"Pyxl was a huge help in organizing and implementing the InstantOn campaign. From the conceptual design of the product brand through implementation, they worked closely with me to make sure we were prepared every step of the way. Pyxl is an "on-demand" extension of the marketing efforts at Carpathia and is key in helping me meet the objectives of this campaign, that resulted in a successful product launch."
- Kelly White, Marketing Manager Carpathia Hosting
Carpathia Hosting and Citrix Systems were looking to launch the second generation of an exciting cloud technology product. Because it would be marketed during a time of significant activity with other competing cloud-based technologies, it needed to launch the new product without it getting lost in the rush of other similar announcements in the industry. What came to be known as Carpathia InstantOn, powered by Citrix XenServer, needed to be branded, a go-to-market plan had to be created and then the many parts of that plan had to be implemented in a matter of weeks - not months - in order for the launch to be a success.
Pyxl worked with Carpathia and Citrix to plan for the launch of InstantOn in a tight timeframe in order to avoid missing a huge opportunity within the market. The teams worked together to create a highly-integrated marketing plan, focusing exclusively on online marketing channels including social media, public relations, email, advertising and Pyxl's graphic design and development experience. Through this combined effort, Carpathia Hosting was able to create a fully-developed microsite within 30 days, which served as the foundation to support email promotions, PR and social media campaigns. The result was a highly-successful campaign that drove 16 million online impressions and thousands of hits to the microsite.
URL: Enterprise Cloud
Scope: strategy, campaign management, online branding, graphic design, web development, social networking and public relations
Timeline: 60 days
"We are now nimble and the new marketing model is based on using various internet-based direct marketing techniques. We can think of an idea and execute a Campaign in one week. This flexibility gives us the ability to focus on what works, and eliminate what doesn't."
- Gary Voight, CEO of CorasWorks
CorasWorks, a leading provider of modular application development software for Microsoft SharePoint, was looking for a partner to assist in evolving its overall marketing strategy, reducing its 7 person marketing organization and transforming its marketing model. CorasWorks had a number of challenges it was trying to overcome. Shrinking awareness of CorasWorks in an increasingly crowded marketplace and an expensive seminar-driven marketing model yielding fewer sales were two of the biggest challenges. CorasWorks had too many people, too much marketing spending and not enough results. They needed to act fast.
CorasWorks partnered with Pyxl to transform the CorasWorks marketing strategy, team and model. CorasWorks engaged Pyxl to provide an interim Chief Marketing Officer to lead the marketing transformation as well as provide a breadth of marketing services including strategy consulting, graphic design, web development and public relations.
The interim CMO Pyxl provided worked closely with CEO, Gary Voight and his management team to analyze the overall marketing strategy, the organization and the budget. Within a couple of weeks, a series of recommendations were delivered that included shifting the marketing model to a more cost-effective lead generation model, reducing headcount and evolving the overall marketing strategy to be grounded in a repeatable, campaign-driven model aimed at: (1) increasing awareness; (2) generating quality leads; (3) better positioning CorasWorks' products.
URL: www.corasworks.com
Scope: online branding, market research, graphic design, web development, social networking and public relations
Timeline: 90 days
"We create, execute and manage social media campaigns for nearly all of our clients, so we felt like this was an opportunity for us to tap into our own expertise to help us name our rapidly growing company. Companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars renaming using conventional agency approaches. We thought this was a chance to prove that naming can be done more effectively and efficiently using the power of a focused social media campaign."
- Brian Winter, Founder of Pyxl
After a year of major growth within the company - from a traditional advertising agency to a full-service digital marketing services firm specializing in strategy, online branding, campaign management, social media, public relations, graphic design and web development - the team at Pyxl (formerly Image Communications) decided it was time to rebrand the company and to give it a new name that better matched the expanded capabilities and new focus of the company.
To put a creative, new spin on the naming process, while saving the team time and money, Pyxl created the Help Us Name Us contest.
The contest reached participants from all 50 states, 52 countries and 6 continents. It reached thousands of people and generated thousands of name submissions from people of all walks of life - all in only a two week time period. This process showed the rapidly expanding social media market taking hold all over the world and showed the power of a well-organized plan to create an online brand from the ground up. By using crowdsourcing as a way to make a normally time consuming and cost prohibitive naming process streamlined and efficient, the team was able to show the power and value that exists in the online community.
The contest was simple: visitors to the HelpUsNameUs.com website could enter their name ideas. The team would then narrow down their favorites and allow users to vote. In the end, two people would win an Amazon Kindle2 - the person who submitted the winning name and someone randomly chosen from the pool of voters.
URL: www.helpusnameus.com
Scope: online branding, market research, graphic design, web development, social networking and public relations
Timeline: 2 weeks
Produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a major technology-related trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada, traditionally hosting over 100,000 people. With more than four decades of success, the CES reaches across global markets, connects the industry and enables consumer electronics innovations to grow and thrive. In early 2010, CEA needed to find a company capable of designing and developing the latest version of the CES website, which receives millions of views, and integrating it into the company’s current content management system.
CEA reached out to Pyxl in early 2010 to invite the marketing firm to take part in a request for proposal regarding the design and development of the new CES website. The team was quickly impressed by the Pyxl's skill and knowledge of both graphic design and web development. Pyxl worked hand-in-hand with CEA's technical staff, creating a high-quality website reflective of the large and reputable international event. Pyxl's team seamlessly integrated the new website into CEA's current content management system, incorporating new functionality and social media integration.
URL: www.cesweb.org
Scope: graphic design and web development
Timeline: 60 days
"We've been very pleased with the marketing help Pyxl has given us. They have helped us to greatly exceed our sponsorship goals and have been incredibly responsive to our needs. They have truly become a part of our Challenger team. This is a great event with a great cause, and I am thankful to Pyxl for making this happen. I am confident that this year's Knoxville Challenger will be the best event yet!"
- Howard Z. Blum, Tournament Director
In past years, the Knoxville Challenger's tournament committee felt much frustration when it came to organizing and promoting such a large event. With so much work to be done, it was hard for the team to meet sponsorship goals without a little outside help. When planning for the November 2009 event began, the tournament committee knew it would need to enlist the help of a marketing firm experienced in campaign management. To help ensure event success, the Knoxville Challenger team hired Pyxl.
Pyxl worked with the Knoxville Challenger to develop a campaign plan for the event from beginning to end. The Pyxl team began by designing the event's logo and a professional sponsorship packet and then assisting the Challenger committee in attaining sponsors. With Pyxl's help, the Challenger committee was able to break its fundraising goal by over 200%, raising a total of $156,000 in cash and in-kind donations. Currently, this is the largest amount raised by any Challenger event in the country since the event's inception and is more than double the committee's initial goal of $70,000.
Pyxl also developed a dynamic website, consulted on high-level strategy, and assisted in implementation of social media and public relations outreach, including Twitter and Facebook campaigns. Additionally, Josh Phillips, President at Pyxl, sits on the Challenger committee as an advisor, and the Pyxl team continues to assist in promoting attendance at the event and providing event support.
Scope: strategy, online branding, graphic design, web development, social networking and public relations, collateral creation
Timeline: 9 months
"Pyxl has been a key extension of our marketing team at Carpathia for a while now, and the redesign of our website was no exception. The team worked with us every step of the way to design and develop a website capable of helping us continue on this path of significant growth. They also really showcased their expertise in mobile website development."
- Kelly White, Marketing Manager Carpathia Hosting
After a year of significant growth, Carpathia Hosting needed to redesign its corporate website to offer a more user-friendly experience and place significant focus on its key solution areas. What was once an emerging technology company evolved to become a hosting superpower responsible for handling 1 percent of all international Internet traffic, and the Carpathia management team knew that its website would need to be redesigned in order to reflect the growth of the company and the breadth of offerings it had developed. At the same time, the user interface for the site would need to be streamlined as to not create information overload for visitors while still proving to be a good source of information.
Pyxl worked with Carpathia Hosting to design and develop the latest version of the website. Organized around a sun and satellite model, Pyxl created Carpathia's main site to be very focused with simple navigation, ensuring a user-friendly experience. Off this main site, the team developed satellite "microsites" discussing each of Carpathia's major solutions, allowing current and future customers to find all the information they need in the easiest manner possible.
The Pyxl team also utilized their expertise in mobile by designing and developing a smartphone optimized version of the Carpathia website. While the mobile-enabled site is not a full recreation of the site, its clean interface allows iPhone and Android users to view the slimmed down version of the site on-the-go.
URL: www.carpathia.com
Scope: graphic design, web development, mobile development, copywriting
Timeline: 60 days