ATG

Throughout a company history that has seen both the highs and lows of the Internet boom and bust, one thing has remained consistent for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ATG (Nasdaq: ARTG). The company's reputation as a provider of many of the richest and most robust online customer experiences on the Web today has remained intact as it continues to power the commerce sites of leading brands such as J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Nike, and Best Buy.

The Challenge

Though its products have always been rooted in creating applications that enhance a user's overall online experience, ATG has at different times been known as an application server provider, a portal company, an online CRM vendor and an online commerce provider.

This inconsistency of message with the media and analyst communities served as a backdrop for the company as it prepared for the March 2004 launch of two new products: the ATG Adaptive Customer Assistance, a self-service add-on to its existing commerce offering and the ATG Campaign Optimizer, an A/B testing application.

In addition, ATG had brought on a visionary vice president of marketing, Cliff Conneighton, at the end of 2003. Concurrent with the launch of new products, the company sought to promote Conneigton as an industry thought leader. It was with these goals in mind that ATG tasked PAN Communications with devising the right media strategy at this critical time in the company's history.

The Strategy

In addition to the messaging challenges outlined above, the launch faced two key obstacles - the need for an overarching theme that could uniquely set ATG apart, and absence of early beta customers that could be offered to the media as spokespersons. With this in mind, PAN devised a phased strategy that would attempt to fill the void created by the lack of customers as well as allay any confusion around the ATG message.

At the beginning of the process, PAN and ATG made three critical decisions:

• The launch needed an overarching theme that would appropriately position the new products in the realm of advancing customer self-service in ways that would enable ATG to not only capture the imagination and attention of media and analysts who cover online self-service, but also to create a brand message that would provide an extensible platform for planned follow-on product announcements throughout the year. With that in mind, PAN recommended the adoption of an "Experience" theme, which would ultimately become the platform for the resulting "Customer Experience Tour," and the basis of the "Customer Experience Platform" product re-positioning by ATG.
• Despite the fact that the two new products represented different areas of the ATG product family and had slightly different general availability dates, they would be announced together. Three press releases would be distributed on March 15, 2004, one for each announcement and one that would introduce the "ATG Customer Experience Platform."
• The launch would buck a trend of introducing new products at the annual user conference - ATG Insight. Rather, the conference, which was held roughly three weeks prior to the launch date, would be offered to the ATG customers and invited analysts as a "sneak peek" at the new products. This preview would be done with the goal of educating customers to the point that they would feel comfortable endorsing the products' potential to the media.

PAN seeded the market with the ATG message more than a month prior to the launch with an aggressive byline campaign. The goal was for the bylines to hit both prior, during, and after the launch as a means of cementing the ATG message with attribution to Cliff Conneighton, ATG's emerging thought leader.

To build on the byline momentum and further boost Conneighton's visibility, PAN simultaneously worked to secure appointments with influential Editors-in-Chief to discuss the customer experience solutions market at a higher level. This set the stage for PAN to conduct the more traditional outreach IT editors and beat reporters to secure product briefings the week prior to March 15.

By leveraging ATG's user conference as an invitation-only preview for customers, PAN and ATG were able to secure the services of four different customers to speak with the media over the course of the launch. Likewise, each of the releases distributed on March 15th featured a third-party quote from one of the analysts that attended Insight. The tiered approach with the media, meanwhile, allowed PAN to execute a launch that resulted in instant media coverage, while simultaneously creating a platform for continuing industry coverage and executive meetings still in motion today.

The Results

• 11 pre-briefings with leading IT weeklies, online news sites and vertical publications such as Computerworld, eWeek, CRM Daily, CNET, Line 56, Direct and Government Computer News.
• 25 secured pieces of coverage of the product launch in outlets that included InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, eWeek, Network World, CIO Today, News Factor Network, Government Computer News and the 451
.
• 8 briefings with the leading industry analysts from Gartner, Patricia Seybold Group, IDC, Current Analysis, Jupiter, Forrester and Allen Bonde Group.
• Three secured and published byline articles on self-service in RIS News, CRM Today and Real Market. Both the CRM Today and Real Market bylines were placed as a three-part series. Additional bylines secured included CRM and Executive Technology.
• A West Coast/East Coast business press and IT editor tour that included secured briefings with Computerworld, CRM, 1to1 Magazine, New York Times, BusinessWeek and Intelligent Enterprise.