Bridging a gap through awareness
When I joined Prism
Brick-and-mortar retailers were confronting a dilemma that still persists today. As consumers gravitate towards e-commerce, traditional storefronts are tasked with creating new incentives and operational value to protect market share from further eroding in the face of online competition.
Prism approached this problem through a unique lens — that of a security camera. Through networks of on-premise cameras that directed visual data directly to the Prism cloud for analysis, retailers were able to understand — and optimize — their physical spaces through metrics and insights that were previously limited to digital platforms.
The challenge
Retailers are as diverse as the products on their shelves. From boutique to big-box, mom-and-pop to pop-ups, no two brick-and-mortar operations are identical; which translates to a disparate set of personas and decision makers capable of pulling the trigger on a solution like Prism. While a CEO or partner may make the final call on a new technology purchase within a regional chain, it’s equally plausible that decisions pertaining to surveillance cameras in larger operations are owned by IT heads or a dedicated loss prevention team; far away from the merchandisers and managers who stand to benefit the most from Prism.
The solution was two-pronged and began with a widespread campaign to build awareness. During my first year at Prism I increased product-focused media coverage by 500%, with segments like this one on CNN, which introduced our technology to a broad audience (watch closely and you might spot me in the background making sure the shoot stays on track). From there, marketing sought to empower sales with persona-based assets that spoke directly to the considerations of individual decision makers — whether the head of insights, security, merchandising, or a channel re-seller — so that we could meet leads in the field, educate based upon their priorities, and close the deal.
The opportunity
With adoption in the retail sector gaining traction, Prism recognized that this is not the only industry to leverage security cameras to support day-to-day operations. From this, and through partnerships with hardware manufacturers that supported the Prism Cloud, came the opportunity to target and build solutions that could unlock value across multiple verticals.
By 2017, Prism integrated visual tagging APIs into its platform that could effectively allow users to search for objects within footage by name. This along with a handful of new features designed to improve navigation and comprehension of video, brought an abundance of possibilities for marketing and sales.
The solutions
Making a hard pivot from a retail analytics offering to a vertical agnostic business intelligence platform is no simple task — which is why we brought out the big guns. In addition to showcasing our API partnership with Microsoft (keep your eye out for another cameo), Prism underwent a complete overhaul in terms of brand and market positioning.
As part of this of this effort, we built an entirely new arsenal of branding assets and sales collateral including a new visual identity, website, communications materials for investors, sales, and analysts, in addition to in-app communications to educate existing users about new features and capabilities. With the new Prism also came two new mobile applications, Vision and Insight, which repackaged existing features with new capabilities to provide industry-neutral video analytics and insights.
Generating traction
Through Prism’s marketing efforts we increased product-focused media coverage by 500%, drove countless new leads, inbound interest for and the formation of new hardware partnerships with vendors like Axis, Samsung, and Hitachi, and expanded sales with existing accounts including some of the world’s leading retailers. Head back to my portfolio to see more.