Case Studies

WebEx, a Cisco Systems, Inc. company, delivers on-demand applications for collaborative business on the web. Helping customers meet ambitious goals for marketing, sales, training, and support, WebEx provides solutions for organizations of all sizes. The company engaged with several Oriella partners to drive a consistent message around the world.

More than Web Conferencing

Founded in 1996, WebEx quickly established itself as the leader in web conferencing solutions. But since then, the company had expanded its solutions beyond web conferencing to include customized on-demand applications. Oriella partners were tasked with raising awareness for WebEx with an emphasis on its full suite of products and establishing the company’s leadership in the on-demand marketplace while maintaining a consistent global message.

Strategy & Tactics


The messages and themes were the same, but localized delivery unique. Each region is different, so tactics that work in the US may miss in Germany. Taking direction from WebEx Corporate, the Oriella PR Network adapted initiatives to meet the needs of the market while keeping a consistent theme.

Major initiatives


  • Owning "on-demand": a thought-leadership campaign promoting WebEx heritage, expertise and vision in the SaaS space
  • Clean the air, one meeting at a time: a "green" campaign persuading business professionals that meeting online is a more efficient way to meet and helps reduce environmental pollution
  • Future of the workforce: a flexible working campaign promoting online meetings as a an effective way of supporting remote working and enabling busy professionals to collaborate where ever they are based and to be more productive.

With monthly calls across the all agencies, the global network stays informed of what others are doing, brainstorming on ideas and swapping best practices. In addition, it gives WebEx Corporate consistent reporting across the globe and a one stop shop for getting answers.

Results


Following the "owning on-demand" campaign, WebEx has become widely recognized as one of top three on demand providers:

For the "green campaign", we have supported this corporate initiative with creative campaigns including plant a tree promotion, media roundtables and the WebEx Carbon Calculator

The successful "Future of the Workforce" campaign results in top tier media results spanning the globe:

"The value of the Oriella PR Network is in its tight integration of PR processes and workflow. It’s harder than it seems to find a network of like-minded agencies with the same vision and approach to helping clients effectively develop, coordinate and execute global communications programs. Oriella was built on more than a handshake."

Rick Faulk
Former Chief Marketing Officer at WebEx


Oriella Partners

Oriella PR Network partners have been involved with Kalido for over ten years providing support across all aspects of the marketing and communications mix ranging from name selection and corporate messaging to global product launches and media relations.

Kalido is an innovative enterprise software company that provides active information management solutions for Global 2000 companies. Ten years ago it was a division within Shell Oil and today is a global company head-quartered in the U.S. with a blue-chip customer list that includes BP, Fannie Mae, Labatt, Owens Corning and Unilever.

The company’s biggest challenge communicating the remarkable nature of its product, which customers say is simply ‘too good to be true’. Kalido’s software enables organizations to react to business change more quickly than they ever have before so that they can make more accurate business decisions.

Since 2002 Brands2Life and Horn Group’s Boston office have been working together as one global PR team to help bring this message to life, transitioning the company from a UK-based start up to a viable enterprise software player among industry giants such as IBM, Oracle and SAP. Oriella partner Lammers Van Toorenberg also worked with Kalido to launch the company in the Netherlands.

Strategy & Tactics


The Kalido PR strategy works at three levels:
  • Promote the company as an innovative emerging technology player to the venture capital and investor communities
  • Raise awareness of the company’s solutions amongst C-suite decision-makers in selected functions and verticals through issues-related campaigns
  • Position Kalido as a thought leader in the crowded data management market highlighting emerging technologies such as master data management

Results


Kalido has consistently punched above its weight in the enterprise software market beating out competitors for deals with global 2000 organizations and crowding their editorial real estate. Rarely is there a feature on information management that does not include coverage of Kalido; and any article on master data management cites Kalido as a market leader in this fast-growing space. The company is regularly positioned as a thought leader in data management publications and even business outlets including The Financial Times. In addition, Kalido customers are consistently recognized by industry analysts and market awards alike, for their unique Kalido-based information management initiatives that drive unprecedented business impact.

Every year for the last three years Brands2Life and Horn Group have delivered over 200 pro-active quality articles on Kalido, its customers, its products and the business problem the company solves.

Twice in the last four years Kalido has been awarded a Magellan LACP Award for Campaign Excellence for its creative work with one or more Oriella partners.

"Oriella is a great resource for an innovative company like Kalido. The agencies bring a great deal of knowledge and experience to bear, and this alliance will allow us to leverage their resources as we grow and extend our geographic reach. It’s a great idea and in my opinion, the way strategic marketers will work in the future."

Bill Hewitt,
President and CEO Kalido


Oriella Partners

Micro Focus, a FTSE 250 listed company, provides innovative software that allows companies to improve the business value of their enterprise applications.

In 2002, Brands2Life was tasked with these original communications goals:

  • Re-launch Micro Focus with an emphasis on highlighting the benefits of unlocking the value held within legacy systems and reposition COBOL in the Java, .Net & Web services spaces
  • Educate on the status of COBOL as a future-proof technology
  • Generate regular coverage across the trade, business, national and vertical press
  • Reach C-level decision-makers as well as the core IT audience - support direct and indirect sales
  • Ongoing support for public relations framework

Since then, the objectives have evolved to include these objectives in 2007:

  • Highlight the benefits organizations can realize by modernizing their existing systems, rather than looking to ‘rip and replace’ them
  • Raise the profile of Micro Focus as a successful company on the FTSE 250, after it became the first software company to float on the Stock Exchange in April 2005, since the dotcom bubble burst
  • Support ongoing events and acquisition news
  • Educate the market on the needs for COBOL skills in enterprises before existing engineers reach retirement and for IT graduates to have business acumen

Strategy & Tactics


Our strategy has been to drive the debate on the relevance of COBOL in today’s global economy and to present Micro Focus as a software market leader and as an authority on IT infrastructure.

Specific tactics have been deployed to achieve this:

  • International campaign management on INSEAD project to encourage global businesses to acknowledge the value of their core IT systems
  • Briefing campaign with ‘inner circle’ of tier one media
  • Core ‘Drumbeat’ media relations campaign with ‘win everything’ approach to IT trade features and reviews
  • Thought leadership campaign (opinion pieces, rapid response)
  • Product launch news generation
  • Roundtable debates
  • Research projects
  • International conferences
  • Customer case studies

Results


Since September 2002, the Oriella team has generated more than 650 pieces of coverage for Micro Focus, including 150 pieces in 2007 alone and 20 pieces of national coverage. The CIOs Dilemma campaign generated almost 45 individual placements.

In the German market, PR-Com landed high-profile placements like:

"PR-COM is by far the best PR agency we've ever had."

Bernhard Gölitz,
Country Manager DACH


Oriella Partners