Media Relations and Business Press Case Study Meet the Press

The Horn Group Difference ++ Creative story mining ++ Rapid response: crowding the      competition ++ Turning skeptics in to      advocates ++ Breaking in to business press ++ IPO financial communications      (acting like a public company) ++ Horn Group is a trusted      resource

Media relations means more than simply sending press releases. Horn Group develops specific plans for each company initiative, from strategy and messages to targets and goals for coverage. We conduct rapid response to industry changes and crowd the competition with proactive media outreach. We create compelling news and present technical stories in business terms that resonate with the media. And our software focus means we have long-standing relationships with the media sources and industry analysts most relevant to our clients. Here are the five keys to our success with the media.

Creative Story Mining
Stories are often buried in a mass of technical information, and Horn Group is an expert at finding the gem that attracts the attention of the business press. We create provocative trend stories, such as a deregulation piece in Forbes featuring our client Telcordia, or a story in USA Today focusing on our client Lumeta and the military. Telling a trend story instead of a product story, we can often gain coverage for clients even when they don't necessarily have hard news to tell.

Rapid Response: Crowding the Competition
Timing is as important as the story itself, so when a client's competitor has news, we work to make sure we can get in the story -- or even tell a more compelling story that boxes out the competition. Our client Cognos is a good example. The company's nearest rival, Business Objects, was getting more press. By aggressively responding to any story that either left out or incorrectly positioned Cognos, we were able to move the company onto the radar of the business press. So much so that Cognos was able to crowd its rival by getting their customer Harrah's Entertainment into articles in Forbes and Fortune that were initially dominated by Business Objects.

Turning Skeptics in to Advocates
"PLM? So what?" That was the initial response from InformationWeek when we approached them about Agile Software's Product Lifecycle Management software. With persistent, quality pitching, Horn Group was able to influence reporters to make the category a priority. Three articles appeared in one issue, sparking so much excitement from readers that the publication hired a senior editor specifically to cover the market.

Breaking in to Business Press
Getting coverage in the business press means turning a dry technology pitch into a compelling story told in business terms. Take our work for Spotfire, for instance. By selling a trend and not a product, we were able to tell a story about how pharmaceutical companies are avoiding disasters because of analytics software like Spotfire. Similarly, we often work to position companies as experts in an industry rather than in a product, like when we established the venture partners at Highland as authorities on health care technology in general -- authorities who were often quoted in business stories.

Horn Group is a Trusted Resource
Our creativity doesn't stop with the client. We bring ideas to the media, helping them think beyond what they have to write about and focus on what they want to write about. We have a dedicated media director and ex-journalists on staff, so we know how to tap into what journalists are thinking about and how to help them turn those ideas into stories -- stories that prominently feature our clients. Our staff is encouraged to spend one-on-one time with journalists, and we host in-house panel debates several times throughout the year with top reporters from Business Week, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company and other important publications.