Product Launch Case Study
The Good Wireless Summit

Good Technology, the leader in wireless software and services for handheld computing, selected Horn Group as their communications agency just before Christmas 2004 - only one month before what would be Good's most important product launch to date. Good has been the recognized leader in wireless email for many quarters, but set the goal with this launch to outline the direction of the wireless software market and dramatically increase visibility for their services and applications. As such, Good Technology and Horn Group, Inc. conducted the Good Wireless Summit on January 24, 2005 that brought partners, customers, prospects, media, analysts and Good executives together for a defining event in the wireless software industry.

Objectives

  • Launch and build immediate credibility for Good Technology's new GoodAccess services and applications
  • Host an industry summit that sets the stage for the wireless software applications market in 2005
  • Come out from the shadow of top competitor RIM (Research in Motion) by strengthening the Good brand
  • Provide air cover for the sales force by generating favorable business and trade press coverage
  • Deliver immediate value and results as Good's new communications partner
Research and Strategy
Upon setting a date for the launch event, research began immediately in order for Horn Group to make intelligent counsel and recommendations on each element from location and media strategy to partner announcements and event content. We concluded that San Francisco, California was the location that would have the greatest impact and draw the most powerful group of influencers for Good. Horn Group retained our research consultant to conduct an analysis of competitor and partner media coverage in the past few months. This allowed us to poke holes in the wireless software applications discussion, which was helpful in designing the Summit event agenda. Our research also lead us to one of the most critical pieces of the strategy - aligning partners for the event that illuminated the services and applications piece of the Good launch story. As we uncovered more information it became clear that this could be far more than a typical media event but a business development event that rallied partners, customers and prospects, board members and executives, as well as media and analysts.

In partnership, Horn Group and Good worked together to create an intricate web of involvement in the event that would give the company immediate "credibility by association" leading up to and during the big event. Together we were able to engage and leverage the board, sale executives, product marketing and product management people, customer and partners to make the biggest possible impact for Good.

  • We worked with Good's vice president of business development to identify the partners and secure participation at the highest level. Application vendors have been jockeying for a piece of the wireless story. Partnering with Good in conjunction with the Summit event gave them the hook needed to strengthen their otherwise weak wireless stories. Oracle, Salesforce.com and Siebel were on board to announce that they've published web services applications that can be easily used with Good's wireless handheld device software. We also rallied equally impressive hardware vendors, with vice president level executives on stage from HP, Palm One and Symbol
  • Similarly, Horn Group worked closely with Good's vice president of sales to secure brand name customers who could talk about existing product implementations and their anticipation of the upcoming release Good Access. The strategy was to secure impressive customer endorsement that would in turn impress the Good board members, rally the partners and interest our many media targets
  • We also engaged the Good executive management team to encourage high profile board members to participate in the event
Tactics and Execution
At the end of the day, this was a product launch and in order to stand out from the fray and make the impact that Good required, we had to exercise creativity and resourcefulness in our tactics and execution.
  • With the event one week out, we selected two of the several analyst firms lined up to brief in advance. We courted IDC and Gartner - the two most influential analyst houses (Gartner because they impact customer buying decisions and IDC because they know how to slice and dice the market) - and secured them as analyst endorsements at the event
  • On the media front, we wanted to attract attention to the event but also control coverage, so we secured a business exclusive with the Wall Street Journal and a trade exclusive with InformationWeek
  • Our tactic with the Wall Street Journal was to line up everything the paper would need for a prominent story to hit Monday morning. The desired ripple effect was to move the stock of a competitor (RIM) which in turn would attract attention from the financial analyst community, which would give the business press more reason to cover the story of a private company like Good
  • The InformationWeek exclusive was meant to attract more attention from trade analysts, customers and other journalists in that community to create buzz for the event
  • Smart media tactics included story matching - providing a unique story line, customer and/or partner to each publication. This yielded more coverage since each reporter was given a unique twist on the same story. Horn Group conducted a creative story mining session to uncover the different angles to use and drew on the collective agency's knowledge of each publication and reporter.
  • Individual press releases with each of the partners validate the alliances helped make the story tangible
  • Paying attention to the minutia even had an impact on media quality and results: table-seating assignments were made for the event. Each table included a Good Technology executive, a few partners, a customer, a few analysts and a few non-competing press. Press were encouraged to write stories on the spot, interviewing and filing stories at their tables. The Associated Press piece written by May Wong was written and filed at her table.
  • Finally, we also ensured that every reporter at the event got to spend at least five minutes with Good's dynamic CEO Danny Shader. We left the chair next to Danny empty so that brief interviews were given at his table, which resulted in CEO quotes in most of the launch coverage.
Results and ROI
In the end, the event attracted a group of almost 100 analysts, press, partners, customers, executives and investors. The combined team's ability to rally such influential software and hardware vendors as partners was one of many celebrated successes. Favorable stories appeared in more than 80 media outlets including Forbes, Financial Times, InformationWeek and Wall Street Journal. The announcements led to a stock sell-off, and competitor RIM experienced a 9 percent drop in price that day. The event sparked interest from financial analyst community, business press and product reviewers -- new and important audiences for Good in establishing thought leadership and sales support. Good has developed several powerful sales tools from the ensuing media and analyst coverage that have had a direct impact on closing deals.

"I wanted to thank you for the great success of the launch event last week...especially given that you only came on board about 3 weeks earlier. We were looking for a strategic partner who would not only be an extension of our organization but also help us grow our PR exposure. Horn Group easily met this need and came up to speed very quickly, executing a very successful product launch just weeks after coming on board. The way you dove in and tackled getting up to speed with us as a company, never complaining that it was too short amount of time, was indicative of the way you run things. My team already loves working with your team, so I'm really happy to have you as our PR agency."

Sue Forbes, VP Marketing, Good Technology