JPMorgan/Xign: Making accounts payable sexy, again

Xign hired Atomic to help the company create greater awareness about its on-demand enterprise accounts payable automation solution and online settlement network, and to make accounts payable strategy a key enterprise business priority.

ComContext™ analysis showed that accounts payable automation solutions did not generate high volume media or blog coverage. Vendor networks showed a bit more traction, but volume and top tier attention looked like a challenge. However, Xign had a number of high profile customers willing to talk with media and bloggers, and a stable of executive experts who could comment on key news and trends, headed by recognized financial software visionary Tom Glasanos.

Informed with a clear view of covering outlets, key topics, and an accurate history of primary dialog drivers, Atomic built a strategy around themes that were not present yet, but should be. Further analysis of articles of the caliber sought clearly identified the requirements of such stories for the Atomic team and Xign.
The team then created a portfolio of themes and stories supporting Xign's objectives. Notables included: "Xign: making accounts payable sexy again", "The unlikely new breed of market-beating portfolio managers in accounts payable", casting the 38% annual return that enterprises could achieve by more strategically managing A/P against top stock pickers on Wall Street", "How conventional late pay strategies foil easy double digit profit increases", and "Should paper checking die?", which promoted the efficiency of online settlement.

The "Sexy again" pitch quickly opened the door to numerous new relationships with media and bloggers who began to see the strategic value of new A/P strategy. The themes and story angles rolled out soon captured imagination and generated coverage in CNBC, Forbes, Bloomberg, CFO, Business Finance, Baseline, San Francisco Business Times, among others. We leveraged Xign's high profile customers into positive media coverage with publications such as CFO and Baseline Magazine, among others.

Xign's coverage increased more than 400% in the first nine months, followed by an additional 260% increase in the second nine months. The brand achieved substantial coverage across all desired themes, and commandeered the dominant share of dialog on key topics at 41%, with 43% positive sentiment. After 18 months, Xign was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in what was described by many as a watershed moment for the A/P industry.