Situation

A privately held company, Internet domain name system manager UltraDNS survived the tech downtown healthy but quiet. Rival VeriSign had much greater mindset with media influencers.

UltraDNS continued to make technical advances and was planning to introduce DNS Shield®, a milestone in Internet security. This new product dramatically increased the reliability of web browsers when accessing websites—known as domain name resolution. But the competing open-source Internet system had one big advantage: it was free.

Goal

UltraDNS needed to make DNS Shield the centerpiece of re-launching the entire company. They also needed to promote how the new product provided a more secure, more reliable Internet infrastructure—one worth paying for.

Solution

Strategic implemented a comprehensive PR campaign to establish the leadership of UltraDNS and its DNS Shield. Tactics included:

• Instituting a regular rhythm of press releases regarding business wins, to demonstrate strong market momentum.
• Launching an aggressive media campaign that offered rapid response by UltraDNS leaders, so the company became the “go to” experts on Internet governance and security.
• Leveraging the credibility of UltraDNS as the domain name manager of entire countries, such as Ireland.
• Linking the superior technology and performance of UltraDNS to the larger industry trends of global e-commerce and security concerns. A company like Amazon.com, which lives or dies on the Internet, can use UltraDNS and have virtually no dropped queries, compared with 1 in 10 dropped queries—the true price of the so-called free system.
• Securing the agreement of key Internet experts such as Steve Crocker and Paul Vixie to speak favorably to the media about DNS Shield.
• Gaining the agreement of Lydia Leong, a leading expert on DNS issues at Gartner, to be quoted in the UltraDNS press release, without UltraDNS having a contract with Gartner.
• Conducting a major analyst and media tour to support the introduction of DNS Shield. The product announcement alone netted 21 story placements, including The Washington Post, Reuters, MSNBC and CNET.

Results

Thanks to our unique combination of technical and marketing expertise, within a year Strategic substantially raised the profile and valuation of a company vital to the health of the worldwide Internet. As a results, UltraDNS was acquired by industry giant Neustar (NYSE: NSR) at a premium price.