MEDIA RELATIONS

The Problem

When Polaris Solutions relaunched to become Akibia Inc, and the brand awareness which they had established all but disappeared overnight. The company became an effective newcomer in the highly competitive UK CRM marketplace.

Until this point, the company had directed their entire global marketing and PR operation from the US and had achieved no editorial coverage in the UK. All this was happening at a time when they needed to build recognition in order to secure a place on the supplier short lists of major UK corporates.

The Approach

Couchman began by identifying a USP for Akibia. At the time they were one of over a hundred Siebel Partners, but Akibia was the only partner working exclusively with Siebel software. The company's combined level of Siebel expertise, therefore, was unparalleled.

Couchman used this to promote Akibia as the UK's leading Siebel specialists, building on personal relationships with individual key journalists to establish media profile. Effective use was made of one of Akibia's major PR assets, their charismatic and outspoken young President, Adam Honig.

Outcome

Akibia achieved high profile coverage in a number of key vertical publications including IT Week, The Banker and the FT's Financial Adviser. Akibia was positioned as the industry specialists in Siebel CRM.

This coverage resulted in a number of direct enquiries and the material was also used for direct mail and as a corporate leave piece. Rather than having to pursue the press, journalists began to pursue Akibia - surely the best measure of any media relations campaign's success.