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Company: eTelemetry
Contact: Ermis Sfakiyanudis, CEO of eTelemetry
Location: Annapolis, MD
Industry: Internet technology, B2B
Annual revenue: Confidential
Number of employees: 20

Quick Read:

US businesses stand to lose over $1 billion in combined productivity every year during the live Internet broadcast of the NCAA March Madness tournament, according to estimates from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement consulting firm headquartered in Chicago.

That's a statement that would make the average company executive stop and take note. And that's exactly what Annapolis-based eTelemetry counted on when it used that statistic, along with some careful product positioning and the endorsement of a satisfied client (both of which helped to rein in privacy concerns), to pitch its Metron product as an employee-monitoring solution capable of curbing such loss during March Madness and otherwise.

The pitch succeeded in garnering the attention of The Washington Post, Inc.com and Fast Company, among others—a total readership/audience of over 24 million—in turn leading to a 69% boost in the company's Web traffic.

Challenge:

eTelemetry's Metron product measures network bandwidth usage by department and by individual employee, itemizing information such as time spent online and Web sites visited. When the product was originally released in 2006, it was touted as an effective solution for managing enterprise networks and, in particular, bandwidth across departments.

The story was picked up by several technology-focused trade publications the readers of which could appreciate such functionality. But eTelemetry aspired for more mainstream coverage in order to gain higher visibility across numerous industries and among decision-making enterprise executives, not just the techies.

San Francisco-based PR firm Vantage Communications helped the company identify a more straightforward and universal product benefit to which the broader demographic could relate: the ability to understand employee Internet usage and recognize when company networks are being used for personal entertainment during business hours.

"The foray into employee behavior was an easier conversation to have, since everyone has that problem," said Ermis Sfakiyanudis, CEO of eTelemetry.

An easier conversation, perhaps, but also a controversial one—enveloped in privacy issues—which required eTelemetry to properly position itself and its product to limit adverse associations and negative press.

Campaign:

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Case Study: How a Technology Company Leveraged March Madness Live Streaming to Increase Visibility for Its Own Product

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kimberly Smith is a freelance writer. Reach her via dtkgsmith@gmail.com.

LinkedIn: Kim Smith