Historical Overview

dash Carrier Services (dash) engaged M Group in January 2009 to help raise brand awareness for the 1) Company, 2) Executive team, and 3) its new portfolio of wholesale carrier services.

Of note, is that in January 2010 following the acquisition of VIXXI Solutions, M Group was charged with shifting dash’s messaging and propelling it as the industry’s leading emergency services provider.

Challenge

As a company known only for its e911 for VoIP service, dash faced an uphill challenge of educating the industry on the value and reliability of its expanded solutions portfolio. In addition, following a fairly public “shake-up” at the executive level, the company also needed to solidify the reputation of its team as proven industry experts. Subsequent to its November 2009 acquisition of VIXXI Solutions, it became critical that media outreach eliminate any negative perception regarding its financial concerns, and focus on the strength of its purpose built network, of which dash assumed control.

While dash did possess a fairly significant customer footprint, the Company would need to engage in a proactive, multi-tiered communications program to rebrand itself accordingly — both in 2009 and 2010 — among North American influencers.

Solution

Formally engaged as Public Relations Agency of Record in 2009, M Group Worldwide developed and deployed an aggressive program that would utilize messaging, media and industry analyst relations, as well as with thought leadership.

Results

Together, M Group and dash developed a rich collection of resources in support of a campaign comprised of 1) Strategic Messaging; 2) Direct Market Outreach; 3) Aggressive Influencer Relations; and 4) Thought Leadership.

M Group implemented a tactical communications plan that increased brand awareness among key industry influencers, articulated its longstanding position as the industry’s premier E911 for VoIP provider, and saturated the market with news of its enhanced portfolio of wholesale carrier solutions (pre-VIXXI acquisition).

In conducting the initial perception audit in December 2008, we learned that dash was most recognized for its presence at tradeshows; candidly, more than 75% of individuals with whom we spoke commented on the Company’s “booth girls.” After re-polling a similar sample population in October 2009, we were pleased to learn that our efforts successfully shifted the public awareness “perception meter” to more accurately reflect the Company’s new direction. For more than 2.5 years dash enjoyed a consistent stream of news stories detailing its progress, fiscal growth, new solutions, feature placements, customer testimonials, deployments, vertical market success stories, and regular inclusion in industry roundups. In addition, M Group secured more than 8 speaking opportunities for dash executives over 24 months, and placed multiple bylined contributions in trade and vertical outlets.

In addition to reporting a 40% growth in 2009, new positioning enabled dash to successfully compete for tier-1 business, which contributed to its being acquired by Bandwidth.com.

• Industry Media Coverage: FierceVoIP, Internet Telephony, 9-1-1, Network World, Phone+, Computer Weekly News, Xchange, VON, TMCNET, TelecomWeb, Telephony World, VoIP Monitor, VoIP Biz News, Communications Technology, Telephony, Billing/OSS
• Vertical Media Coverage: Emergency Number Professional, Emergency Emergency, 9-1-1 magazine, Directions, Mission Critical Communications
• VAR/Channel Media Coverage: ChannelVision, Telecom Reseller
• Business Media Coverage: Denver Business Journal, Smart Business
• Thought Leadership — Published bylined articles including:
  • FierceVoIP: ”Unbundling the bundle”
  • Emergency Number Professional: “Top 5 Considerations for TRS Providers”
  • Emergency Number Professional: “Interoperability, Political and Technical Issues Facing Nationwide NG 9-1-1”
  • Executive commentary on SIP interoperability, migration to NG9-1-1, etc., in Communications Technology, NGN–Next Generation Networks, Telephony, XChange, etc.
• More than 8 speaking opportunities secured at top industry conferences including ITEXPO, COMPTEL and the Broadband EXPO
• Other
  • M Group developed, designed and coordinated distribution for dash eNewsletter
  • M Group developed content for industry Webinar, secured senior telecom analyst as moderator, managed process from end-to-end
  • M Group developed Customer Case Studies and testimonials for use in both RFPs and marketing