Global Changes in Innovation

About Clement Communications

Experience with U.S. startups. Clients have been acquired by Dassault Systems, Dell, HP, Red Hat and Oracle.

Experience supporting non-US based organizations in U.S. market. Japan, Australia, Russia, Spain, Canada, France.

Integrated approach: PR, Social Media, PPC

Global Changes In Innovation

Technology innovation outside of U.S. growing quickly.

Web apps and mobile apps easier, less expensive to develop.

North America remains very large buyer of technology

How to tap this market?

“The prevailing view of the past 25 years has been that the U.S.

can thrive as a center of innovation and leave the

manufacturing of products it invents and designs to others...

Nothing can be further than the truth.”

- Gary Pisano, Harvard Business School

More opportunities for tech startups worldwide:

Web and Mobile Apps Growing Quickly

Gartner: Consumers spent $6.2 billion USD on mobile apps in 2010

Gartner: Consumers will spend $21.6 billion USD on mobile apps in 2013

Goldman Sachs: In 40 Years, the United States will be the only member of the G7 that is still

one of the seven largest economies in the world

How is U.S. Market unique?

Channel partners are not enough. You need your own direct presence.

U.S. is an exit market. Attracting venture capital. Selling your product is one piece of it, but also need to consider exit strategy.

How Companies Enter North American Market

Conservative. Grow local revenues first, then sell into U.S. market when you can. Angry Birds and SAP both did it this way.

Land and grow (Exalead, Opengear). Hire full time person in U.S. who reports to overseas HQ.

Move Headquarters to US

Toe in water: Gain North American customers and end users through PR and PPC.

Conservative – Angry Birds (Finland)

Founder “Win local market first”: 52nd game they had created. Goal was to own our home country first (Finland), then expand.

Game released in December 2009, and it went to number one in Finland pretty much overnight. It took until mid-February for Apple to feature the game, and that's what pushed it to number one in the UK. Today, it’s still #1 in U.S.

Land and Grow: Opengear (Australia)

Hire U.S.-based expert to grow team.

Give that person marketing authority in North America.

Hire U.S. people and agencies – build US channel.

Opengear: 50%-100% growth year over year, North American market the strongest.

Move HQ to US: Funambol (Italy)

“Move the headquarters to U.S. because you can find funding, partners and the exit for the company here…see who was acquired recently: Zimbra, MySQL, Trolltech, Xensource. Where were their headquarters? The job of HQ is to get funding, to find partners, to deliver an exit.” - Fabrizio Capobianco , co-founder, president of Funambol.

“It’s not necessary to physically relocate to the U.S., but you need to mentally relocate. You need to be online, working during U.S. hours in real time.” - Bob Waldie, CEO of Opengear

Toe in Water: yaM Labs (Russia) and Zingaya (Russia)

Blended approach: SEO, PR, PPC

Hire native speaker to edit materials and create U.S.-friendly marketing presence

Consider a launch event: e.g., Under the Radar (YaM) or Demo (Zingaya)

Approaches to U.S. MarketingPPC, PR, SEO, and Social Media

PPC (Pay Per Click)

Why PPC? Reach people you don’t get via other channels People who visit your site via PPC are more likely to try new product Transparent ROI Market engagement: you see what people are clicking on, get feedback Can see if it works without large financial investment

Considerations: Doesn’t have to be expensive Takes a lot of time to do it well. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you won’t get

much out. You can hire expert, or study on your own.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Consider hiring firm

Optimize your website with keywords that you find resonate through PPC: header tags, title tags, image descriptions

In outbound communications, use hyperlinked keywords

Press releases can nudge SEO over time

Social Media

Why social media? Interact with users, get feedback on product Use social media channels to describe your product and advertise

Considerations: It’s difficult to do well and time-consuming

Tips: Concentrate on key platforms: In US, we recommend Twitter, Facebook, YouTube Have personality, offer value, don’t spam

Public Relations

Long-term commitment, not about short-term payoff

Build your visibility step by step. Create visibility over time.

Reporters give you feedback

Tips: reach out on consistent basis, demonstrate momentum Look for 3rd party validation: users, downloads, partners

Campaign #1 Media Coverage – Big Bang (100% PR)

29 articles appearing in 2 days in publications including:

ReutersThe Wall Street Journal All Things DigitalAssociated Press

The RegisterVentureWireFinancial Times Tech San Jose Mercury NewsVenture Beat

<10 articles appearing in publications over 2 month span including:

GigaOmInformationWeekTechCrunchVentureWireSiliconAngleUnder the Radar Blog

Campaign #2 Media Coverage – Rolling Thunder

Who is Winning?

Tale of Two Campaigns

Campaign #1

Campaign #2

PR Can’t Win Alone

PR drives flash interest, generally with low bounce rates. But 2 days after the announcement, value evaporated.

PPC campaign drove 25% of traffic for campaign for 2 solid weeks. Bounce rate was much higher (80%) However, drove new sign ups, key for a startup getting early adopter feedback.

Thank you