"Pyxl was a huge help in organizing and implementing the AlwaysOn/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 was looking to launch an exciting new Cloud technology product to market during a time of significant activity with other competing cloud-based technologies. They needed to be able 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 AlwaysOn/InstantOn 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 Hosting to plan for the launch of Carpathia's AlwaysOn/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. The new microsite served as the foundation to support email promotions, PR and social media campaigns and culminated in two live webcasts attended by members of industry leading organizations.
Scope: strategy, campaign management, online branding, graphic design, web development, social networking and public relations
Timeline: planned and launched in under 30 days - on going suport
"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
"We were quite impressed with the quality of the website Pyxl built for us, especially given our tight timeframe. The team immediately grasped what we were trying to achieve and then proved extraordinarily responsive during development. They launched a very professional website very quickly and enabled us to have a critical marcom component in place prior to an important trade show."
- Larry Siegel, Vice President of Marketing at Ventraq
Worldwide telecommunications and enterprise solutions provider, Ventraq, needed a company to build the newest version of www.ventraq.com. The site needed to reflect the recently introduced brand look and feel, portraying a professional, friendly and efficient image. Ventraq also needed the site to be built quickly and have it launched prior to a critical industry trade show. In addition, it was essential for Ventraq marketing team to update content on the site periodically in a quick and easy manner.
Ventraq hired Pyxl to design and develop the new company website. The project highlighted a major strength of the Pyxl team - the website was turned around in under two weeks and was delivered on time to meet Ventraq's specifications. Utilizing a flexible project schedule, Pyxl was able to work with the Ventraq team to quickly identify their needs and work with them to meet a tight deadline. In addition, the site was built on the Joomla! content management system, allowing site managers from the Ventraq team to update content on the site quickly and easily without having to use code. This feature empowered Ventraq to update their own site content and greatly reduced costs.
URL: www.ventraq.com
Scope: graphic design and web development
Timeline: under 2 weeks
"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