Netgear: The move from Big IT to Smart IT
Assignment
NETGEAR hired Atomic in 2010 to help the company up-level coverage, exposure and visibility across all markets, continue to build its strong customer base in the home and grow SMB and mid-enterprise adoption of its networking, storage and security solutions.
ComContext research showed that coverage for its market categories tended to be product news and reviews driven with a focus on speeds and feeds, and lacked dynamic market commentary or mainstream dialogue.
Atomic recommended a series of steps to broaden and invigorate coverage across its categories, in addition to developing an overarching theme to amplify and tie its efforts together - The move from Big IT to Smart IT:
- Connect the dots and tie products together
- Unify the brand
- Tie to what NETGEAR products do - Achievements, futures, trends
- Talk enterprise and prove it
Results
In the first 90 days, Atomic raised awareness and shifted NETGEAR's positioning from widespread associations of blue router boxes for the home, to the reality that the company is a world leader across a range of home entertainment products, "Smart IT" products for the mid-enterprise, and retail-tested solutions for Internet service providers. Results were up by every important measure.
- Total coverage up 380%, from 81 to 388 articles
- 49% of coverage is feature length vs. 17% in previous quarter
- 17 reviews placed vs. 11 in previous quarter; also nearly twice as many reviews in process to 52 from 30 (product already in influencer hands)
- Press release volume up 60%
Analyst Event & Biggest Newsday Ever
Assignment
On November 5, 2010, Atomic supported NETGEAR's Analyst Day for the investment community at the NASDAQ building in New York City. CEO Patrick Lo laid out NETGEAR's growth plan for the next five years along with a summary of 10 separate news announcements to hit the same day.
Results
The day's activities and news announcements drove 40+ articles and broadcast clips unified under the "Move from Big IT to Smart IT" theme, equaling 50 million impressions:
- Resulting coverage highlights included four company feature and profile stories in the New York Times, Motley Fool, Investor's Business Daily, and VentureBeat.
- 3 video interviews appeared on Fox Business News, Forbes Video Network and TheStreet.com.
- In total, 40+ unique articles appeared from top-tier publications including Investor's Business Daily, New York Times, PC Magazine, InformationWeek, IT Business Edge, Motley Fool, CTO Edge and ZDNet and captured a total of 25,161,925 in reader and viewership circulation.
