May 18, 2011 in Media Orchard, Public Relations by Orchardo
CLIENT NEWS: RiseSmart, ShopSavvy Rake in the Awards

In a world where thousands of technology companies are sending out press releases touting themselves as the next big thing, one way to separate yourself from the pack is to apply for, and win, industry awards for your company or products. This tells the media, analysts and other influencers — not to mention your customers — that your claims are more than talk.

Our client RiseSmart was recently named to the siTech 10, awarded by SiliconIndia.com to the 10 most promising technology companies. The honor was accompanied by a two-page article in the May issue of SiliconIndia magazine.

It’s not the only award RiseSmart has added to its mantle of late. The company was just named a finalist for the Red Herring Top 100 North America award; has been selected as one of the Best Places to Work in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal; was honored as a TiE 50 finalist; and was recognized as a Champion of Diversity by the American Association for Affirmative Action.

ShopSavvy, the leading mobile shopping assistant for smartphone users, is another longtime client that has been snapping up the awards for some time.

I was just compiling a list of ShopSavvy’s awards and recognition for a presentation, so I thought I’d share it here as well:

  • 50 Best iPhone Apps 2011, Time Magazine. Time declared the app “a must-have for professional bargain hunters.”
  • 2010 Best App Ever Award. ShopSavvy was cited for “Best Use of iOS Hardware” in the Best App Ever Awards, presented by 148apps.com at the Macworld 2011 Expo.
  • CES 2010 Top 20 Mobile App. ShopSavvy was named one of the top 20 apps in the CES Mobile Apps Showdown by a panel of expert screeners from a variety of influential, independent tech sites.
  • Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator. ShopSavvy won the Entertainment Technology category at the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW Interactive 2010. The two-day event is an annual competition where startups pitch their businesses to a panel of judges, including venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and industry experts, in front of a live audience.
  • Under the Radar, Best App iPhone 2009. Under the Radar brings together CIOs, investors, industry execs, analysts, and media into an entertaining and insightful high-speed short-form blitzkrieg of information and ideas, awarding the best pitches.
  • Netexplorateur of the Year Winner. ShopSavvy was named one of 10 global winners of the 2009 Netexplorateur of the Year award, honoring the year’s most promising digital innovations. ShopSavvy accepted the award in February 2009 at the French Senate in Paris.
  • MobileMonday Mobile Peer Awards Finalist. ShopSavvy was one of three U.S. companies, among 20 companies worldwide, named a finalist in this prestigious mobile-startup competition. As a finalist, ShopSavvy presented on stage at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2009.
  • 2009 Android Network Awards, Best Shopping App. More than 40,000 votes were cast in this contest to determine the most popular Android apps.
  • 2008 Crunchies Finalist. ShopSavvy was one of six finalists for the Best Mobile Application award in this annual competition sponsored by top technology blogs TechCrunch, GigaOm, VentureBeat and Silicon Alley Insider.
  • Google Android Developer Challenge Winner. ShopSavvy was named one of 10 winners among 1,800 entries in this global competition in September 2008. ShopSavvy earned a $275,000 cash prize from Google.

Pretty impressive, huh? These are the kind of achievements that separate the contenders from the pretenders in technology PR.

 
0
April 8, 2011 in B2B PR, Media Orchard, Media Relations by Orchardo
CLIENT NEWS: RiseSmart Super Bowl Highlight Reel

Here’s a small sample of the coast-to-coast TV coverage our client, RiseSmart, received for its study comparing the jobless rates of Super Bowl cities. If you think your B2B company can’t get coverage like this, maybe you just need a little help to get your message out.

 
0
February 7, 2011 in B2B PR, Media Orchard, Media Relations by Orchardo
CLIENT NEWS: RiseSmart Scores with Super Bowl Release

Our Silicon Valley client RiseSmart, which provides outplacement and recruitment solutions, scored big with an analysis we did correlating Super Bowl winners with jobless rates. Here’s an excerpt from the Jan. 31 news release:

Could a city’s economic prosperity, as measured by employment level, make a difference in its team’s chances of winning the Super Bowl? Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that it does. According to a new analysis by RiseSmart, the team whose metropolitan area boasts the lower jobless rate has won 16 of the past 20 Super Bowls – an 80 percent success rate.

Based on this historical correlation, the Green Bay Packers should be the favorite to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.

Of course, the Pack won. And so did RiseSmart, with the study being covered from coast to coast in television newscasts, radio talk, in print and online. RiseSmart received TV coverage in markets like Chicago, Phoenix and Seattle — and of course, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee.

Here’s an article on the study that appeared in the Arizona Republic, one of the many newspapers that covered the story.

With Green Bay’s win, that means the correlation we identified has held true for 17 of the past 20 Super Bowls. I’m sure we’ll come up with some new wrinkles to explore this time next year.

 
0
December 20, 2010 in Media Orchard, Media Relations by Orchardo
CLIENT NEWS: ShopSavvy on Fox, CNN and Bloomberg

Our Dallas public relations client ShopSavvy hit the trifecta over the past couple of weeks, earning live interviews on Fox Business Network and Bloomberg TV and appearing in a CNN segment this morning. ShopSavvy’s Alexander Muse kicked butt in his Fox and Bloomberg appearances.

Here’s the CNN segment:

Here’s the Fox interview:

Watch Alex on Bloomberg here.

 
0
December 1, 2010 in Media Orchard, Public Relations by Orchardo
CLIENT NEWS: ShopSavvy Scores 543 TV Hits in One Week

Our client Big in Japan scored big during Black Friday week when its flagship mobile app, ShopSavvy, was featured in 543 TV newscasts.

ShopSavvy has gotten lots of media attention from the time the Idea Grove began working with Big in Japan in September 2008, but in recent months, the proliferation of shopping apps has made for a noisier media marketplace. Our challenge was to ensure that the ShopSavvy message penetrated the din of PR pitches and got its fair share of coverage.

So we created a digital newsroom and blasted the ShopSavvy pitch, along with newscast-friendly b-roll, to 15,000 broadcast outlets nationwide on the morning of Nov. 23. The results show that the story was gobbled up like Thanksgiving turkey.

 
0