PURPOSE DRIVES BUSINESS SUCCESS

Digital Barriers, a leading provider of software solutions for the military and security sectors, tasked Say with raising the profile of its facial recognition offering for civilian law enforcement. The company wanted its solution to be viewed as a viable and operationally deployable tool for modern frontline policing, thereby supporting the company in securing interest, pilots and ultimately sales.

With facial recognition, a controversial topic, Say capitalised on the media interest to gain mainstream attention across national newspapers and broadcasters. Say and Digital Barriers noted that there was a lack of supporting voices and opinions to provide a balanced perspective on the sensible and proportionate use of facial recognition. As such, Say positioned Digital Barriers’ CEO Zak Doffman as a thought leader to fill this vacuum and organised a series of technology demos for high-profile journalists, enabling them to better understand the technology and how it works.

“Our technology is truly game-changing for law enforcement, yet multiple companies in the facial recognition field have muddied the waters by making claims that are nothing more than exaggerated marketing. Say has given us the platform to demonstrate our true capabilities, to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and to make our world-class technology known to a large and varied audience.”

Zak Doffman, CEO Digital Barriers

Say was engaged by Genetec, a world-leader in security solutions, to help grow its presence, status and reputation across Europe. Following a successful UK PR outreach programme, Say was tasked with mirroring this success in specific European regions, namely Nordics, France and DACH.

As lead agency, Say directly managed operations in the UK and Nordics, securing coverage and briefings in these regions. In DACH, Say leveraged its Plexus international agency network to on-board its partner, BSK to support Genetec’s business growth. Similarly Say identified potential agencies in France, directing and managing the pitch and selection processes. For each territory, Say helped to get the teams up to speed and through continuous management of the agencies PR cadence in each country was soon generated.

“Say has been instrumental in helping Genetec build and communicate our enterprise business story in a clear, consistent and targeted manner. Together we have been able to further differentiate our offering in the UK and Global market – enabling us to effectively position our brand in our strategic verticals and directly with our end-users.”

Andrew Elvish, VP of Marketing and Product Management, Genetec.

Wombat possesses an acclaimed cyber security awareness and training platform, proven to be highly effective at improving human security behaviours. In 2017, recognised as being well-established in the North American cybersecurity market, Wombat was one of the fastest growing companies on the continent. As part of Wombat’s growth strategy the organisation challenged Say to raise its profile in Europe, help increase end user demand and replicate their communications success in the US.

Thought leadership: focusing on current, topical issues of national and vertical relevance to secure coverage. Tactics included news jacking breaking security stories, leveraging seasonal stories and events, capitalising on awareness days and adapting reactive content to secure interviews and by-lined articles.

Analyst Relations: building close relationships with tier 1 UK analyst houses via 1-1 briefings and analyst roadshows.

Event support: included the booking and management of media briefings, and live social media management at a wide variety of major events, including InfoSecurity Europe.

Award Submissions: submissions identified and drafted by Say resulting in successes at the SC Media Europe Awards, the Information Age Women in IT Awards and the TEISS Awards.

Digital Outreach: advising Wombat’s digital communications team, becoming a trusted advisor on strategy across all digital channels whilst generating topical, high-impact EMEA organic social media content and campaigns.

“I can’t thank Say enough for all the terrific work they did for us over the past 2 years. Their understanding of our industry, key message points, creativity in pitching and ambitions to meet and exceed our joint goals was just phenomenal. If it weren’t for a new PR firm strategy after our acquisition we would still be working together today. We will truly miss Say’s talents and expertise. Thank you so much for helping us grow our awareness in the UK and for being a terrific PR partner!” Amy Baker, Vice President of Marketing at Wombat Security (now ProofPoint)

In 2017, LANDESK and HEAT Software combined to form Ivanti IT Software. Unifying IT and security operations to better manage and secure the digital workplace this global brand appointed Say to spearhead a cross-region brand awareness programme. In collaboration with Ivanti’s SMEs its proposition, positioning (to become synonymous with Unified IT) and narrative were evaluated and critiqued, culminating in revised messaging to reflect the new brand promise. Over a 24 month window Say supported Ivanti with this repositioning and rolled-out an integrated PR & digital comms programme.

Lead and activated by Say, this integrated programme initially deployed in the UK was successfully replicated across 5 countries by the Global Field Marketing teams and regional PR agencies. The toolkit comprised a timely combination of analyst outreach; issues-driven media relations; creative campaign development; content marketing; corporate PR and lead generation.

Highlights include – championing issues such as legacy IT, crypto-jacking, zero trust, ransomware, IT self-service and fileless malware to position Ivanti as being synonymous with Unified IT; the creation and dissemination of a global ‘Women in Tech’ corporate programme and industry survey and capitalising on   Awareness days, weeks and months, e.g., national ‘Clean Up Your Computer Day’ and ‘European Cyber Security Month’ to secure thought-provoking commentary supported with an engaging social media campaign.

“Landesk and Heat were two brands with significant recognition prior to merging, so it was of utmost importance that customers, the media and the industry as a whole understood what Ivanti is about and what makes us unique leaders. By capitalising on thought leadership opportunities, and taking a proactive approach towards media relations, newsjacking and industry awareness days, Say has cemented Ivanti as a well-known force within the UK market and helped bring the concept of Unified IT to the fore.”
Sarah Lewis, Director of Field Marketing, Ivanti