Weave: IPO on Veteran's Day Amidst Competitive Public Offering Landscape
0
0M
0
Introduction
Program Pivot to Craft a Timely Company Narrative for IPO
Weave is an all-in-one customer communication and engagement platform for small and medium-sized businesses. When the company selected PAN as its agency of record in summer 2021, the program began with a focus on media relations and executive thought leadership with the goal of raising overall brand awareness for the company across national, local and vertical audiences.
Shortly after the engagement began, PAN’s strategy shifted as Weave marched toward an IPO on Veteran’s Day. The program pivot required us to help craft a timely company narrative that spoke to both the business success and passion areas of the CEO, while demonstrating momentum heading into this corporate milestone with strategic news announcements.
PAN helped us hone our Main Street message for Wall Street, making key journalist introductions we now get to nurture and grow for ongoing coverage of Weave’s business and successes. We received first-time coverage in many financial media outlets like CNBC Tech Check and Marketwatch, a big win for Weave’s investor and brand awareness.
The Challenge
Brand Differentiation in a Crowded Market
Fall 2021 experienced the highest number of financial exits and IPOs than any other quarter in recent history. In the week that Weave went public, there were 26 IPOs alone, with 12 of them happening the same day. Our challenge, therefore, was two-fold: we needed to break through the crowded conversation from a financial standpoint and differentiate a brand with relatively lower recognition inside macro market trends playing to its favor.
The Solution
Our overarching program strategy was to elevate and amplify Weave’s position as the leading communications platform across all channels including earned media coverage, original content (press announcements, bylines) and executive thought leadership. Our campaigns were designed to help Weave reach its core audiences in refreshing ways, as well as expand to a broader SMB audience.
Strategic Media Relations
Building momentum heading into Weave’s IPO in the fall, the company issued a strong pipeline of announcements signaling its success, growth, and market momentum. From July-October, PAN worked with Weave to craft and pitch 11 press releases – executive hires, partnerships, award wins, social media contests that blended media, content, and complementary proof points – that served to build Weave’s news into prevailing narratives and trending media conversations.
Executive Thought Leadership
Upon his appointment as Weave’s CEO in 2020, Roy Banks became the only Black CEO of a Utah-based tech unicorn and now, one of the only Black CEOs to take a company public in 2021. As a proud Veteran of the United States Navy, the significance of Roy taking Weave public on Veteran’s Day was not lost on him. Both angles became an important part of our outreach strategy as we aligned business success with Roy’s personal passions. We did so by highlighting Roy’s commitment to diversity and veterans through media interviews, bylines & Q&As leading up to, during and after the IPO.
IPO Announcement Strategy
Leading up to Weave’s IPO, PAN worked with Weave to craft overall messaging in support of a master FAQ and formulate a media outreach plan targeting national, financial, local, and technology and small business trade press. We focused outreach on both the immediate news surrounding the IPO, as well as the longer-term positive outcomes that Weave brings for small and local businesses: strengthening the connection between small businesses and the people they serve by unifying, modernizing, and personalizing all customer interactions.
The Impact
64 earned media articles − and new financial media relationships
Despite the limited runway from beginning to working with Weave through listing day, PAN built a steady cadence of earned media coverage in key business, broadcast and vertical outlets with a combination of Weave’s news and product pipeline, IPO, thought leadership and macroeconomic trends. In 2H 2021, Weave saw 64 earned media articles with 17 interview/commentary opportunities.
On IPO listing day, through proactive media outreach and day-of pitching, the PAN team scheduled 8 media interviews with top-tier outlets including CNBC, Business Insider, Bloomberg, and Forbes, resulting in 46 unique articles for a total of nearly 700M impressions. We also introduced Weave to top business outlets such as Barron’s, Reuters, and CNN who we can now engage as part of our program’s ongoing media strategy for quarterly earnings, company news, and trends.
I’m so proud of our team’s work helping Weave prepare for its public debut on the NYSE! As a result of our strategic planning, we experienced an incredible flow of print, online and broadcast media live on the trading show floor and virtual interviews for the CEO throughout the first day of trading and beyond.
Weave’s leadership set an ambitious, three-pronged goal for the company’s IPO: Introduce Weave to the masses; raise capital to continue fueling growth; and use the public offering as a platform to build awareness for the brand through the media.
This marked a HUGE moment for Weave in its lifecycle and we were thrilled to be a part of such a significant milestone for the company.
