Office.com was established by Winstar Communications to increase the value of online content available to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which would ultimately support the Company’s broadband sales objectives. Office.com’s main value proposition was serving as an online media resource with original content specifically tailored to the needs of SMBs.
To enhance the website service’s news value and differentiate it as more than just a portal, our strategy was to establish Online Business Centers (OBC) as a new industry in which Office.com was the leader. After inventing the new “OBC” space, other services similarly sponsored by major corporations like Cititbank soon joined the sector, elevating recognition amongst analysts. This led to a semi-annual ranking of OBCs by Gartner Research, with Office.com consistently ranking #1. The analyst reports validated the “new” space which led to major stories about OBCs in outlets such as Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business and Wall Street Journal.
In addition, we worked with the client to leverage the large community of SMBs using Office.com by formulating newsworthy studies of this market, which we branded the “Office.com Business Tracker.” We utilized the resulting data to pitch and place stories about SMB trends in outlets such as the Associated Press and USA Today. These strategies, combined with an advertising campaign, enabled us to promote the online service’s marketing story through publications such as Adweek and a major cover story about the Marketing Director and Office.com in Marketing Computers Magazine.