Case Study for Vendavo

19

Contributed articles placed in calendar year, including a home page op-ed on Forbes

32%

Growth in following on LinkedIn

2X

Increase in engagement on Vendavo’s Twitter account as a result of targeted content curation, live tweeting of events and other creative programs

300+

Fortune 500 executives who attended Vendavo’s premier customer event

Background

 

The debate over Netflix’s price hike, Uber and Lyft surge pricing, the recent controversy with the AIDS medication pricing, and the constant fluctuations in oil and gas prices all indicate that companies are struggling to make crucial pricing decisions. As financial markets and economies become more complex and the amount of data increases, enterprises are looking to restructure their pricing models in order to remain profitable. What they’ve discovered is not all big data analytics have value, and pricing based on experience alone doesn’t cut it. According to Gartner, a successful price optimization implementation can increase revenue by two to four percent. Profit and margin optimization leader, Vendavo, consistently delivers more than $2.5 billion in annual profit improvement to the largest B2B organizations.

Realizing the lack of category awareness in the market and struggling to earn a voice in the media, Vendavo approached Karbo Com in May 2015 to communicate the significance of their technology to the success of Global 2000 companies and their direct contribution to corporate profitability. Karbo Com managed all of Vendavo’s U.S. media relations programs including corporate and executive PR, technology and product initiatives, customer and partner efforts, and digital marketing initiatives. 

Program Objectives

  • Drive increases in sales and market share
  • Establish Vendavo as a thought leader in pricing and corporate profitability
  • Position Vendavo executives as experts in Vendavo’s key verticals including chemicals, manufacturing, distribution and data science
  • Increase awareness of the profit and margin optimization category
  • Position Vendavo as indispensable to CFO success
  • Effectively differentiate Vendavo as the only company delivering profit and margin optimization to provide value to the Global 2000
  • Increase visibility among key reporters and analysts to acquire business, technology, vertical press and analyst report coverage

Execution

 

Karbo Com and Vendavo immediately developed and implemented a 100-day PR plan, which included analyst outreach, contributed article placement, trend identification and CFO positioning. Karbo Com assisted in optimizing Vendavo’s current messaging for the press and leveraged the company’s existing content to create a strategic press kit. In the absence of concrete product and company news, the agency worked closely with Vendavo to pursue opportunistic press initiatives and produce a steady drumbeat of thought leadership pieces in the vertical press and execute creative programs, including a CFO survey in collaboration with CFO.com.

As the partnership progressed, Karbo Com continued to drive PR efforts by supporting product launches, pursuing thought leadership opportunities for Vendavo executives, implementing creative social media programs, securing awards, and pitching Vendavo as an expert source on global pricing stories, current market trends and events.

Results

 

Karbo Com secured briefings with top market analysts and reporters, strengthening Vendavo’s voice in the market and driving dialogue about the significance of pricing strategies in achieving corporate profitability. The account team worked closely with Vendavo executives and industry experts to comment on breaking new stories such as the Brexit decision and the EpiPen pricing controversy, securing interviews with publications like The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider and Bloomberg Businessweek. The agency also earned Vendavo coverage in key publications as a result of an aggressive outreach strategy around company and product announcements, including the CFO survey, the Vendavo Optimization Manager Product Suite, Segmentation Manager and the appointment of John Oosterhouse as CFO.

Additionally, Karbo Com has placed 19 contributed articles over the past year, averaging more than one thought leadership piece per month, including a home page op-ed in Fortune. Karbo Com also played a hands-on role in planning and supporting Vendavo’s premier customer event, Profit Summit 2016, which attracted more than 300 Fortune 500 executives from companies, including 3M, Ford, Honeywell, OnSemi, Emerson, Sealed Air and Dell.

Karbo Com also developed and implemented a social media program structured for an enterprise-focused audience, resulting in a 32% growth in following on LinkedIn, the company’s priority social platform. Engagement rates on Vendavo’s corporate Twitter account more than doubled as a result of targeted content curation, live tweeting of events and webinars, and other creative programs. Specifically, the agency helped Vendavo leverage existing partnerships to promote and execute a collaborative Twitter chat with industry-leading pricing experts and host a Twitter Q&A with recognized pricing thought leader and author, Stephan Liozu.

A sampling of media placements for Vendavo:

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