Beyond the Trades: Generating Business Press for an Industry Innovator

Aruba Networks, a provider of wireless networking gear for enterprises, was on an upswing. The company’s sales and revenues were strong, its products were highly regarded and – after years of stagnancy – Aruba’s stock price was on the rebound.

Breakaway Communications was hired by Aruba Networks to build awareness of its successes in major media outlets. Breakaway had already been successfully handling trade press outreach for Aruba for some time.

The goal was to position Aruba as an innovator and industry leader in wireless networking, with a keen business strategy.

Our Strategy

  • Leverage Aruba’s advancing stock price to garner coverage from writers covering stocks, especially those looking for “growth” companies, and use this coverage (which positioned Aruba as a hot company to watch) as a springboard to generate interest from a wider array of writers. Breakaway identified eight key writers that were covering stock movement of competitors, and worked closely with them to make sure they were aware of Aruba and the company’s strong financial position
  • Take advantage of Aruba’s smarts, nimble size and grasp of industry issues to position the executive team in the thick of issues and trends. We scheduled regular briefings on industry issues and trends for key industry writers with executives. When news broke, the Aruba executive team was already positioned as the thought leader on various topics
  • Up-level the company’s news announcements so they would be of interest to major media, using industry trends to make them relevant to a broader audience

The Results

More than twenty briefings with outlets including Investor’s Business Daily, Dow Jones, TheStreet.com, Fast Money Half-Time Report on CNBC, CNNMoney and the Financial Times

Stellar coverage, positioning the company as a leading player in the industry and a serious competitor to Cisco, including: