Company: Verivo Software, Waltham, MA
Company Description: A leading provider of enterprise mobility software, Verivo Software helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to centrally build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps – rapidly, securely and across multiple devices. Hundreds of companies in numerous industries around the world rely on Verivo’s platform to drive their mobility initiatives.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Events & Observances

Nomination Title: The Launch of Verivo Software

Tell the story about this nominated campaign since January 1 2012 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

The decade-old Pyxis Mobile built mobile apps for financial services customers. Two years ago the business was transformed into a software platform company and a name change was planned for January 2012 to reflect the new venture.

Challenges:
1. Launching a new software company with a very small budget and limited resources and making the company relevant in the industry.
2. Cutting through the noise as every company was talking about mobile offerings.
3. Possible negative media coverage given the name change to Verivo Software.

Unsure of how business and technology reporters would react as we were reaching them for the first time – but taking advantage of Pyxis Mobile’s zero awareness in the software market.

The campaign:

1. Develop the corporate brand and position Verivo Software against IBM and SAP vs. smaller players.
2. Develop a brand new website to mirror the brand and new messaging. To support our social media strategy and showcase thought leadership created the MobilityWatch blog.
3. Develop a credible human interest/business story around the CEO for media and analyst pitches: it focused on how Steve Levy transformed the business into a successful platform company and 2011 growth results.
4. Launch strategy: pre- brief a select group of analyst and media under NDA and have them publish the stories in conjunction with the launch webinar and press announcement.
5. Post- launch activities included a CEO tour in Europe and contributed articles program.

Execution was flawless. The results were phenomenal. Highlights include:

The launch generated dozens of coverage including Forbes, MergerMarket, DowJones,TechCrunch, Infoworld and The Boston Globe (coverage: 113% over goal; impression: 800% over goal); 1,500+ messages/articles were shared via social networks and Tweeter generated 4M in impression (vs. under 10 social-shares/announcement as Pyxis).

Verivo was named a visionary in Gartner’s 2012 Magic Quadrant and several analysts wrote stand-alone articles on the company. Due to increased awareness, year-to-year web traffic increased >350 percent. Sixty-eight percent of registrants attended the launch webinar – each metric is a milestone for the decade old company. The post-launch activities were also well executed, propelling Verivo to a leadership position and considered one of four major players in the enterprise mobile market.

Verivo's brand awareness increased by 90% -- pretty much obliterating the Pyxis Mobile brand within a year. According to the brand survey, Verivo is seen as a cool, innovative company and ranked significantly higher than global competitors like IBM and SAP, reinforcing market acceptance of Verivo's brand attributes. Conducted 100+ briefings with U.S. and U.K. technology and business journalists, generating 90+ standalone articles that were either positive or neutral (no negative articles) and placed 50+ executive byline articles – garnering significantly more coverage than its closest competitor.

With increased awareness, website traffic increased 40% quarter-over-quarter in 2012 and web leads increased by 155%. The website is doing better than industry best practices as people stay 2-4 times longer than other B2B sites.

CEO Steve Levy won the prestigious IT Executive of the Year Stevie Award and Verivo won the Fastest Growing Company of the Year Stevie Award.
Despite the market shifts, Verivo’s recurring revenue increased >35 percent over 2011 and customer-base grew .

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above. (Do NOT list your URLs below.)

Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that carried out this campaign:

Parna Sarkar-Basu is a results-driven communications strategist and specializes in corporate positioning, messaging and brand development. She has led integrated communications initiatives in various companies including iRobot, IBM/Brodeur and PTC. While at iRobot, Parna was instrumental in developing the $95M company’s IPO communications strategy that generated more than 200 positive stories in financial, broadcast and technology media, worldwide. NASDAQ called the campaign “one of the most impressive IPO-day PR campaigns we've seen”. Street Online wrote, “iRobot…has pulled off one of the most successful and celebrated IPOs of the year”. In addition to ghostwriting, Parna has also written for various media, including Mobile Enterprise Magazine and VentureFizz. In her spare time, Parna helps local businesses and non-profit organizations  with their marketing plans and fundraisers.

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