Building Awareness in the Crowded Low-Code Market Through Strategic M&A Announcement

Exclusive article placed in Wall Street Journal

Delivered the exact headline leadership wanted to see in Forbes

Exclusive article Penetrated priority IT trade, SD Times

Secure Top-Tier Coverage of M&A to Increase Mindshare of Quickbase’s Product Differentiation

Quickbase, a low-code platform designed to empower “citizen developers” across the enterprise, approached ARPR to own media strategy and execution for an upcoming M&A of significant importance. With competition in low-code heating up from companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google, Quickbase’s strategic acquisition of Bulgaria-based Cloudpipes was intended to reinforce its market leadership, accentuate its automation and integration differentiators and promote additional key messages of importance. As a secondary objective, ARPR was also tasked with securing interest and interviews with illusive beat reporters who regularly write about Quickbase’s competitors, but who had yet to cover Quickbase.

Employ an Embargo Strategy to Pre-Seed Interest with Top-Tier Media

ARPR recommended a media relations strategy highlighted by the pursuit of an exclusive article in The Wall Street Journal, which was identified as the primary publication because of its history in covering Quickbase’s own acquisition by Vista Equity Partners, one of the country’s top private equity firms.

To secure interest, ARPR targeted the same WSJ reporter who had previously spoken with Quickbase by offering her an exclusive interview with CEO Rick Willett for a follow-up story – to which she quickly accepted.

Further, ARPR identified a targeted set of M&A reporters for embargoed outreach to tee-up day-of coverage following the publication of the WSJ exclusive. Our list included prominent IT beat reporters at Forbes and SD Times who had written about competitors but had yet to cover Quickbase. Additionally, the ARPR team also developed tailored pitch angles to secure downstream coverage in local and trade publications.

Feature Coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, SD Times and More

The resulting Wall Street Journal exclusive featured desired key messaging about Quickbase’s accelerated product roadmap, designed to transform the company into a first-of-its-kind enterprise platform – a key point for Quickbase’s core buyer persona. In addition, ARPR secured coverage with Forbes and SD Times reporters who regularly cover competitors but had yet to mention Quickbase, fulfilling another key objective. The title of the Forbes piece – “Because Low-code Needs An Integration X-Factor” – included strategic messaging in line with ideal headlines envisioned by Quickbase’s CMO (i.e., “Boom. This is exactly the headline I wanted to see.”). Furthermore, several key M&A targets including Fortune Term Sheet, Mergers & Acquisitions and The Deal covered the news for a total of more than a dozen placements. In total, media coverage was syndicated more than 450 times on social channels, further amplifying the story’s reach while also driving more than 150 qualified referrals to Quickbase’s website. Finally, the success of this project led to Quickbase retaining ARPR as its agency of record.