Launching a Social Search Engine
Discover how the PAN team helped its client with a successful launch, drawing 280,000 unique visitors to their site in the first week!

Visibility Campaign
Read about how the PAN team approached two major business dailies, resulting in two impressive articles for their client.

Visionary Positioning for an Emerging Market Leader
See how PAN's client in this emerging market became a go-to source for insight.

Raising Awareness in the Community
Read about how the PAN team raised awareness and played an integral role in helping its client with their fundraising efforts.

Thought Leadership
After acquiring a life sciences firm, learn how this PAN client -- a global provider of IT services and business solutions, has become highly respected and is continuously sought out among the most powerful voices in the pharmaceutical analyst and media community. Read more.

Emerging Markets
By Mark C. Nardone, Executive Vice President

It's hard to know what will be the next iPhone or killer app. There are countless businesses seeking to establish themselves in emerging markets. For those taking on this challenge, PR takes on an added level of importance. Many businesses tend to shy away from PR activities until they have an impressive set of assets to leverage, yet this approach can easily backfire.

There are a great deal of activities to be undertaken early on, before ever securing media opportunities, from setting the company vision, to getting in front of market influencers, to understanding how the industry is evolving, to making sure your provocative points of view are heard. Well in advance of reaching out to editors and reporters, the PR agency should be collaborating with clients on early stage planning. This encompasses conducting extensive market research, assessing the demographics of target consumers or businesses, and developing and honing the value proposition and media strategy. It's these up-front activities that will make for a successful launch.

Who are my ideal customers and what are their buying behaviors?
This knowledge should be gleaned early on. As a company is developing products, the PR agency should be working in tandem with them to identify key attributes about their most likely buyers. For example, who is the decision maker? Is it a committee or an individual? If it's a consumer product, is it an impulse purchase? An aspirational product? Who in the household drives the decision? If it's a professional services firm, are customers driven by price? Do they evaluate vendors based on thought leadership? What publications do they read? What analysts do they follow? Understanding who will gravitate to what you're selling sets the stage for creative communications that will bring the right prospects to the company's doorstep.

Conversely, lack of full insight into these factors leads to a massive disconnect between the company and its prospective clients. The dearth of this knowledge proves counterproductive, regardless of how much money is behind the idea.

What message resonates best with my target audience?
Businesses need laser-focused messaging and points of differentiation-particularly in a very new market. It's easy to fall into the temptation to try and be everything to everybody, but sharp definition is what's needed to carve out a space for oneself. Once the company achieves success in that first space, they can leverage this to branch out, but early on a highly disciplined approach to market positioning is crucial. Continual fiddling with messaging dilutes the value proposition and only proves to confuse decision makers. And confused decision makers will just go on to the next pure play until they hit on the right solution- they're not going to have the patience to try and decipher a muddled message.

Who is shaping this market?
In an emerging market, the competitive landscape is often fragmented. It's not uncommon for businesses marketing similar products to speak about them in completely different ways. This breeds a sense of confusion when the market isn't yet fully defined. That's why it's so important to get in front of key influencers up front, gaining insight from the associations, analysts, and subject matter experts on who will help shape the market.

For example, in 2007 the wearable fabric manufacturer Eleksen had not yet launched in the United States, and there was virtually no awareness of the company or its sensor technology. PAN made a strategic decision to launch Eleksen's products to the design market first since those were the companies that would ultimately create the end-user products that the consumer would purchase. By securing positive media coverage-including a cover story in one of the most influential design publications in the country- we took an important early step in building important design partnerships for Eleksen. We undertook many concurrent activities to create alliances in this industry.

As designers began integrating Eleksen's wearable fabric into their clothing and mobile electronic products, we had an opportunity to spread the message about how the product was revolutionizing consumer product design. This led to a "rolling thunder" campaign to gain exposure among early adopters and mobile professionals. The strategy paid off, with an Eleksen wireless keyboard being featured as the "Gadget of the Week" on Time.com, hitting 4,034,061 readers.

This set the stage for outreach to vertical markets in fashion & apparel and outdoor enthusiasts. Successes in the early adopter and design marketplaces snowballed into further milestones-culminating in the phenomenal success of iPod-enabled apparel, backpacks, and messenger bags. Just a few short months after the TIME coverage hit, Eleksen went public in the UK and leveraged the print and online coverage to potential investors. Since then, Eleksen has used the piece in all of their marketing and investor materials. Our takeaway from this: Early collaboration between agency and client and extensive up-front research is critical when building a new market.

What assets can we leverage to validate our message?
Any company seeking to carve out a new space needs to provide a great deal of validation to key constituents about their business, product, and executives to prove they have value in the marketplace. Assets to leverage include an early customer, an influential market evangelist, a positive product review, well-known board members and successful prototypes, to name a few. Another example would be a survey that underscores the market drivers for a particular offering.

Thought leadership activities can also help in gaining credibility early on. These activities can include the establishment of an industry blog, byline article placement and commentary on industry news and developments, or a speaking engagement at a well-known conference.

What are the ongoing milestones I need to achieve for continuous positive exposure?
Companies often think through the first key milestone they need to achieve to gain market exposure. However, companies operating in a yet to be defined market need a rolling thunder campaign of ongoing milestones. If, for example, a product is announced and there are no follow-up activities in the subsequent months, the launch activities will have been in vain. This is where a strategic PR team comes into play, advising clients on the necessary post launch activities to sustain and build momentum. Ideally, a PR team will combine professionals who execute tactical activities in the moment, working in tandem with senior managers attuned to developing strategies that capture critical mindshare.

The most successful PR programs involve quarterly campaigns and initiatives throughout the year, running in conjunction with the core PR elements (editorial opportunities, analyst relations, thought leadership activities, social media activities, speaking opportunities and awards outreach). By taking this approach, a company is able to demonstrate momentum while consistently being in the spotlight. The result is long-term building of a brand that translates directly into sales leads.

Conclusion
In a new market, collaboration is the most important factor for achieving success. The meeting of the minds between client and agency early on fosters relationships that are more conducive to creativity and strategic planning. The best agencies are those who listen closely to clients and their audience, invest the time and resources early on to truly learn how to shape the market, and are aggressive in spreading this message far and wide.

Leah Washington
Associate Vice President of Marketing

Leah Washington is the Associate Vice President of Marketing for Safend. Safend's innovative endpoint security solutions deliver complete visibility and granular control over all enterprise endpoints - enabling connectivity and productivity, without sacrificing security.

Why did you choose PAN as your PR agency?
Safend chose PAN based on their expertise in PR and specific knowledge of the IT Security space.

What are the PR challenges in your industry?
For Safend specifically, our challenge is to gain mindshare as a formidable player in a market where our competitors are the large and very established companies now entering the endpoint DLP space via acquisition of smaller companies. It is crucial for Safend to raise its profile among the media and analysts to firmly position ourselves as a comprehensive endpoint DLP provider. As Safend continues to partner with organizations providing complimentary solutions, as well as develop our own endpoint DLP solution portfolio, an arising challenge is changing the mindset of analysts who view Safend as a single solution provider.

How has PAN begun to help Safend to overcome some of these challenges?
Through working with PAN, I have seen elevated interest in our solution by both the analyst and media communities. This has translated into such tangible results as 3 mentions in various analysts publications last quarter, and notable PR in high profile publications in the technology and security space.

What do you find most appealing about working with the PAN team?
I am particularly impressed by the level of internal collaboration of my team and their ability to think outside of the norm to create fresh concepts for PR and media opportunities that have opened new doors to many new publications.

What are some creative counsel/ideas that the PAN team has provided to you?
The most recent creative ideas PAN has brought to Safend include:

• New positioning for the need for endpoint DLP during a time where this is otherwise an oversaturated topic (no perimeter);
• A fresh approach to acquiring media opportunities based on a seasonality angle and the increased demand for heightened endpoint DLP during the summer months (the summer pitch).

• Continue to grow and develop relationships with Analysts
;
• Secure coverage in targeted UK media outlets and grow UK analysts relationships
;
• Secure coverage in major US publications (as jointly defined by Safend and PAN)
;
• Refine awards strategy to increase likelihood of Safend obtaining an award from a major organization
.

We're happy to announce that Jason Ouellette has been promoted to Co-Director of the Technology Portfolio. We're also excited to congratulate Gene Carozza on being promoted to Senior Account Manager, Alexis Gordon who was recently promoted to Account Manager , Susan Forshner who was promoted to Senior Associate and Caroline Sommer for being promoted to Associate!

PAN welcomes six new employees!
New Business Development Manager Michael O'Brien
Senior Associate Susan Lloyd
Associate Kristen Berry
Account Coordinator Karen Fein
Account Coordinator Adam Novak
Account Coordinator Michelle Pappas

Welcome to PAN!

Happy PANniversary to our employees!
June:
Holly Johnson - 1 Year
Sarah Buchine - 1 Year
Emily Perry - 2 Years
Shannon Costello - 1 Year

July:
Carrie Callahan - 8 Years
Andy Dear - 8 Years
Kim Baker - 4 Years
David Fretwell - 2 Years
Lauren Borgaro - 1 Year

August:
Michael O'Connell - 4 Years
Dan Thompson - 2 Years
Kim Scali - 1 Year

Happy PANniversary to the following clients!
June:
iTKO - 2 Years
Merchant Warehouse - 1 Year
Milton Hospital - 1 Year

July:
Doncasters - 2 Years

August:
SPS Commerce - 1 Year
Beyond.com - 1 Year

Happy Birthday to our employees!
June:
Alexis Gordon
Michael Sullivan

July:
Ron Dellicolli
Susan Forshner
Sydne Lee
Holly Johnson

August:
Kristen Berry
Shannon Palmer
Jodie Wertheim

PAN Wedding!










Congrats to Co-Director Jason Ouellette on his recent marriage!

PAN Babies








PAN is happy to announce that three employees welcomed their little ones in the months of May, June and July! Senior Account Manager Christina Morris and her husband Rick welcomed their very cute son Jack Davies on May 16; Systems Support Analyst Shane Kendall and his wife Kristina became the happy parents of their beautiful daughter Saige Madeira on June 9; and Social Media Director Joel Richman and his wife Andrea welcomed their adorable bundle of joy, Hannah Ashley on July 1st.
Congratulations to the proud parents!

PAN Wins Six 2008 Bell Ringer Awards!

The Publicity Club of New England held their annual Bell Ringer Awards ceremony on Monday June 2, 2008 at the Westin Waterfront in Boston. PAN walked away with the following awards:


PAN won two Bells in the following categories:

• Bylined Article - KANA Software
• Print Feature or Commentary Placement Regional Business Publication - PlayNetwork

• Print Feature or Commentary Placement: Regional Business Publication - Commonwealth Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation
• Feature or Commentary Placement: Campaign - KANA Software
• Product/Service Publicity: Business-to-Business Campaign - Hydro International
• Organizational Identity Campaign - Commonwealth Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation

PAN Named One of 2008 Top Tech Communicators!

PRSourceCode is a content service provider (CSP) serving the information technology (IT) journalism, conference, industry accolade, and public relations (PR) communities.

For three years, they've been highlighting the editorial community's perspective on the IT industry's top PR agencies and corporate PR departments. This year, PAN was chosen as one of the best mid-size PR Firms!

Click here to read the news release!

We're excited to announce new client wins across all three of our portfolios!

We welcome Isabella Products and WHERE to our Consumer portfolio.

The professional services portfolio welcomes HealthHonors!

Lastly, in our technology portfolio, we're happy to announce the following new clients: Mavent , Acquire Media, Good Data, Scour.com, MedAptus, and InterNoded, Inc.

Life at PAN: Our Employees Make Us Shine



PAN's Media Department plays an important role, both within and outside of the agency. This core team continuously educates staff and keeps them abreast of all developments in the world of media. The team consists of Co-Director of the Technology Portfolio, Jason Ouellette, Media Relations Manager, Andy Dear and Senior Associate, Kim McCrossen.

We sat down and asked them a few questions about the department and the role it plays both internally and externally:

What are your main functions as the internal media team at PAN?

To provide our staff with opportunities, contacts and new avenues within the media. As a value add to our clients, the media team is outreaching to higher level publications and forging relationships with top level editors so that PAN Communications is top of mind with them. We also serve as an arm to PAN's new employee training program - during this time we work with new employees on media strategies, pitch techniques and overall understanding of the ever- changing media landscape.


What are brown bag sessions and tell us about the last PAN brown bag session you held?

On a monthly basis, the PAN media department hosts hour long 'training sessions' where we update our staff on developments in the world of PR and also present best practices so that we can learn from eachother's successes and offer our clients new and creative ideas. Most recently, our Director of Social Media Joel Richman hosted a brown bag session on Social Media's impact on the world of public relations. Through Joel's intensive work with Web 2.0 organizations and associations, he presented new capabilities and offerings from PAN and how each of our clients can benefit from inclusion in this medium. He also went into real-life examples of how our clients have benefited from the launch of their internal blogs, podcast participation and active involvement in industry blogs.


Tell us about PAN's Wall of Fame, what is it and how did it all start?

About seven years ago, the agency decided to start showcasing the fantastic results that our staff had been securing. Today, we continue to highlight the great coverage secured through each of our three portfolios. We're sure that if you've been to our offices recently, you've seen the phenomenal clips on our wall and look forward to seeing your organization up there (if it isn't already!) Our staff is continuously vying for placement on the Wall of Fame with submissions from the likes of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Real Simple and InformationWeek - it's a great motivator for our staff and a proud tradition that has carried on at the agency.


How do you go about updating and educating PAN staff about reporter and publication moves/changes?

In real-time. Through our relationships, we are continuously hearing about reporter moves, beat changes and new outlets launching. We alert our staff the minute we hear about it so that our clients have the most recent information. This level of collaboration has filtered out to our staff as they too are regularly updating us on changes that they have learned about. It's something that we promote here at PAN - no silos between our teams. We want each and every team to be successful.


How does the media team help with assisting PAN clients?

Similar to our collaborative environment, the media team is constantly updating the staff with reporter inquiries, new opportunities and last minute requests that each of our clients benefit from. As a value-added service, we'll also be brought in on major launches or corporate initiatives that require a bit more insight into general business publications and help provide key talking points that will interest reporters. We also bring a level of market intelligence to each of our portfolios so that we can challenge our teams and clients on an angle or overall media strategy.


How do you advise PAN employees when it comes to pitching bloggers, podcasts, etc.?

Keep it simple and transparent. Honesty goes a long way in the world of online media. And one other key point to keep in mind is a carryover from traditional PR/media outreach. Know your reporter/blogger and their audience. You need to be familiar with someone's likes or dislikes or areas of coverage before you make your initial outreach. Initial monitoring of blogs and podcasts will help you be a better resource to this audience as you look to promote your clients online.


Any additional tips you can offer for pitching in this day and age of ever changing media?

Knowledge is key. Understand the outlet you are pitching and be a resource to all forms of the media and come to the table with a new idea, angle or information. Also, look at the media as a resource to help develop your story angles - sometimes it will take two or three tries before someone bites on a story idea so stick with it and always keep the angle fresh and original.

PAN's annual Slush Party was held on June 26, 2008. Our favorite, Richie's Italian Ice was enjoyed by all!

PAN's Spring Outing was held on June 6, 2008 at Fenway Park in Boston, MA. Before the game, employees had a blast, enjoying delicious sausages and hot dogs from the infamous "The Sausage Guy" at the beautiful courtyard where Phil resides in Boston. The entire group then walked over to Fenway Park where we watched the Red Sox take on the Mariners!






Please go to this link to view more pictures from the eventful evening!

PAN is using a Zip Car!

PAN launched its Zip Car program in June and employees are loving it! We use the car twice each month (for now); one car leaves from the Boston area, the other leaves from Worcester. This perk gives PAN employees the opportunity to participate from multiple locations, carpool and help save gas money! >