Story Public Relations is a group of senior level executives with extensive experience in technology public relations, marketing communications, journalism, and market analysis. By focusing on technology, networking, and related products and services over the past 20 years, our team has weathered both the Bubble and the Nuclear Winter by delivering superior communications strategy, outstanding tactical execution, and unsurpassed responsiveness to the needs of our clients.


Strategy

Our team has been promoting computer and networking technology since the early 1980s. Our direct experience as industry analysts gives us a clear understanding of networking and enterprise computing technology and markets in every client engagement, which allows us to quickly place our clients' key values in the best perspective for strong differentiation and market interest. Our unique strategic approach to positioning, messaging, and reaching editorial and analyst contacts has helped propel such companies as Ascend Communications, Kasenna, MIPS Computer Systems, Peribit Networks, Riverstone Networks, and Sun Microsystems to greater public recognition and success.


Messaging

Every successful communications program starts with a great story. Typically our clients understand what their products do and why they’re technically different, but they have difficulty describing the unique values of their products in a way that excites the press and analyst communities. In our messaging work, we bring a clear, independent understanding of our target press and analysts’ interests and topical market trends to the process, allowing us to shape our clients’ technical values into news of major significance. And, rather than crafting one message to fit all markets, we custom-tailor each outbound promotion to the unique needs of the editor or analyst for which it is intended so as to generate maximum impact.


Execution

With senior account personnel handling direct media and analyst outreach, we have a thorough understanding of our clients' technology and markets as well as long-term media and analyst contacts. Since we have worked with most of the key editors and analysts in the markets we cover for years, if not decades, we have a solid understanding of their likes and dislikes. Having worked as analysts and journalists ourselves, we are intimately familiar with the process of researching a report or story, and we know exactly how to package a story to maximize the likelihood of its being covered.

Story offers a broad scope of public relations and communications services designed to meet and exceed our clients’ financial and business objectives. Our seasoned counselors have a remarkable track record in packaging and pitching business, technology, and consumer platforms for clients ranging from technology start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

One important differentiator of our firm lies in our fee structure: we don’t believe in agency retainers. From time to time, new clients request a retainer structure, and we are happy to accommodate the request. However, in our opinion the client receives a better product and more value for its investment when the agency team is compensated for actual hours worked rather than through a pre-assigned monthly retainer with “pie-in-the-sky” hours.


Results

Our highly targeted approach to media and analyst relations delivers a very strong effort/reward ratio that maximizes the use of our clients’ budgets and provides more substantive and therefore more effective coverage. While we strive for the broadest possible coverage for major client events, we also aim primarily for high quality coverage (feature articles and profiles) over a shotgun approach that lands brief mentions taken from the company’s latest press release in the News sections of a dozen Web sites. We are especially adept at placing market education pieces such as contributed articles that reset the market’s attitude about the requirements for a solution, profiles that elevate the prominence of a client’s senior executives, and case studies that demonstrate the value of our clients’ solutions to prospects who are likely to buy them.


Measurement

At the beginning of each engagement, we create specific goals for our programs, and then track our progress through weekly status meetings and monthly detailed written reports. We are in contact with most clients on a daily basis, so we can adjust programs on the fly to achieve better results, to accommodate surprise events, or to avoid cost overruns.