Cognos
Launch Flagship Product – Cognos 8 BI– Amid Industry Noise and Competitive Disruption

The Challenge:

In the spring of 2005, Lois Paul & Partners (LP&P) was tasked with creating a PR strategy to launch the next version of Cognos’ (www.cognos.com) flagship product, Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (BI). The launch event fell amid a noisy competitive timeframe: Cognos’ closest competitors were slated to launch new products simultaneously, and enterprise software giants Microsoft, Oracle and Siebel, were all making noise with product launches and acquisitions. The bottom line was that LP&P was fighting against the tide to pull off a successful product launch that set Cognos apart from its competitors.

On top of having to create and sustain attention for Cognos 8 BI during the timeframe leading up the launch, Cognos’ CEO Rob Ashe mentioned the pending product launch during the company’s Q1 earnings call (three months prior to the launch event), to reiterate that this was an industry-changing product. Ashe remarked that Cognos 8 BI was the “most important product in his 20 years with Cognos,” which inevitably led to increased buzz and attention from media and investors. He also officially made public the September 14 launch date, which meant that Cognos’ nearest competitors would be watching them closely, aiming to put out news simultaneously to distract attention from Cognos. Needless to say, the bar was set high for the launch, and LP&P would have to make a big splash – no matter what.

The LP&P Difference: 

Overall, the most vital element to the success of this product launch was LP&P’s foresight to pre-empt and track significant competitive news and events that would have otherwise stolen media mindshare and severely limited the “big bang” Cognos was expecting.

LP&P executed on a three-pronged outreach strategy that navigated against this market intelligence for a successful launch. The strategy focused on briefing the media in three phases – first on product functionality in the early August timeframe prior to the launch event. Next, at the launch event, LPP introduced media to the Cognos 8 BI “ecosystem,” which included third-party validation from customers, partners and analysts.  Finally, as the launch was two weeks prior to Cognos’ Q3 earnings results, LP&P booked media interviews with broadcast and business press to discuss earnings and Cognos 8 BI momentum. This strategy aimed to educate and reach a broad audience of IT and business press with a well-rounded story indicating the market significance of this product on a large scale.

This strategy ensured that Cognos sustained mindshare with the media in the midst of competitive product launches occurring simultaneously, one of the largest technology stories of 2005 (the acquisition of Siebel by Oracle, covered by the same beat reporters that cover Cognos) and large media-drawn events (Oracle OpenWorld and Salesforce.com’s user conference) occurring on the West Coast.

The Results: 

Under the guise that this product launch must live up to the CEO’s expectations that Cognos 8 BI is “the most important product in his 20 years at Cognos,” LP&P executed on a no holds barred PR plan that circumvented the noise during the two-week timeframe the launch fell into, with huge success. As a result, LP&P scheduled more than 25 media pre-briefings, and was able to secure seven on-site interviews with executives and customers in New York City and with six reporters at each of the satellite launch locations with IT and business press.

Following are additional highlights of the results:

• Generated more than 62 million in media impressions;
• Secured 108 pieces of North American coverage - in print and online - and a total (including international) of 198 articles globally;
• Drove “one product, one architecture” message consistently in majority of media coverage;
• Due to buzz generated by the launch, helped drive early sales of Cognos 8 BI – in the first 8 days of general availability, the product made $14 million;
• Resulting coverage met the goal of reinforcing Cognos with “first mover status” with an integrated BI platform.