Looking at how startups communicate

#COMM4ENTREPRENEURS

Cathy Hackl, IE School of Communication@CathyHackl

www.linkedin.com/in/cathyhackl#Comm4Entrepreneurs

Group Projects: EMCC 14

IE School of Communications

To do... ● What does this startup do? ● How are they communicating with

their audiences?● Which audiences should they focus

on at this stage in their growth?● What challenges do they face?● Recommendations on how they can

better their communications strategy.

Marcela Jaramillo, Mercedes Campmany, Virginia Guerrero and María Kaltschmitt

What does this startup do? ● Website: www.neveremptyapp.com

● Its an App that lets users (sports fans) can bid for last minute tickets to their favorite sports matches.

● The idea of the start-up and where the name comes from is that to sell every seat in order of not to have empty seat in every match.

● The parent company´s name is: People Sports

How are they communicating with their audiences?

● Webpage: There is a lack of strategic substance for investors and possible partners

● App: Downloads (many negative comments)

● Facebook: 4,466 Fans

● Twitter: 902 Followers

● LinkedIn: 272 Followers

● PR: Press conferences with their partners and newswires

● Blog: Chronicle and comments around the matches

● YouTube Channel: Features advertising videos and PR videos that are shown also in their different social media platforms. 17 subscribers.

Which audiences should they focus on at this stage in their growth?

● Sport Fans: Every person who values the experience to go and pay to attend live a sport match. Particularly, people who are not able to pay high price tickets. (For example: University Students)

● Media: All sport related media that can help them diffuse their business model

● Partners: Sports Clubs and brands

What challenges do they face?● Increase their awareness

● Increase their customer base

● To differentiate from established competition (Biduzz, subastas de ocio, mobivel, ebay and sport clubs)

● Limited advertising and PR budget

● Strengthen its unique selling proposition

● Strengthen their partner network

● Build a strong credibility

Recommendations on how they can better their communications strategy

● Have a more professional design and creativity in the different communication content

● Invest in advertising (paid online) to complement their PR strategy (Banners, like, post and click to web ads in Facebook, Google keywords, SEO, Radio, and banners in sport clubs)

● Make more strategic partnerships to offer more matches

● Improve the App (users are experiencing a lot of technical problems)

MySugr

Makes Diabetes Suck Less

Hahat, Ana, Isabel & Félix

What does MySugr do?

• It is a diabetes service company. It has offers apps, a web service and a Diabetes Academy which mutually compatible solutions to ease the daily therapy routine.

• MySugr helps diabetics by making therapy data collection appealing and data analysis useful. Life with type 1 diabetes is bothersome, as is diabetes therapy. The first can’t be helped, the latter is what mySugr strives to make better.

• 44 countries, 8 languages

Fundings

How are they communicating?

• They are using an educational approach to communicate their service offering and tools to manage daily diabetes routines.

• They use a simple, fun and close language. They use a lot of gamification techniques.

• They have a website, a blog, Twitter account, a newsletter

• They focus a two-fold approach:

– Direct users

– Prescribers in the medical profession

• They use medical expert endorsement as a way to give credibility to their communications.

• Facebook – 20 Likes

• Twitter – 3013 followers

• LiknedIn – 139 followers

Which audiences should they focus on at this stage in their growth?

• Patient associations

• Health-related NGOs

• Universities

• Schools

What challenges do they face?

• There are a lot of competing diabetes applications. There are no barriers to entry, so how are they going to stand out against competitors?

Recommendations about how they better their communications strategy?

• Celebrity endorsement, maybe a young sportsperson or a show bussiness celebrity

• They should become more active on Facebook

• Identify key influencers and bloggers

Bryan , Javier, Mario , Omar

What does the Startup do?

Bryan , Javier, Mario , Omar

They are a crew of game designers, software developers and productivity fanatics who believe in Play as a powerful tool for engagement and achievement.

They develop products and solutions for organizations and corporate to better their productivity and provide them with creative tools in gaming forms.

How are they communicating with their audience?

Bryan , Javier, Mario , Omar

• Website: Nicely designed, but limited rich information (no demos, no videos, no information on the products and solutions, no news and updates)

• Chief Designer: Blog on Gamification (Gaming For Breakfast) but not linked to the website

• Social Media: Very weak (630 followers on Twitter, 164 on FB) , not positioned well not linked to the website, and mostly is in Spanish

• Teams bios: Presence on Linkedin but without the Logo of the Company with no unified name

• Logo: Poorly designed and difficult to read

• Slogan: Play.Grow.Share , it is not communicated in the website

• Clients: Just mention their names without saying what they are doing for them

Which audience should they focus on?

Bryan , Javier, Mario , Omar

• B2B should be their main focus

• Spanish speaking market (LATAM)

• Team-oriented organizations

• Consultants

What Challenges do they face?

Bryan , Javier, Mario , Omar

Internally:• No clear identity• No authority/voice of the brand• No clear value proposition• Weak communication (visuals, content, key points,..etc)• Products and solutions dependent on actual delivery (ready vs. customized)

Externally:• Poor engagement and interaction with clients• Low reach to potential market• No clear audience definition • No customer centered message • Funding challenges

Recommendations to better communication strategy

Bryan , Javier, Mario , Omar

• Develop and communicate a customer solution visión • Develop a full fledged communication plan including content, visuals, and Brand identity auditing.• Focus on LATAM market • Outsource the communication function to a consultant to setup a proper communication plan• Communicating their progress and funding goals • Develop a showreel on their products and services• Categorize their target clients per segement according to size, decisión making, and industry of

the company• Content in social media to be bilingual• Integrating social media with the website• Broadcast testimonials from clients • Develop products and solutions that could be bought online vs. Actual delivery only

What does Bitsbox do?

Based in Colorado, Bitsbox is a new startup which sell apps through a monthly subscription to teach kids how to code. Kids learn in a fun way by copying code into a Little text editor next to their Tablet, which in turn runs their new apps.

Scott Lininger. cofounder of Bitsbox

� Webpage

� Video

� Free try

� Social Media (lack of identity)

� Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Linkedin, Google+, Pinterest

� Private Tech events: explaining the benefits and fun of the new apps to the education specialists

Communicating with the audience

Which audiences should they focus Push & Pull Communication Strategy

� Push

- For parents, who buy the product for their kids

� Pull for:

- kids

- Influencers

- Partners (Education organization, Clubs (Montesouri))

- Investors

Communication Challenges

� The brand name is not unique. There are a lot of companies with the same name for different industries

� To make a communication strategy, both for kids and parents

� To communicate the clear benefits for the kids future and evolution of learning code language. Develop a value proposition to communicate the benefits of learning coding in an early stage to have the skills to become the future “leaders”.

Any questions?

Let’s connect Cathy [email protected]/in/[email protected]

© Marek