StackSafe: Keeping IT and Momentum Up

SpeakerBox client, StackSafe, was recently named a finalist in the Best Marketing Campaign category in The 2008 American Business Awards (popularly know as the Stevie Awards). Understandably, we’re proud of our client and proud of the role we played in the launch of their flagship product Test Center. But on a less selfish front we’re excited to see that a program combining traditional media relations tactics with strong new media tactics not only works for business but is recognized by the marketing community.

StackSafe Test Center is a testing solution that leverages virtualization to reduce downtime and business disruption for IT operations teams. The planning and tactics of the campaign began nine months prior to the product launch. Realizing the need to begin a discussion about the market problem that Test Center solves, StackSafe commissioned a third party research firm, Research Edge, to conduct a survey of 400 IT operations professionals that quantified the problem of downtime and identified potential causes and impacts. At the same time, StackSafe began an aggressive analyst relations campaign to provide key market analysts early insights to these research findings and begin a dialogue about how Test Center would address the problem.

Next, the StackSafe marketing team partnered with SpeakerBox and Livingston Communications to increase awareness surrounding the problems uncovered in the research. StackSafe released three problem-focused research reports between September 2007 and January 2008. SpeakerBox began using the research findings to begin outreach to the IT media and related bloggers. The Livingston team focused on getting StackSafe’s corporate blog, IT’s About Uptime, up and running as a destination for data and analysis on the impact of downtime. Livingston also began reaching out to other IT bloggers to begin gaining some grassroots name recognition for StackSafe.

As part of a two pronged launch event campaign, StackSafe unveiled their technology in January at DEMO 2008 - a show heavily attended by venture capitalists and influencers covering cutting edge IT solutions. One month later, StackSafe rolled out the technology to a more tactically-oriented group at the Pink Elephant IT Service Management Conference. To support each event, StackSafe launched multi-media “knowledge centers” on their Web site that address key topics and contain webinars with industry experts, StackSafe white papers, research reports, blog posts, and Twitter posts as well as links to other articles using del.icio.us links.

At DEMO, StackSafe combined traditional media relations tactics (embargoed pre-briefs) and real-time outreach to bloggers and on-site media. StackSafe's marketing staff also blogged and sent Twitter posts live from the show. These efforts garnered articles in 19 publications including NetworkWorld and InformationWeek and coverage from well respected bloggers at Read Write Web, eWeek, ZDNet, TheDeal.com and Somewhat Frank. The launch momentum continued during the Pink Elephant conference, where StackSafe provided blogs and video interviews from the show which were posted on blipTV and YouTube. At the Pink Elephant Show, StackSafe Test Center was named the 2008 ITIL Innovation of the Year, just three weeks after product launch. During January and February, StackSafe also gained positive coverage from four key market analyst firms, including Gartner and Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).

The recognition of StackSafe’s success shows that this world of social media is not a zero sum game. Traditional tactics still work and in fact are bolstered by new media tactics. The success of StackSafe’s program shows that despite the buzz around social media, the power of traditional media has not been overtaken by the blogosphere and in fact when used in concert can create an incredibly powerful program. Congrats to StackSafe and Livingston for this recognition – we’re looking forward to continuing our work together and seeing even greater success!

-Piper Conrad