WORK WE’VE DONE: CASE STUDIES

Starting life as a public company

Investor outreach and media coverage create visibility for a technology company following its IPO. As a result, institutional ownership more than doubles, valuation nearly triples, and the company sees strong growth in its Fortune 1000 customer base.

Client Challenge: Lack of brand awareness in target market

Virtually invisible outside of its existing customer base, an emerging U.S. communications technology provider wanted to leverage its IPO to generate broader market awareness for the next phase of its growth. The IPO priced successfully and the stock performed well. But it took an aggressive communications campaign to generate name recognition within the company’s target audience of Fortune 1000 decision makers.

Sharon Merrill Approach: Reinforce investor outreach with media coverage

Sharon Merrill introduced the company to sell-side analysts and buy-side portfolio managers likely to be interested in a company with the client’s industry and investment characteristics. This outreach resulted in an extensive series of one-on-one and group meetings and presentations at investor conferences. At the same time, targeted outreach to reporters and editors triggered a series of positive feature stories in major U.S. media outlets.

Results: Higher stock price and target market penetration

Eight positive feature stories appeared in a 12-month period in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, BusinessWeek, The Boston Globe and New England Business. In addition, the national business media consistently covered the company’s financial results, and seven sell-side analysts issued favorable research reports. Institutional stock ownership increased from 20% to more than 50% in the six months following the investor meeting campaign. Valuation nearly tripled from its IPO price of $12.00 in the first nine months of trading, and the company attracted a significant number of new Fortune 1000 customers.