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Client's Business Problem
Siebel Systems, a media darling during the fast growth years of the 1990s, had long since fallen from grace. As if poor sales during an economic downturn weren't enough, the company faced well-publicized lawsuits and media-savvy protesters at its annual shareholder meetings. The company's most-recent earnings announcement revealed not just lackluster results but plans to eliminate nine percent of its workforce. Critics declared the end not just of Siebel Systems, but of the entire enterprise CRM software market.
Communication Objectives:
Given the media's hostile attitude and lack of positive company news, some client executives advocated avoiding the media altogether. OnPR suggested the opposite: it was time to be aggressive in engaging the media, rebuilding relationships and seeking the kind of story placements that might start to reverse the media tide.
To accomplish this goal, the agency needed a piece of unequivocal good news that might provide not just a "quick fix" of immediate, positive media coverage but fodder for a larger, "keystone" placement that might help dictate the tone of future coverage or at least question the claims of the company's most vocal critics.
Strategy:
The team decided to leverage a significant customer announcement (Hewlett Packard's decision to standardize on Siebel Systems) to:
- Garner immediate publicity for the news item
- Use the customer announcement as proof-point for a larger industry trend
- Place at least one in-depth feature story on the "return of the mega-deal," questioning those who alleged that the days of enterprise CRM were numbered
- Use HP/Siebel news as a stepping stone to secure broader stories about "the return of the mega-deployment" and create momentum for the news
Results:
Fourteen stories were generated covering the news and the rebirth of mega-deployments including:
- InformationWeek, "Siebel: The Mega deal Isn't Dead Yet"
- InformationWeek, "HP Goes for CRM, In a Big Way"
- Computerworld, "HP Uses Siebel Tools to Unify CRM System"
- CRMDaily, "Siebel Lands Big Fish with HP Deal"
- SearchCRM, "Siebel Scores with HP Rollout"
Other news items ran in InfoWorld, Internet Week, Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Fierce Enterprise and Start Magazine.
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