Karbo Communications

Karbo Communications quickly hit the ground running, strategizing with TUC on an in-depth messaging exercise with the aim of establishing TDK as the go-to company for electronics such as capacitors and inductors, as well as sensors and energy units.

To take advantage of TDK’s presence at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Karbo Communications reached out to its key press contacts to line up interviews featuring demonstrations of products previously shown only to customers at TDK’s invitation-only booth. Through face-to-face meetings with influential journalists, TDK spokespeople shared their knowledge with reporters looking to better understand the key trends and technologies driving the trends on display at CES.  By also providing on-site support at the conference, Karbo Communications prioritized chronicling the events to grow TDK’s social media channels and engagement with key influencers as well.

In the first four months of collaborating, Karbo Communications increased TDK’s media visibility in North America by both opportunistically inserting the company in timely conversations, and by garnering the interest of business and trade press reporters –  including those attending CES 2017. The agency also took over managing @tdkamerica’s social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter by following relevant reporters and influencers and sharing appropriate industry articles in a timely manner.

As a direct result of Karbo’s aggressive media outreach, TDK garnered coverage from meetings at CES for total reach/impressions of 16,882,995, increased social media reach significantly and expanded social media engagement by 710%. Additionally, the meetings netted unsolicited requests for TDK-authored bylines on important technical topics of interest to engineers who design electronic circuits and devices for information and communications devices, automotive electronics, and industrial/energy markets.

Following a successful messaging revamp, Karbo Com and RTI developed a launch plan for their new security product, Connext DDS Secure. Being the first security product for the IIoT, the agency pursued an aggressive outreach strategy. 

In October 2018, RTI broke into the autonomous drive market by announcing their first Connext product offering designed specifically for the development of autonomous vehicles: Connext 6. In order to drive awareness in a priority market, Karbo Com pursued aggressive outreach to key media and industry analysts. Karbo Com also established a thought leadership campaign for the head of RTI’s autonomous systems division, Bob Leigh. Over the course of the next two years, Karbo Com continued momentum by driving opportunistic media campaigns and leveraging RTI execs as spokespeople for topical issues and trends in the autonomous vehicle industry. In late 2019, Karbo Com worked with RTI to showcase the company’s newest automotive offering, Connext Drive, at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where Karbo Com reached out to key press contacts and influencers to secure interviews, while allowing press to experience the Connext Drive product demo in an autonomous vehicle simulation booth on the show floor. Both leading up to and after the CES, Karbo Com worked with RTI to execute media campaigns, highlighting autonomous vehicle customer successes such as Aptiv, Xpeng Motors and Baidu, in order to further validate RTI’s technology and its pivotal role in the development of next-generation driverless vehicles.

As RTI’s market has grown and advanced, Karbo Com worked with RTI to refine their current messaging to resonate with their evolving customer base. As the multi-year partnership has progressed, Karbo Com has continued to drive impactful and integrated PR and content programs across all of RTI’s five key verticals including healthcare, energy, transportation, automotive and aerospace and defense.

Karbo Com developed and executed an aggressive plan for TIBCO customers, product experts, and its thought leadership team that discussed the current and upcoming challenges for today’s business landscape. The team focused on TIBCO’s unique combination of deep understanding of the current market with the advantage of a long history of helping customers succeed. Karbo Com’s plan allowed media the opportunity to dive deep on TIBCO’s current product suite — a much-needed educational refresh. Karbo Com also developed a thought leadership platform for TIBCO’s C-suite, including having the CEO and CMO connect directly with media to discuss the current state of the company and share future plans and vision, elevating TIBCO’s brand awareness and credibility.

Karbo Communications hit the ground running, offering strategic counsel and teaming up with Hootsuite on various media campaigns and product launches. Simultaneously, the agency began pursuing a thought leadership program for Hootsuite executives to discuss the role of social media in societal and business communication. Karbo Com also began securing contributed articles and introductory interviews with top journalists, amplifying U.S. market awareness. 

The agency worked with Hootsuite to leverage the company’s data platform to drive thought and market leadership, leading a number of proactive media campaigns tied to timely industry news and events. As the COVID-19 crisis hit around the world, the agency saw an immediate change in tone and conversation on social media. Karbo Com identified trending COVID-19 topics and hashtags on social, working with Hootsuite to pull relevant data from their platform. Karbo Com worked to analyze the findings and identify compelling trends within the data around sentiment and top hashtags related to COVID-19. The agency conducted aggressive media outreach, garnering two back-to-back pieces of coverage in Forbes while establishing Hootsuite as the go-to resource for timely social media data. 

Karbo Com also drove various media campaigns for Hootsuite, most recently for Digital 2020, Hootsuite and We Are Social’s annual report on social media and digital trends. Karbo Com worked side-by-side with the Hootsuite team and chief analyst Simon Kemp to identify key market trends, recommend topics for data collection, analyze the data findings and recommend a media outreach strategy. Karbo Com executed on media outreach, securing joint media interviews with Simon Kemp and Hootsuite’s VP of corporate marketing, Henk Campher, and securing coverage in Forbes and ZDNet. 

In July 2020, Karbo Com worked with Hootsuite to announce their newly appointed CEO, Tom Keiser. As a result, Karbo Com secured an exclusive feature story in Fortune Magazine.

The agency began the relationship with a strategic positioning process that helped articulate the company’s core differentiation from the existing players in the market.  The positioning focused on how the team of DDoS experts was assembled, as well as how new technologies developed by Defense.Net were best positioned to mitigate the new generation of sophisticated DDoS attacks that were regularly disrupting the operations of the largest banks and enterprises.

The agency also developed a launch plan that focused on positioning the company in the context of the top trends and issues in the DDoS market.  The goal was to secure widespread coverage in enterprise-focused media and gain the support of the top market analysts.  The team embarked on a two-tiered strategy beginning with the launch of the company, followed by the introduction of the company’s first product a month later.  Ongoing coverage was secured by inserting Defense.Net into conversations around regular attacks, and via contributed articles, social media, industry awards and top tier security conferences.

The Karbo team began aggressively pitching the enterprise, technology, financial and security trade press, scheduling interviews with top journalists and bloggers.  Coverage in top tier press was extensive and Defense.Net met with the top analysts in enterprise security.  The team also secured a position as a Top Ten Finalist at RSA in the Innovation Sandbox.  This exposure created awareness, generated leads and most importantly, gave Defense.Net the credibility and stature needed to sell their services to banks and large enterprises that are typically skeptical of unproven technology startups.