25 Years of Tech Marketing in Silicon Valley
Celebrating 25 Years of Great Client Moments
A lot has changed in Silicon Valley since the 1990s. As part of our 25th
anniversary celebration, we’re opening the archives and sharing Eastwick’s Top 25 Client Moments. Every month, we’ll be sharing three stories — ranging from the early campaigns with Adobe and Oracle, to the award-winning Smart Home Ventures from our Digital Brand Lab.
In 2008, Eastwick began a project that would ultimately go on to be an eight-year relationship with Japanese IT products and services provider, Fujitsu. The company had recently decided to power all of its Silicon Valley data centers with hydrogen fuel cells, and it wanted to create buzz around the new green initiative, as well as create broader awareness around its long-standing culture of sustainability, which included everything from a no-waste disposal policy to 100% biodegradable cafeteria products. At this time, hydrogen fuel technology was still a relatively new concept, so Fujitsu’s decision to actually implement it was incredibly progressive. With only a month to plan the mid-summer announcement, Eastwick worked with representatives from Fujitsu’s local and Japanese offices to develop a corporate-level green messaging framework and planned an exclusive event for the who’s who of the clean energy world. The team created Fujitsu’s landing pages, wrote speeches, and drafted all press material to prepare for the event; and when the day finally arrived it was attended by more than 100 top-tier press representatives, regional politicians and dignitaries, and high-profile executives, not counting the dozens of viewers who tuned in to watch the event’s live stream. As a result, Fujitsu garnered 32 original news articles in publications such as CIO and Computerworld, and was able to plant a flag for itself as a company to watch in green technology. Not long after, the company was even named among the top 12 green IT vendors in the world by Computerworld.
When Eastwick was given the opportunity to work with education technology startup Lynda.com on the company’s first ever funding announcement, it was unlike any the team had ever encountered before. For a “mom and pop” operation, the startup was already an incredibly profitable success. Its co-founder, Lynda Weinman had a cult-following in digital and design-minded freelancers and hobbyists that felt personally connected to her story, and as such the company was ready to expand in a big way — or in this case in 103 million ways. Eastwick guided Lynda.com through the entire announcement process, from media coaching, to messaging about what the funding round would mean for the business, to meeting with influential tech and business press like TechCrunch and Forbes. When the funding news finally broke, it helped relaunch Lynda.com in a very serious way and added half a million subscribers to its client roster. It also allowed the company to set the bar even higher for its Series B — an astonishing $186 million, the announcement of which was also orchestrated by Eastwick. Pleased with media work that Eastwick was able to provide through both rounds, Lynda.com stayed with the agency up until LinkedIn finally acquired it for a record breaking $1.5 billion — the largest ever sale of a female founded startup.
Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) software provider, Nutanix first came to Eastwick as it was still operating in stealth mode. Founded by a group of former Facebook and Google employees, including the inventors of the Google file system, the team had already garnered a great deal of attention for itself based on their resumes alone. However, the business was now looking to formally launch itself in a bold way that would position it as the future of enterprise cloud storage. To achieve this, Eastwick pulled out everything in its arsenal, devising a strategic launch plan highlighting the strengths of the founders’ backgrounds in combination with a celebrity-level endorsement from Nutanix’s latest investor, Khosla Ventures, compelling competitive data and customer testimonials. Each carefully curated element allowed Nutanix to make a big splash in the media, and as a one-two punch the Eastwick team put a slight delay between the startup’s launch and product update news, establishing a “company to watch” status envied by its big box storage competitors. Shortly after the second announcement, Eastwick and Nutanix had to part ways because of a competitive client, however, one of the founders Ajeet Singh, never forgot the great partnership he experienced with Eastwick and brought the agency in again after founding his next venture, ThoughtSpot.
AZUL SYSTEMS
In 2004, Eastwick was invited to pitch Azul Systems, a shiny new startup in the computer software market and the latest brainchild from famed entrepreneur Stephen DeWitt. DeWitt had recently sold his last startup, Cobalt Networks, to Sun Microsystems to the tune of $2 billion. At this time, Azul was a David among the Goliaths of IBM, HP and Sun Microsystems but the company was determined to take on its much larger competitors not only in business deals but in the media as well. To make an impression in this highly competitive pitch, the Eastwick team decided to have a little fun and shoot a faux broadcast news video to accompany their presentation. In it, an Eastwicker stood outside Azul’s office and reported that the secret to the startup’s success was hard liquor — opening a door to reveal compute boards growing out of several bottles of Azul tequila. The creativity of the video, along with the agency’s winning communication strategy ideas, won them the business. In real “stick it to ‘em” style Stephen DeWitt was featured in a Forbes spread later that year holding an Azul server in his lap among rows of ancient data center racks. The media ate it up.
SEAGATE
Over the course of their 10-year partnership, Eastwick worked with Seagate to transform its brand from an antiquated, manufacturing-oriented disc drive producer to a vibrant, mainstream consumer storage innovator. To achieve this lofty goal, the team designed and executed a complex communications program that accounted for everything from traditional corporate earnings announcements and media relations to the business’ first-ever social media strategy and blogger program. The team showcased their creative thinking, ensuring Seagate was a part of as many relevant mainstream conversations and pop culture opportunities as possible — manifesting in mentions on the Ellen DeGeneres show for their pink Susan G. Komen breast cancer awareness thumb drives, and product inclusion in celebrity swag bags for The Grammys, SXSW, MTV and Sundance Film Festival. With each consumer-facing news hit and celebrity engagement, Eastwick chipped further and further away at Seagate’s stuffy B2B perception and created real consumer demand for its “geeky” products. As a culmination of their work, Seagate’s CEO, Bill Watkins, was featured on the cover of Forbes as its 2005 Company Of The Year.
SHORETEL
When Eastwick began work with IP telecommunications provider ShoreTel, in 2007 the team was challenged with creatively bringing the spotlight back to a company after it had already made a splash with a highly successful IPO. They had a fanatical customer base and excellent customer satisfaction scores, but brand awareness had fizzled shortly after their ticker symbol hit NASDAQ, and they were in the right conversations to pitch and close deals. To bring energy back to the company, Eastwick launched ShoreTel’s first social media channels and spearheaded a grassroots social media program to bottle up customer love in the form of user generated content (UGC) contests and bolster business media efforts.
The team also recommended and executed a paid sponsorship with the Giants, which allowed them to hold media events at the ballpark and take reporters behind the scenes of the stadium’s ShoreTel VOIP system. The company even garnered TV news placements during the World Series, which put them on a national stage. Even though AT&T’s name was on the park, it was ShoreTel running the show. Through this aggressive brand building, the company gained back the awareness they lost so early and outpaced market growth for the entire category.
INTERSE
When 21-year old startup founder Terry Myserson moved his small, self-funded web analysis software company, Interse (pronounced inter-say) to an office building in Sunnyvale, California, he had no idea he was about to be neighbors with a communications agency — one that would help him with an acquisition by one of the biggest names in tech.
At a time when websites were really starting to take off, Interse’s technology was very much ahead of the curve in that it helped businesses understand how people navigated their sites and where they were dropping off. They turned to Eastwick to help launch their name in the market and in two years this 30-employee company was boasting more than one thousand enterprise customers. Eastwick worked tirelessly with Terry during this time to tell the Interse story, even renting the cars for his press tours since he wasn’t old enough to get one on his own. Many interviews and press hits later,
Microsoft came knocking and scooped up both Interse’s technology and Terry himself. Today, Terry still works at Microsoft as EVP, Windows and DevicesGroup.
MERCURY INTERACTIVE
In the early 2000’s, business process optimization provider Mercury Interactive came to Eastwick with one very specific goal: to become a billion dollar company. Their greatest obstacle to achieving this was low visibility — they were known only as a simple point solution and therefore were selling too far down in the organizations with which they did business. What they needed was a major brand transformation to get on the radars of CIOs and Eastwick had just the trick — new category creation.
Working very closely with both Mercury Interactive and analyst firm, Gartner, Eastwick established the Business Technology Optimization (BTO) category to fill the enterprise technology gap. This reset the entire competitive landscape for Mercury Interactive and put them front and center of all the action. As a result, their press mentions, and stock prices, skyrocketed. At the height of their work, Eastwick helped the company organize an amazing customer event on Ellis Island, emceed by American television personality, Lou Dobbs, that brought together CIOs from across the nation to discuss top technology challenges in their organizations. The event was such a hit, it only significantly increased the level of conversation around BTO and cemented Mercury’s position as a leader in the space.
SONIC WALL
Over the years, Eastwick has been at the center of many major acquisitions, leading to bigger companies with much bigger budgets. Its work with Sonic Wall was no exception. In 2003, Sonic Wall was a mostly unheard of security startup that signed on as one of Eastwick’s first ever security clients. By this time the Internet had been around long enough that the topic of security had completely been elevated. It was at the forefront of every executive’s mind and there was a lot of conversation about the different products and services helping protect enterprises from the kinds of crippling breaches that could take them down permanently.
Sonic Wall’s voice was needed in this conversation, taking very creative and unexpected angles with the different verticals Eastwick targeted, such as SMB and education. Creative programs such as a “chalk talk” series done in partnership with Adobe and local schools promoting the importance of Internet security and Firewall protection against hackers, as well as content filtering in grade schools — to name a few.
Eventually the startup was acquired by Dell, which ended the relationship on a positive note. But just like a very slow-moving boomerang, Eastwick was back with the Sonic Wall team 10 years later, this time as the agency of record for Dell Software and at the forefront of their communication initiatives.
HP
Though Eastwick has worked with HP on many occasions over the course of its 25-year history, few engagements have ever matched the depth or complexity of the first. In the late 1990’s HP brought in Eastwick to help run communications for a single division of its storage business. It was during a time when few people were talking about storage or its impact on the enterprise, and any “buzz” was driven by monotonous product updates. Eastwick helped HP separate itself from the pack by bringing storage to life for reporters. They organized HP’s first Extreme Storage event, which brought together all of the company’s storage divisions — from optical disc storage to consumer backup devices — to represent a unified face of storage to the media. The team learned of a use case in which National Geographic stored all the underground photo images and video filming of a shipwreck dive for a feature article and show. Eastwick coordinated having the photographer, filmmaker and spokesperson for the dive show the film at the IMAX theatre at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. It brought storage to life indeed. They also developed relationships with product testing labs to allow reporters to simulate large enterprise environments and see products in action first hand. These efforts resulted in major business press and within a year, the account grew to eight storage divisions, representing $4 billion of HP’s total revenue.
SOFTBOOK PRESS
Before there were Kindle Fires and Paperwhites, there was SoftBook Press. Started by tech luminaries Tom Pomeroy and Jim Sachs in the early 90’s, this company was one of the very first to launch the category that would go on to become that of today’s beloved e-readers. At the time, this was completely new territory for digital devices so Sachs and Pomeroy employed Eastwick to help them message the opportunities and serious business uses for their technology. They didn’t want to be just another gadget, nor did they want to be pigeon holed into the education market because of their obvious classroom application. Leaning on its prior experience with Palm, Eastwick worked with SoftBook Press and various analysts to find the perfect positioning in time for launch. They also ensured competitor, Rocketbook did not outshine them with their own launch news, by working closely with business reporters all the way up until the day of the announcement. In the end, the launch was a success and garnered unbelievable press. After that Eastwick and SoftBook continued to be friendly up until the company was eventually sold to Gemstar for what can only be described as “a lot of money.” Jim Sachs is still recognized as one of our favorite Eastwick clients all these years later. He was brilliant, kind and an amazing person to work with. Best known as the co-designer and patent holder of the Macintosh “mouse,” he took great pride in what he called “the business of engineering.” His passing in 2002 from lymphoma was a sad day indeed.
AUTODESK
In addition to strong culture, investment in people, and a willingness to do things differently, one of Eastwick’s greatest strengths over the years has always been its ability to create fanatical clients — and Auotdesk’s Linda Clarke was one such client. Linda had worked with Eastwick at two of her previous marketing jobs, including Adobe, before bringing them in yet again at software company, Autodesk in 1999. She knew Eastwick’s results very well and that the team could make a big impact quickly, helping increase the company’s valuation. At the time, Autodesk was evolving through acquisitions and product updates, and looking to position itself as more of a global design company than simply the “makers of Auto CAD.” Eastwick was able to deliver on this change in market perception and position them as a global leader in design software by focusing on a number of customer wins and case studies. One of the most powerful case studies Eastwick utilized was the expansion of the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), which showcased the power of the Autodesk’s online collaboration capabilities before collaboration was even a market. After her time at Autodesk, Linda went on to work with Eastwick at two more companies. She eventually took her fanaticism to a whole new level when she joined the agency in 2006.
KEYNOTE
The year is 1995. The client is Keynote. The challenge is finding a creative way to announce Keynote’s upcoming IPO without getting drowned out by the first rumblings of the dot com bust. By this time the fledgling Eastwick team had been working together for a few years. They had each taken companies public in their past lives but this would be the first time they’d try doing it under the Eastwick name. To add another layer of complexity to the situation, the team also knew several other high profile companies would be going public on the same day. Instead of fighting for the attention of reporters in the 24-hour period leading up to Keynote’s IPO, Eastwick instead lined up exclusives with a handful of key reporters well in advance and offered a special “day-in-the-life of going public” opportunity to a San Jose Mercury News reporter who would be able to shadow Keynote’s CEO the entire day of the announcement. The strategy was a success and Keynote’s story ran on the front page of the business section the very next
day with a full size photo of the CEO addressing employees.
BUSINESS OBJECTS
When describing a typical agency-client relationship, the word “longevity”probably isn’t the first to come to mind, but that is exactly how we’d describe the love affair between Eastwick and Business Objectives, affectionately referred to as Bob-J by their account team. Over the course of a decade, Eastwick worked with Bob-J in the hotly contested Business Intelligence (BI) market so see them through eight acquisitions, the opening of a U.S. headquarters, and their rise to a billion dollar company. The road was filled with challenges but Eastwick proved itself to be a key partner and was even trusted with the task of helping the CEO write and publish a business book on the power of business intelligence. After first negotiating the deal then working with editors and promoting the piece the book went on to become a best seller in nine different languages and cemented Bob-Jay’s position as a thought leader in the enterprise software category. Notonly did the team continue to secure top tier coverage for the company in key business and trade publications but also worked to have the CEO named toBusinessWeek’s “Stars of Europe and Time Europe’s “Digital 25.”
WEBTV
In 1997, web television display company, WebTV reached out to Eastwick to helpthem make their biggest announcement to date — the next generation of their technology, WebTV 2.0. The announcement would be critical for WebTV asMicrosoft had just announced its intent to acquire the company later that year and they needed to continue showing market strength. WebTV approachedEastwick because they were uncertain whether their agency at the time could produce the results they were looking for, and it was still too early to lean on Microsoft’s team even the though the acquisition deal was all but in the bag.Eastwick accepted the challenge and knocked it out of the park with major business press in every publication. Both WebTV and Microsoft were so pleased that Eastwick was later asked to pitch for several Microsoft projects down the line.
ORACLE
In 1991, Eastwick’s first year on the tech PR scene, our founders tapped into their professional networks and landed one of the company’s first and largest enterprise clients — Oracle. At this time the database provider enjoyed plenty of name recognition in the market, but struggled with positioning its technology in an appealing way to business decision makers. To remedy this, Eastwick developed an aggressive media and analyst relations program focused on communicating the many ways Oracle could help their customers compete, run and protect their businesses. After the project ended, Oracle went on to keep Eastwick as their AOR for a full year — quite a coup for a scrappy little agency.
PALM
On the heels of the Apple Newton announcement in 1992, personal digital assistant (PDA) pioneer, Palm, was on the cusp of making its own big splash with the launch of Palm OS: a standalone software product that could be purchased and utilized by any device maker in the PDA space. With Apple’s entrance into the market, reporters nationwide became very interested in the possibilities of hand-held computers. As this was before the days of a computer being in every home, many storylines revolved around imagining the future, and what the applications would be for such easy access to knowledge. Eastwick worked with Palm to tell these stories, and in so doing, proved we could help clients navigate the major transformational shifts occurring in their industries.
ADOBE
Beginning in 1994 and lasting through the late ’90s, Eastwick worked with Adobe on a number of product-focused communications campaigns, including the anniversary of beloved design tool, Photoshop. At the time that Adobe’s Vice President of Marketing brought Eastwick on, the company’s stock was at an all-time low. They needed Eastwick’s strong media connections to help establish their business as the number one brand in the graphics industry. This relationship also resulted in further business for Eastwick as Adobe’s VP continued to bring the agency along with her as she moved to ePeople, Autodesk and other companies.
