Phenom solidifies position as leading talent experience management platform
Overview
Phenom is a leading talent experience management (TXM) solution that helps organizations attract, engage and retain top talent. The scaling SaaS company chose BLASTmedia after a robust agency review, as it needed to raise its profile with HR-buyer communities and increase awareness of its AI capabilities and expertise in a crowded HR-tech industry.
Challenge
Phenom partnered with BLASTmedia on a long-term PR strategy with the goal of becoming the definitive leader in talent experience management, broadening the awareness of the category. The inherent challenge was the crowded HR-tech landscape, with many point solutions and legacy platform contenders competing for Share of Voice, which grew exponentially noisier with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Strategy
To enhance Phenom’s reputation among HR leaders, BLASTmedia first needed to better understand other talent experience management solutions on the market, how these organizations were messaging their offerings and how the media was covering those competitors and the industry at large. Research included analysis of the media landscape and competitor media coverage. This research allowed BLASTmedia to develop an outreach strategy that would effectively position Phenom as a thought leader in the talent experience management space.
Annual campaign objectives:
- Secure 90 pieces of coverage with media covering HR and technology
- Secure 20 opportunities with top-tier publications (top-tier defined as publications with 1M+ unique monthly visitors and a Domain Authority of 70+)
- Secure 35 pieces of coverage that include Phenom’s AI messaging
- Distribute 10 press releases amplifying Phenom’s brand
Strategies: BLASTmedia outlined and executed quarterly plans that included a number of PR strategies — including media relations with an emphasis on thought leadership, customer stories, reactive strategies and announcements — to position Phenom, and a series of subject matter experts at the company, as leaders in TXM.
To create a consistent narrative and voice for Phenom, BLASTmedia focused most thought leadership efforts around CEO Mahe Bayireddi. The team also emphasized several key announcements for the brand, including the announcement of Phenom’s Series D funding and its acquisition of Talentcube. Additionally, BLASTmedia tapped marquee customer Southwest Airlines to tell Phenom’s value story through media interviews.
Campaign Results
BLASTmedia exceeded all outlined objectives:
- 175 total pieces secured
- 41 top-tier opportunities secured
- 37 pieces of coverage contained Phenom’s AI key-message pull through
- Wrote and pitched 23 company announcements
Of the 175 pieces secured throughout the year, 104 were a result of thought leadership efforts, including the placement of ghostwritten contributed articles, interviews with subject matter experts and other expert commentary.
Throughout the year, BLASTmedia noted that, by pairing thought leadership with announcement strategy, the team could garner higher quality articles in terms of brand messaging, a tactic the team could apply in the future as goals shift to focus more on coverage message vs. coverage volume. Additionally, BLASTmedia leveraged Phenom customers, like Southwest Airlines, to showcase the impact of Phenom’s AI technology — a customer story that was featured in The Wall Street Journal.
As a result of BLASTmedia’s efforts, Phenom is now recognized as a leader in talent experience management and was able to secure Series D Funding and make an acquisition during the timeframe of the campaign. Furthermore, BLASTmedia was recognized with an award of honor from The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) for the Phenom campaign.
