Case Study
SoftIron: Driving Visibility for an Open Source Storage Start-up
With an established portfolio of successful enterprise-ready storage appliances, SoftIron was in the process of securing their second round of funding and were preparing to raise their profile in the marketplace. With a $32.5 million dollar funding round on the horizon, the company was ready to start a rapid growth phase, expanding its presence across North America, Europe, and the APAC region, building its team around the globe.
As the organization was growing and evolving, so too was their market position and messaging. As a result, SoftIron was in the process of building a compelling and consistent narrative that would resonate with their audiences. OmniScale Media worked with SoftIron’s leadership team to get a deeper understanding of the company’s origins, their offering and the technology with the aim of identifying the immediate potential within key target markets. With their deep background in advanced and emerging technology, coupled with their close attention to the current technology ecosystem, OmniScale helped SoftIron to establish a credible and consistent narrative that would serve as the North Star to their communications efforts.
Building Messaging and Narrative
As the organization was growing and evolving, so too was their market position and messaging. As a result, SoftIron was in the process of building a compelling and consistent narrative that would resonate with their audiences. OmniScale Media worked with SoftIron’s leadership team to get a deeper understanding of the company’s origins, their offering and the technology with the aim of identifying the immediate potential within key target markets. With their deep background in advanced and emerging technology, coupled with their close attention to the current technology ecosystem, OmniScale helped SoftIron to establish a credible and consistent narrative that would serve as the North Star to their communications efforts.
“It didn’t take very long to see the value of bringing on a specialist marketing communications firm that had a clear understanding of the technology and the trends in the market,” says Camaryn Berry, Marketing Director at SoftIron. “OmniScale came in and started asking us some tough questions that not only demonstrated their knowledge of where the industry was going but prompted us to improve on certain areas of our messaging. Their research, feedback and strategic insights were crucial as we considered the go-to-market strategic for the company. OmniScale Media has become a valuable partner helping us to achieve the kind of visibility and consistency in our message that we just didn’t have before.”
Navigating Choppy Waters
Having done a deep dive into market research to help SoftIron gain its bearings into the nuances of how its competitors were positioning themselves and their solutions, OmniScale Media quickly became valuable advisors, helping the company to identify opportunities to leverage their story, as well as areas that needed refinement. The pace began to pick up as the company’s funding announcement approached – a milestone that would be used to launch the company onto many new media and technology analyst radars. Combined with a new product launch, the SoftIron HyperSwitch™, OmniScale helped SoftIron strategize around how to best leverage these announcements for maximum impact.
With mere days to go before the funding announcement was to go live, worldwide calamity struck as news started to turn to the global COVID-19 pandemic, which was forcing businesses to close and disrupting technology events. As well-laid marketing plans started to evaporate, SoftIron found that they had a partner that they could count on for reliable advice on how to best move forward.
“When the unexpected strikes, experienced hands help keep things on track by being able to look at the world through different eyes and understand what’s happening from differing perspectives,” explains Berry. “Having worked in the technology media world, OmniScale Media has demonstrated a deep understanding of not only the important technology dynamics but also the interpersonal ones that affect the day-to-day inner workings of the people whose attention we’re trying to reach. Their advice and consultation has been a continuing source of strength for our team and its efforts in what has turned out to be a very strange period for everyone. The results that we’ve gotten in partnership with OmniScale have continued to impress us.”
After evaluation of the situation, as well as consultation with relationships in the media arena, OmniScale Media advised SoftIron to move forward as planned with some minor alterations to the announcement and outreach plans. SoftIron kept to the plan and received the biggest media month in the company’s history with over 50 media mentions from around the globe. The company had made a splash and were off to the races.
Blog: Staying in the Marketing Driver’s Seat During the Days of Covid-19
– Isaac Lopez
Building a narrative. Driving the narrative.
Working closely with the SoftIron team to develop a narrative, an informed communication strategy designed to build momentum and staying power for the brand within the media was deployed. OmniScale Media has helped the company achieve visibility alongside market leaders, and the momentum is growing by the month. SoftIron has received coverage in dozens of publications, has achieved its first awards from a third-party technology analyst firm, and is seeing the needle move on the discussion of its core technology offering.
“It’s been great to work with OmniScale Media. They’ve been a proactive and reliable partner, and we’re seeing activity across the board that shows we’re gaining traction. The visibility is helping us in our sales discussions, not to mention our strategic outlook. We’re looking forward to what the future brings with our partnership – we see bright days ahead together.”
Getting Noticed and Driving Awareness
To date, OmniScale Media has helped SoftIron secure over 300 media mentions for its news, including standard news, awards, features and contributed articles, including in the following publications:
