Ad Hoc helps telecom player execute ‘market cross-over’ strategy to expand service footprint
Adesta was a highflier in the late 1990, building approximately 2 million miles of fiber in 70 metropolitan areas and taking in $200 million annually in revenue. But it depended almost entirely on two of its biggest customers, WorldCom Inc. and Enron Corp. When the technology bubble burst, Adesta filed for bankruptcy as revenue dropped to $20 million and the payroll sank from 750 to 200. Adesta tried to file for bankruptcy quietly, but the national business media covered the company’s every move. The constant bad publicity gave Adesta a black-eye and a negative image with its subcontractors, customers, vendors and some employees. In 2002, a financial partnership of Adesta management and McCarthy Group acquired the assets and employees of the Company. Battered and bruised Adesta was in dire need of a company image makeover. Bottom line: Adesta needed to reestablish a positive image with the media, vendors, subcontractors, customers and employees if the company was going to survive.
The need to develop clearly defined messages to position Adesta as a solid service provider that has smart people, smart processes, and best-value services, to clearly define the company’s product category to differentiate itself from the mammoth market players including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and SAIC. Clearly, Adesta will always be a niche player in the marketplace, but when customers and prospects interacted with Adesta they felt that they were dealing with a company that knew its stuff and had integrity.
The second need was to execute a “market cross-over” to decrease its dependency on its traditional business of building fiber-optics communications networks and leverage Adesta’s experience in installing security systems to capture Homeland Security business protecting the national infrastructure. In fact, Adesta’s value proposition (or sweet spot) was the intersection were communications networks and security systems met.
The team relied heavily on elements of PR. When appropriate we created several marketing collateral pieces and initiated interactive media. The various components of the overall program included: analyst and media outreach/influencer programs; creation of speaker bureau programs; business development tool boxes for regional office sales force; redesign of corporate website; and an aggressive contributed article program.
As a result, the team captured press coverage with a publicity value of $456,140 with an incredible 1.4 million impressions. Due in part to Adesta’s increased marketing and re-positioning strategies, the company’s annualized backlog was approximately 300% of the backlog existing at the beginning of the previous year. Adesta is back.