opportunity
TomorrowNow broke into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market with a brilliant idea: where ERP software companies held a monopoly on their service and maintenance contracts, TomorrowNow could offer a better, less costly choice. The company was one of the first to deliver third-party support for ERP software applications - specifically, the maintenance and support of PeopleSoft applications - and its business model was a winner. Within a few short years, the company had carved out a niche for itself, earning the respect of customers and competitors alike.

Despite its success, TomorrowNow faced a threat to its future growth. When PeopleSoft rival Oracle launched a hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft, TomorrowNow's story slipped into the dark shadows of the bitter and very public battle between the companies.

But Loomis Group saw the threat as a golden marketing opportunity. TomorrowNow engaged Loomis Group to orchestrate a two-month publicity campaign targeting the 2004 PeopleSoft User Conference. With the odds stacked against us, we set out to grab attention from a media obsessed with the clashing tech titans.

idea
Loomis Group began where all good PR campaigns should begin: with an irresistible story.

Our thinking? Instead of drawing attention away from the PeopleSoft-Oracle battle, we leveraged the drama. We'd build an attention-grabbing campaign based on compelling, original story angles.

Where media stories about the hostile takeover struck fear in the hearts of PeopleSoft users, TomorrowNow would reassure customers, letting them know that the fate of their ERP application support rested safely in its hands. We'd position TomorrowNow as the white knight who would support their software applications no matter who won the takeover war.

execution
As any master storyteller knows, a great story is all in the plotting.

We began our campaign by influencing the influencers. We embarked on a bi-coastal tour, pre-briefing our targeted analyst heavyweights. The tour served two purposes:

• first, to test and refine our messages, and
• second, to secure analyst endorsements

By reaching out to the analyst community, Loomis Group hoped to create third-party champions who were willing to validate TomorrowNow's value proposition. Our target lists included the likes of:

• AMR Research
• Aberdeen Group
• Forrester Research
• Gartner
• IDC
• Meta
• Yankee Group

The strategy worked: our messages wooed analysts and encouraged high-profile user endorsements from companies like Praxair, PETCO, Safeway Stores and the City of Atlanta - and made them all part of our story, one we were confident the media could not ignore.

So, with the stage set, Loomis Group went direct to the media, launching a regional press tour in San Francisco and Boston, targeting more than 15 in-person briefings with tier-one business and trade publications.

Again, the strategy worked: editors covering the PeopleSoft-Oracle story saw TomorrowNow as a neutral party-a calm in the media storm-and looked to TomorrowNow to provide balance to their he-said/she-said stories.

influence
Loomis Group's campaign for TomorrowNow earned unprecedented results, elevating a relatively unknown company and its story to the pages of the most prestigious business, technology and news media, including:

• Wall Street Journal
• BusinessWeek
• C|Net: News.com
• eWeek
• InformationWeek
• InfoWorld
• Associated Press
• Contra Costa Times
• CBSMarketWatch.com
• CIO Today
• Executive Technology
• Intelligent Enterprise
• InternetNews.com
• Managing Automation
• Network World
• Reuters
• VAR Business
• New York Times
• Forbes.com
• CNN
• CBS News
• MSNBC
• San Francisco Chronicle

Best of all, the tangible results were undeniable:

• TomorrowNow noted a major spike in new business leads.
• Following Oracle's final winning bid to acquire PeopleSoft, industry giant and Oracle competitor SAP hailed TomorrowNow as a strategic resource by providing alternatives for PeopleSoft users who might otherwise have migrated to Oracle-based applications.
• Less than six months later, SAP acquired TomorrowNow, a move that bolstered the business while allowing it to retain an independent brand and marketing team. What's more, when SAP acquired TomorrowNow, the once small, innocuous third-party player became the fulcrum of the battle between Oracle and SAP.

And the story didn't end there. The coverage we garnered so surpassed expectations that TomorrowNow chose Loomis Group as its agency of record.

Now that's what we call living happily ever after.