From Start Up Through IPO: Public Relations Campaign Helps Define Category

At the height of the dot-com era, a small software company in San Mateo, California needed to jump start sales of their newly developed e-commerce system. Online shopping was gaining momentum and retail establishments were in need of reliable Web-based applications to help them better manage customer data and increase revenue. Recognizing that public relations would offer the best value for their marketing dollars, this company turned to The Devon Group to help advance them from a small start up all the way up, through and beyond their initial public offering.

In the beginning there were only five people running the business, so the idea of having in-house PR support was unthinkable.  However, an internal consensus agreed that public relations would create the broadest exposure, enable tighter control of the company message and give the best return on their marketing dollar.  While the team agreed on hiring external public relations counsel, limited in-house resources demanded an agency that could hit-the-ground running with little-to-no internal support. The company’s Vice President of Marketing had previously worked with The Devon Group and knew the breadth of experience the agency could offer.  Confident in their ability to work independently – despite a distance of 3,000 miles – he selected The Devon Group to provide much-needed support for the company’s media and analyst outreach efforts. Upon learning that the software company’s CEO was a former NASA scientist and expert on Artificial Intelligence, the Agency designed a program that would capitalize on his unique leadership background.  Since the company was at the forefront of defining a new category - e-commerce - there were few customers to promote.  Without the luxury of a strong customer base, instead the agency’s outreach plan started with promotion of eclectic background of the serial entrepreneur CEO to foster the image of a large organization that could support the Web needs of the world’s largest retailers. Going from there, The Devon Group gained the support of industry analysts in order to help attract economic buyers. As media attention and industry interest began to mount, the agency followed up with a strategic media operation. Innovative media campaigns centered on promoting the company’s intellectual capital created an aura of a mystery surrounding the CEO, which energized the media and made meetings with the CEO quite coveted.  High-end media such as Fortune and Forbes sought interviews with the seemingly inaccessible CEO, which served to maximize exposure to C-level decision makers. In addition to an aggressive media campaign, The Devon Group executed on-site events debuting the client’s first user group conference at the W Hotel in San Francisco. Recognizing that an exciting, trendy location could deliver higher appeal for the user group session was a key element contributing to the event’s success.  The agency also facilitated video testimonials of attending customers to be re-purposed for corporate uses such as online streaming video, trade show loop presentations or internal training programs.   With a strong focus on the vertical retail market, program support also included trade show and press activities around well-known annual conferences such as New York’s National Retail Federation (NRF) Trade Show.  To maximize the company’s marketing investment, The Devon Group organized press dinners hosted by the company where at each event, members of the media and analysts were given “face time” with company executives, such as the press-elusive CEO, creating excitement around the event and increasing overall attendance to such a function. Specializing in demand generation PR has been a hallmark of The Devon Group since its inception and, within a short period, the company had generated enormous ‘buzz’ and signed numerous contracts with their growing customer base.  By the end of the first program year, the company had customers willing to talk and share their success with the press.  The Devon Group created a library of company case studies to support media outreach, which resulted in noteworthy media placements, including a cover story in Information Week featuring one of the company’s first clients. The relationship between Devon and this client was extremely productive for all parties.  Said the Vice President of Marketing, “I have hired Devon for two of my companies.  They have done a superlative job on both occasions.  Devon led our public relations efforts starting just after our incorporation through our initial public offering.  They helped us build a level of awareness, and a recognition well beyond our IPO revenue of $120 million.”