Agility PR’s Clients

Agility PR has been working with the networked key management system provider iB as it begins to expand beyond its niche market of prestige car dealerships into the wider dealership world and beyond. We designed a survey to probe trends in dealership security to create a strong news hook for iB. This story was supported by the write up of its first mainstream car dealership customer win. We also developed a number of by-lined articles which were placed in key automotive and professional security trade publications.

Paul Smith, managing director, iB Management Solutions

“Agility PR has helped us get our message out there while educating the market about the merits of networked key management versus traditional peg in peg out key management. They give you the depth to build campaigns with real substance and the contacts that help us break new ground.”

Axxon

Agility PR has been engaged by the leader of the open video management system market Axxon (Source: IMS Research). Axxon is engaging Agility PR to lead a campaign working with its PR partners in Spain and Germany as the company gears up for expansion into Western Europe.

Luis Coello, EMEA Business Development Director, Axxon

“Agility PR’s expertise in our market is now well known by many of its key influencers. I have faith that they can help us to build our sales channel through getting our positive story out to the right people in the right way, fast.”

Agility PR led a one year pilot in both Netherlands and the UK for the industrial automation giant Omron to help the Japanese firm raise its profile through thought leadership positioning. We were requested to originate and deliver a total of 5 by-lined articles and 12 news releases in the UK & localise/translate and distribute 12 releases in the Netherlands and needed to achieve 35 pieces of coverage to a ‘Top 20′ Tier-A media & 32 pieces in Tier-B media in the UK and 20 pieces in ‘Top 10′ Tier-A media coverage in NL and 18 in Tier-B media. Agility PR hammered out a strategic plan and drilled to a tactical plan which created the platform for exceeding all coverage targets. We delivered 9 articles & 14 releases and 165% of Tier-A coverage targets. Netherlands results were just as impressive under APR guidance through its partner agency for this project Wisse Kommunicatie. As a result Omron’s PR was taken to a higher level in the course of one year.

Agility PR worked with Axis Communications in the UK & Ireland principally, but also advised on agency selection for Axis’ PR agency network around Europe during a six year engagement from mid-2002 to early 2009. Our work covered the time in which the company established itself as the global market leader in network video. Between 2004 and 2008 the company grew from being a $100m turnover business with 60% focus on network video to becoming a global business with over $300m turnover and near 100% focus on network video. The long-running content-driven campaign centred on educating the market that IP-Surveillance was a realistic and future-proof alternative to traditional analogue-based CCTV technology. Emphasis on educational articles and case studies continually reinforced this position over the period. Agility PR worked alongside the now EMEA marketing director of Axis to create strong, high quality news flow, customer success stories and in-depth case studies. We also created sales collateral and even video testimonials based on these case studies. Work also included submitting and securing speaking opportunities, award entries, organising round table events, press tours to Axis’ headquarters in Sweden, analyst relations and much more.

<p style=”text-align: justify;”>Agility PR had a five year relationship with Freedom during which it helped the firm build its reputation in the channel and across specific vertical markets – notably the local government, health care and education markets.  During this period Freedom doubled in size from £9m turnover (FY 2003/4) to more than £17.5m in FY 2008/09 and acquired a Leeds-based telephony specialist TTC through a combination of large TDM and IP Telephony implementations.  Work included news flow generation, campaigning on topics relevant to the sectors they served and customer case study development.</p>

Agility PR has been engaged with Veracity since May 2009 during a time when the business is doubling its sales of IP transmissions each year, expanding its US presence, launching up to a dozen new products a year and making very significant diversifications, most recently into video surveillance storage with the launch of COLDSTORE. Veracity’s founder Alastair McLeod is a strong believer in PR and sees that it is the role of vendors to educate the market as far as is possible. It is this desire to show leadership and build community in the professional security market which led Veracity to engage with Agility PR. So far we have supported several product launches, most notably COLDSTORE at IFSEC 2010. COLDSTORE recently secured Detektor International Award and has been also been submitted for UBM’s Security Excellence Awards 2010 in the Innovative Product Category.

We have also conceptualised and executed the Technology Leaders Forum debate – a roundtable debate forum for technology leaders and influencers in the market to discuss issues in the market. On this project we had to gain buy-in from the media sponsor and leading security trade publication – Info4Security.

We also worked alongside Veracity to short-list technology leaders, price the membership, sell it into relevant leading technology companies. We worked with Veracity to persuade 12 to join the forum and contribute to the inaugural roundtable discussion in April. We managed this event from start to finish, even taking the photos and video on the day and proofing and gaining approval for all copy before it was published. Axis, Codestuff, Raytec, SYAC, Arecont Vision, Instek Digital, the BSIA and Frost & Sullivan all joined Veracity for the debate which was serialised recently on info4security at: http://www.info4security.com/story.asp?sectioncode=10&storycode=4125138&c=1). A second forum debate is now planned for later in the year.

Other notable contributions from Agility PR have been writing a winning Security Excellence Award entry for Bede Academy innovative installation involving Cardax access control, Veracity, Instek Digital and integrator/Veracity partner – 2020 Vision in 2009.

Alastair McLeod, managing director, Veracity:

“I consider Agility PR now a vital resource as we go to the next level as a business. This highly focused PR consultancy is not only great at media relations but gives you the benefit of a great contacts book and 10 years of collective experience in the professional security market. Their intelligent, holistic approach to communication delivers additional value well beyond initial expectations.”

Agility PR has been working with pensions and investments administration software company and IT consultancy Dunstan Thomas for more than six years. We have designed and implemented a series of highly successful PR campaigns designed to support Dunstan Thomas, sales efforts over the years. These campaigns have been engineered to deliver coverage, thought leadership materials and ultimately lead to the creation of a business guide which customers and prospects download as well as a physical printed booklet that is given out at events as well as at prospect and client meetings. The latest campaign focused on a major development in financial services namely wrap platforms. Agility PR executed an extensive survey of pensions providers and advisers to ascertain their plans for development and use wraps and attitudes to them. The findings of the survey generated good coverage and generated enough interest to secure placement for a number of articles on the back of it. These articles, once published in key financial adviser and pensions trade media, were then adapted to fit into a 20 page business guide which was published in July 2009. A series of media briefings at publication stimulated interest in the guide and led to more than 200 requests for the guide within 3 months of launch. The guide continues to attract interest and is even being referenced by other respected industry sources. Dunstan Thomas has secured business during this campaign with several wrap platforms including Ascentric and Novia. Our work for Dunstan Thomas operates at the ideal level of integration with business and sales development and it is this integration which helps makes these campaigns so effective, perhaps explaining why Dunstan Thomas, is our longest standing client.

Christopher Read, Chairman, Dunstan Thomas Holdings:

“I consider Agility PR to be a key long-term partner in Dunstan Thomas business development. Their work is directly integrated with our sales efforts. If we are planning to roll out a new proposition which we want the market to know about it, Agility PR has a knack for articulating the offering and making it compelling to the guys we are trying to reach. Their brand of PR really offers you the level of bite which pulls prospects in your direction while building the brand consistently and effectively. They offer PR for grown-ups that are trying to do move their business forward fast.”

We have been working with Teneo’s CEO and marketing director for over two years. Our remit has included raising their profile in the IT channel media as well as amongst specific vertical sector media and target markets which include law firms, construction companies and architecture & design houses. Our campaigns have focused on creating demand for Teneo’s performance management suite which centres on Riverbed’s WAN Optimisation technology. The primary focus has been educating key audiences that when they are planning IT consolidation projects or expanding into regional or overseas offices then there is a mature technology solution that significantly reduces exposure to massive increases in bandwidth. During this period Teneo has established a UK market leadership position in what it calls Performance Management and is now building out its portfolio to cover Virtualization and network Management, bolstered by the recent acquisition of iSimile. Teneo is an exemplar of an integrator that is adapting rapidly to becoming a specialist IT services provider.

James Hall, marketing director, Teneo

“Agility PR helped us build our profile in the channel through a strong and regular news flow and proactive media relations with key channel press. Their sustained focus on securing features coverage and award short-listings has made sure that customers and prospects alike hear about our successes and understand that we have a broadening range of solutions. As the business grows they will increasingly be supporting us with case study and other sales collateral. Agility PR is also working to raise our corporate profile through the business owner/director-level press.”

We have worked with VCA Technology since June 2009 specifically to help them launch their first video content analytics platform into the UK professional security market. VCAsys has already been embedded onto TI’s DaVinci DSP chip and the Korean camera and video encoder manufacturer which has a stake in VCA Technology had already committed to put VCAsys into several of its ranges of encoders and network cameras. It was important that VCA spread the word to the professional security community as quickly and with as much impact as possible. Within a month of starting with VCA Agility PR was able to launch VCAsys through a series of face to face briefings with key professional security titles. During these briefings Agility PR secured more than a dozen commissions for by-lined articles. The upshot was a total of 12 pieces of coverage within a month of launch evenly weighted between news pieces linked to the launch and by-lined articles which all illustrated the founder of VCA Technology’s status as one of the fathers of Video content analytics and a visionary in the space. Agility PR completes the launch campaign for VCA in January 2010 by generating further exposure for partnerships that are now being cemented with camera providers and video management systems providers alike prior to expanding the campaign overseas.

Kevin Waterhouse, sales & marketing director, VCA Technology:

“I have been pleased with the speed at which our team at Agility has got to grips with our offerings and created compelling news materials and a string of technical articles. A half day conference call was enough of a brief to enable them to write five high quality by-lined articles in little more than a month. Their work definitely got the message out that VCAsys was a serious analytics offering from a serious player with pedigree. We have also worked with their corporate finance partners – Quantum Partners – to explore options for investor-backed expansion going forward.”