - Technicolor Case Study). As of the last week in May, these case studies have been viewed collectively more than 250 times. We even help clients create YouTube Channel accounts for hosting their own videos plus video content of customers, speaking engagements, product demos, and more. The March 24 release announcing Xangati's new Virtual Task Manager included a link to a video demonstration of the product on its own web site that has had more than 200 hits to date. Reporters who viewed the clip said it helped them better understand the value of the product, which made it easier to secure quality coverage for the news. When InfoWorld named Xangati one of the "Top 10 Technology Startups to Watch" on May 19, the publication included a link to the product demonstration on its front page. As a follow-up, Xangati put a customer case study video on YouTube at the end of April (Harris Miller Discusses the Xangati RPI System). Upcoming issues of InsidEPR will explore various aspects of new media in more depth and provide case studies about the successful use of new-media tools.  ArcSight Audit Puts Industry Analyst Relations Front and CenterArcSight (Nasdaq: ARST) delivers compliance and security management solutions that protect enterprises and government agencies. ArcSight's executives wanted to know how the industry analysts viewed the company. While Engage PR and ArcSight regularly talk with industry analysts about product and company news, ArcSight was interested in understanding how they compare the company and its products to the competition. Engage PR recommended a blind audit to determine if key analysts understood ArcSight's key messages and value propositions and to get feedback on how ArcSight could continue to build relationships with the industry analyst community. EPR worked with ArcSight to develop the audit process, a list of target analysts, questions, and goals, and ultimately interviewed 13 analysts. Feedback was positive; industry analysts view ArcSight as a market leader in security information management (SIM) with a complete product set and broad functionality. ArcSight gained valuable insight into how industry analysts view the competition. While industry analysts were satisfied with their interactions with ArcSight, the company plans to keep them up to speed with regular news updates. The audit ultimately reinforced what ArcSight already believed about what industry analysts thought of the company. However, the audit also provided deeper insight into how industry analysts evaluate the company and its position in the market, and how ArcSight can better meet their information needs-insight that the company will use to develop even stronger ties to the industry analyst community. ConSentry Networks: Intelligent Switching LaunchWhen Engage PR started working with ConSentry Networks in mid-2006, the media and analysts knew it as a network access control (NAC) vendor. In January 2008, the company transitioned away from NAC with the launch of its LANShield™ Intelligent Switching architecture. Since ConSentry was entering a competitive market-Cisco had announced its TrustSec product in December and Juniper planned a product launch in late January-EPR recommended timing the launch to "spoil the Juniper party." EPR quoted customers, partners, and Gartner analyst Mark Fabbi in the launch release. Fabbi confirmed that the Juniper, Cisco, and ConSentry announcements would further consolidate the intelligent switching market. A simultaneous release announced that Adaptec, Inc., was deploying the ConSentry LANShield Switch as part of a total network upgrade. This release helped highlight that Cisco, the largest player in the market, could not deliver the intelligent-switching capabilities that ConSentry provided. EPR's goal was to position ConSentry as a viable competitor in the switch market by establishing "intelligent switching" as a key industry term and placing ConSentry in stories alongside Cisco and Juniper. EPR scheduled 21 briefings with tier-one reporters and analysts prior to Juniper's announcement to discuss ConSentry's technology, the effects of Cisco's and Juniper's entry into the LAN networking market, and how ConSentry would compete. The strategy was a success. ConSentry appeared in more than 11 articles; ten mentioned ConSentry as a contender with Cisco and Juniper. "Engage PR is a valuable marketing partner for ConSentry; these results highlight the agency's strategic differentiators and high-level understanding of our business and market," said Michelle McLean, senior director of product marketing, ConSentry Networks. "It's always a challenge competing for mindshare in a new market against established players. Engage PR developed a plan that put ConSentry's name side-by-side with well-known competitors, providing us with a strong entrance into the market." Engage PR Launches 180SquaredOn April 7, Engage PR helped launch 180Squared and its 180Squared Framework™, a robust encapsulation interface into Microsoft$reg; Mediaroom™ middleware for existing Billing/Operational Support System (B/OSS) applications and emerging third-party software. Developed by former Mediaroom architects with extensive IPTV expertise, the 180Squared Framework maximizes the profitability of IPTV services for broadband providers. The company's products and integration services simplify deployment, reduce delivery and support costs, and maximize revenue potential. Engage PR integrated PR 2.0 new-media approaches with traditional PR tactics to ensure a successful launch. New-media tactics included a link to a YouTube clip about the top four reasons for the 180Squared Framework and SEO in the launch release. The agency also leveraged its press and analyst relationships to schedule over a dozen meetings. All the tactics paid off; Telephony Online, Internet Telephony, SearchTelecom, and seven other publications covered the launch. FierceIPTV featured the company's debut on April 8. On the day of the launch, the company's web site received more hits than it had the entire previous month. The YouTube clip was viewed more than 100 times that day and 280 times as of May 21; even a few potential strategic partners and customers had seen the clip.
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New media and social networking are radically changing the PR landscape. All clients will need to adapt to this change, but they will not need to completely re-tool their PR programs to benefit from it. In 2007, Engage PR began integrating different forms of new-media tools into our clients' existing PR programs. More than half of our clients are now using at least one form of new media.