Making Search Count: The Launch of Bloomba

Situation Analysis:
E-mail is the world's fastest growing communications medium and up until 2003, industry experts widely considered e-mail programs to be a mature product category. The desktop or “client side” of the industry consisted predominantly of SMB and enterprise customers using Microsoft's popular Outlook e-mail software, with programs like Qualcomm's Eudora and IBM's Lotus falling a distant second and third respectfully in terms of market share.

Over the past two years, the early advantages of e-mail -- ease-of-use and near-immediate communication -- have quickly diminished as problems with commercial junk mail (spam) and viruses have plagued users' inboxes and undermined the founding utility of e-mail programs. To complicate matters further, as the popularity of e-mail continued to grow within businesses, the sheer volume of messages and information tied to email increased exponentially. With all these problems coming to a head, the leading e-mail client vendors remained complacent with their product offerings, choosing to ignore the problems and leaving the consumer to figure out how best to organize and manage their e-mail environments.

Enter Raymie Stata, an MIT Ph.D and a former lead engineer with the Alta Vista Web search team. Stata asked a simple question, after experiencing many of the same problems mentioned above: Why is it you can find anything on the Internet, but you can't find an e-mail you sent last week? With that question in mind, Stata founded Stata Labs and went to work on “Bloomba,” the world's first search-based e-mail program.

Stata Labs was solving a major problem, but they were also facing a formidable competitor -- Microsoft. From the beginning, the communications team knew that to launch the product and company successfully, we needed to first focus on the problem (i.e., what's broken with e-mail program's today) and then demonstrate how an innovative new approach to these problems (i.e. Bloomba, search-based e-mail) was coming to market. To achieve this, Voce Communications worked with Stata Labs on a three-pronged approach to launching the company and product, which included: 1) Securing top-tier product reviews; 2) Securing the interest/buy-in from tech industry influencers; and 3) Demonstrating thought leadership via profile pieces and executive speaking opportunities with Founder Raymie Stata.

Objectives:
Overall, objectives for the program included:

• Maximize high-profile product news and reviews coverage from top-tier trade media, including print, broadcast and online;
• Educate trade, consumer and select analyst targets on the Bloomba value proposition;
• Establish relationships with key trade media and analyst communities that followed Stata Labs' target market;
• Extend awareness of Stata Labs technology/value proposition to the 'prosumer'/SMB/SOHO audiences.

Audience Analysis:
In order to successfully launch Bloomba amongst market giants such as Microsoft Outlook, Qualcomm's Eudora and IBM's Lotus, it was critical that Stata Labs look take a thorough look at the market and its target audience.

After several years of stagnate growth and offerings provided by Microsoft and other companies a growing case was built about what a “power users” and small businesses were provided functionalities that they themselves did not utilize. Email is certainly a big component of any business, but small businesses and every day users were looking for collaboration products that were both viable and cost-effective -- ultimately alternatives to Exchange.

This was a growing concern among small business users that they have become overly reliant on Microsoft products, only to be plagued with high licensing costs, virus and security problems, and plain old instability issues.

Strategy/Research/Planning:
Launching a new product is one thing. Truly creating an industry wave is quite another. From the beginning, the communications team knew that to launch the product and company successfully, we needed to first focus press attention on the problem (i.e., what's broken with e-mail program's today) and then demonstrate how an innovative new approach to these problems (i.e. Bloomba, search-based e-mail) was coming to market. Voce tracked coverage from several influential press members, as well as competitor coverage in most mainstream publications, using messaging points from the press to round out the Bloomba story.

Execution/Tactics:
Execution on Voce's launch strategy initiated well in advance of Bloomba's launch date. A three-pronged approach was initiated:

Influencers:
Walt Mossberg, Stephen Manes, Steve Wildstrom, Frank Bajak, Chris Shipley, to name a few. Introductions and softball pitches were made to these influencers to meet with Raymie Stata, Co-Founder and CEO. While Voce monitored the relationships in the background, Voce allowed Raymie and the editors the room to develop deep relationships, positioning Raymie not only as a source on e-mail, but on information overload and the concept of search.

Reviews:
Voce worked tirelessly to seed product reviews in key press, including PC Magazine, PC World, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, etc. An exclusive review was secured with Steve Wildstrom, BusinessWeek. Other review dates were negotiated to publish within a few weeks of Bloomba's launch date. Voce worked hand-in-hand with the reviewers and the Stata Labs support staff to ensure key messages were ingrained in reviewers' minds as well as provide them optimal experiences with the talented support system.

Thought Leadership:
To round out and add depth to the Bloomba story, Voce worked with local business press trade publications to spotlight Raymie Stata, Stata Labs' key spokesperson and brain behind the innovation. Voce also secured several high-profile speaking opportunities at PC INBox, the Email Technology Conference, and DEMO 2004.

A bi-coastal press tour was scheduled to meet onsite with trade and business publications to demonstrate Bloomba and provide NDA briefings of the impending launch.

Evaluation of Success:
Bloomba was launched as the world's first search-based e-mail program on October 21st, 2003. Coverage immediately pored in, describing Bloomba as the next revolution in e-mail. Steve Wildstrom, BusinessWeek, ran a teaser in his October 27th, 2003 column of an impending Bloomba review, and the following week, hailed Bloomba as “E-mail that Blows the Others Away.”

Over the following months, secured reviews and executive spotlights in PC World, PC Magazine, Silicon Valley Business Journal, San Jose Mercury News, and AlwaysOn.com profiled Bloomba and Stata Labs, with key messaging intact. Industry events were executed flawlessly, with Raymie and Stata Labs center stage discussing the issue of information overload. Stata Labs officially secured their position as an industry leader on search-based email when invited to publicly comment in ongoing coverage of Google's launch of Gmail (April 2004).