Efficient Frontier

Efficient Frontier, a California-based provider of paid search engine marketing (SEM) solutions, enlisted CRT/tanaka’s strategic counsel as it sought to elevate its stature in the SEM space and increase its exposure in trade and business media. The agency helped Efficient Frontier establish itself in the marketplace by highlighting its unique, Wall Street-based technology, positioning its CEO as an expert in the SEM field and targeting key media outlets with pitches, articles and news releases crafted around current market trends.

Efficient Frontier received tremendous media coverage as a result, including stories in Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Within a little over a year, Efficient Frontier announced that it had increased its paid spend under management by 100 percent, making it the largest manager of paid search spend on Google and Yahoo!.

PROMOTING THE “KEYWORD KEEPER”

Challenge

Efficient Frontier, a Mountain View, Calif.-based company, is the leading provider of paid search engine marketing (SEM) solutions. The company combines technology based on Wall Street analytics with expert client services to execute pay-per-click (PPC) advertising strategies that result in the highest return on investment.

After an extensive search for PR services, Efficient Frontier hired CRT/tanaka in 2005 to help the company gain exposure in trade and business media. The objective of media relations was to elevate the company’s stature in the search engine marketing space and thus, help increase its pipeline of prospects.

Prior to hiring CRT/tanaka, Efficient Frontier had very minimal exposure in the media, including trades. In addition, the space was crowded with numerous competitors, many of whom already had years of solid relationships with the media and were seen as the “go-to” sources for educational bylined articles and expert opinion quotes.

Solution

CRT/tanaka’s strategy to elevate Efficient Frontier above its competitors was twofold:

• Highlight its unique, Wall Street-based technology for managing PPC campaigns;
• Position the company’s CEO, Ellen Siminoff, as an expert in the search field. Before joining the company, Siminoff had been one of the founding executive team members of Yahoo!.

CRT/tanaka and Efficient Frontier identified four key media targets:

• Search engine marketing trades
• E-commerce publications
• Top-tier business media
• Advertising trades, many of whom would look to search engine marketing agencies to help serve their clients

The team then developed a pipeline of pitch angles, bylined article topics and news releases that were strategically crafted around current news and trends in the marketplace.

Results

From July 1, 2005 through Sept. 30, 2006, Efficient Frontier received tremendous media coverage. In fact, the company has become a “go-to” source for the business media, including Fortune, Forbes, BusinessWeek, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Highlights include:

• 82 media hits, including multiple bylined articles and features.
• Media coverage in prominent business media, including Forbes Fortune, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USAirways Magazine. In addition, Ellen Siminoff was named to Forbes’ E-Gang list (biggest media hit) with a feature article in the September 2005 issue.
• Consistent media coverage in targeted trade media including, DMNews, MediaPost, WebProNews, ClickZ, Search Engine Marketing News and iMedia Connection.
• News coverage in targeted advertising and e-commerce publications, including Advertising Age, OMMA, Electronic Retailer and Internet Retailer.
• In April 2006, Efficient Frontier announced that it had increased its paid spend under management by 100 percent since January 2005, making it the largest manager of paid search spend on Google and Yahoo!.