Ingres: a new rising star in database and open source
Ingres, the leader in open source database technology, and the #2 open source brand signed Atomic in early 2008 to increase awareness of the company in both the database and open source communities.
ComContext analysis clarified coverage volumes, topics, themes and sources in the media and blogosphere on both the database and open source fronts. In addition, analytics were used to break down the content architecture and requirements for stories in key target media that the company had been unable to penetrate thus far.
Atomic and Ingres then created positioning, messaging and a portfolio of key themes and stories we collectively felt were aligned well with historical interest, connection to current events and projections of what might be interesting in the near term future. Central themes to the content strategy was the illumination of Ingres as the quiet #2 contender in open source and an increasingly viable option alongside or versus Oracle in the enterprise.
The agency also worked with the Ingres team to expand the company's blogging efforts, adding two bloggers to the existing one, creating a yearlong editorial calendar aligned with themes and trends surfaced by ComContext, configuring dashboards to assist the bloggers in easily tracking daily news for potential comment, and providing ongoing editorial support to help the bloggers select topics and post frequently.
The combined results increased Ingres's total media and blog coverage volume by more than 200%+, and its blog traffic by more than 40% within the first six months of execution. In the last quarter of 2008 and throughout early 2009, numerous top tier journalists contacted Ingres bloggers directly after following the content and commentary in the new Ingres blog, resulting in half a dozen pieces in highly influential business outlets.
Notably, after deciding to adopt a strong Atomic recommendation regarding information architecture, Ingres gained significant traction in open source and business coverage next to Red Hat. This week, as we complete this post and after launching a new and more directly confrontational communications initiative introducing "The New Economics of IT", promoting the economics of Ingres and the open source value proposition vs. Oracle in the enterprise, the company received a burst of top business and tech media attention hailing the company and its partners as an increasingly viable challenge to Oracle's licensed software model.
