Winner: Shift Communications – Appirio's $60 Million PR Campaign
To generate robust coverage and awareness of Appirio’s series D funding round of $60 million, SHIFT took the David vs. Goliath approach, positioning the cloud services provider as an upstart compared to big systems integrators like Accenture and Deloitte.
The biggest challenge for SHIFT was getting interest in the story beyond the typical venture capital publications and reporters, says Cathy Summers, VP at SHIFT. “We needed to find more compelling angles to our announcement,” she says.
To that end, SHIFT provided “exclusives” for each of the 16 planned pre- briefings to the media. To keep the momentum going post-announcement, the agency reached out to reporters with the question:“What does $60 million look like?”This pitch helped secure interviews with Fast Company, Entrepreneur and The New York Times’ Corner Office feature. —SVC
Honorable Mentions:
CA Technologies – Enhanced Capital Allocation Program: To raise the company’s reputation as a valued stock, CA targeted shareholders, employees, Wall Street and industry analysts with strong media outreach. Articles in The Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily helped cause the stock to jump from $22.44 to $26.22 in a week.
CCG Investor Relations Strategic Communications – Clear Media Ltd. and CCG Investor Relations: We Can See Clearly Now – A Fast Growing Outdoor Advertising Company Builds a Strong Wall Street Following: CCG introduced Clear Media’s story to more than 300 new investors, capped by its first global annual results conference call and a seven-day road show. The work paid off, as Clear Media’s share price increased over 60% in a three-month period.
IndoPacific Edelman – ABM Investama IPO Communication Program: Amid global market uncertainty, selling ABM as an integrated energy company instead of a strategic investment company helped generate high levels of interest leading up to the company’s IPO in Dec. 2011, and a 9.3% increase in stock price on IPO day itself.
S2Publicom – Arcos Dorados IPO: For its planned IPO on the New York Stock Exchange on April 14, 2011, a strong media relations push highlighted Arcos Dorados—the master franchisee of McDonald’s in Latin America—as one of fastest growing companies in the region. The work set the table for $1.25 billion raised in its initial share sale, 33% more than it had sought.
Strategic Public Relations Group – Melco Crown Entertainment Hong Kong Primary Dual Listing: Leading up to the gaming company’s listings on the Nasdaq and Hong Kong Limited exchanges, SPRG held a listing-day press conference that garnered interviews for company leaders with Bloomberg and Reuters TV.