Happeo, the social intranet and collaboration platform had just closed funding in a Series A funding round in summer 2020. The company was raising its platform and scaling up to hundreds of employees. This was news, and it was big. For something like this you want to shout in exultation from a rooftop, but a voice can only carry so far. Happeo needed this launch of funding news to reverberate and be heard globally. That is why they came to PRLab, they wanted to make waves.
Happeo approached PRLab with the goal to launch funding news on a global scale. The intrepid Finnish company wanted comprehensive and international coverage and knew PRLab, strategically positioned in Amsterdam and worldwide as the go-to tech PR agency for startups, could provide it. The news needed to be spread out to key international publications, in target markets, and fast. The average coverage achieved for funding news is in ten publications. PRLab would seek to beat that exponentially.
Time is always of the essence, and PRLab hit the ground running. They assembled a global team, with PRLab as the fulcrum, able to pull the strings and coordinate with other partners to make sure when the time came for the launch of funding news, everything would be set and ready. Making noise for the news of any launch happens to be one of PRLab’s specialties, and they quickly divided up the work and set out to conquer.
Since the news needed to be on a global scale, PRLab’s dedicated research team went to work. To maximise noise for a launch, in depth research into competitors, media and journalists is of utmost importance. PRLab surveyed the lists and divided the media into tiers and selectively picked the journalists and publications that would provide the right and loudest coverage.
They took time to analyse Happeo’s competitors in order to find ways to make the coverage stand out from the rest. Along with keyword analysis, PRLab could effectively begin crafting the right sound and tone for the pitches and press releases to be shared with the targeted media.
In all, five extensive internal documents were made and also shared with PRLab’s allies in the other regions to initiate the approach of the media.
As with any big launch of funding news, press releases play a vital role in spreading the word to as many outlets as possible.
This was a launch on a global scale, so PRLab composed three press releases made to affect different regions and that were then translated into decisive international languages.
Using the thorough research, targeted Tier 1 media in Finland, The US and NL were pitched under embargo. Four different and distinct pitches were composed from different angles. PRLab used these varied angles to hit media of different sectors that would amplify the noise of the launch of funding news.
PRLab knew that Happeo wanted to especially maximise impact in the US, the NL, and Finland, so they approached key media in those countries for an exclusive interview with Happeo’s CEO, Pertttu Ojansuu. Landing one with VentureBeat in the US, Het Financieele Dagblad in the NL, and Kauppalehti in Finland. Knowing the media inside and out, PRLab arranged two media training sessions with Ojansuu so that his voice, words, and company ethos would be shared effectively and help grow their reputation.
As the saying goes, results speak for themselves, and the results spoke. PRLab made it a mission to make noise for this, and shattered the average coverage for a launch of funding. Over 60 pieces of coverage landed in various markets all over the world, with a massive spike on the day of the launch.
And, much more internationally.
The results speak for themselves, they said.
Over 279 million in online readership, an estimated 300k in coverage views, and over 100 social shares, were gained from the efforts of PRLab. Not to mention the hundreds of new leads they got the day of the launch.
Happeo came to PRLab to make noise that the world would hear, and take notice on their close of funding. It was an unequivocal success.
