Inside the Wiz PR Power-Play: How Your PR Agency Can Build a Billion Dollar Brand

by Leron Kornreich

In this blog post, we spill the tea on how Google’s hottest acquisition leveraged PR to build its brand and develop a billion dollar reputation. Of course, it starts with a stellar solution. But that’s not enough. There are many incredible products out there that fade into oblivion. Wiz, on the other hand, caught Google's attention and did so by building momentum over several years. Of course, it helps if you come out of stealth with massive funding and well known investors. The media pegged Wiz as a startup to watch from day one, when it launched with $100m in funding and backing by Sequoia. 

For growth, buyers need to know about your product or service and be convinced of its relevance, reliability, and value. Strategic PR is a critical component, along with savvy analyst relations (AR) outreach. 

Recently, our team at Si14 Global Communications analyzed how Wiz and five other high-growth startups built buzz and grew Share of Voice.

Here’s what we discovered about Wiz:

• Wiz easily garners attention for financial news, which gets its brand in front of investors and executives. To pique the interest of technology buyers, they spend time and resources on developing original reports that net coverage in trade publications and tech outlets. Reports provide potential customers and partners with valuable data-based insights and build credibility with reporters.

• The buzzy startup also earned credibility through awards and list submissions, ranging from the highly prestigious CNBC Disruptor award to lists published by CRN, the favored channel technology publication.

• By working in tandem with the comms team, even the initial rejection of Google’s original acquisition offer played into the company’s PR narrative. 

• Wiz invested in sponsored content including ebooks in relevant trade publications and webinars as a way to promote its messaging to potential customers.

• Wiz only put out two press releases on the wires over the 12 months. Nearly 2000 reporter articles mentioned Wiz so they didn’t need to rely on releases to increase share of voice. They were selective in how and where to spend budget on press releases.

Over the past 10+ years, Si14 Global clients have been acquired by PayPal, Cisco, Symantec, Temasek, and more. Recently, our client Rivery was acquired by Boomi. In addition to helping position the company in front of the right audiences through a range of PR activities, our strategic AR program resulted in significant traction (i.e. buzz) through industry analysts.  As Rivery’s Head of Content and Communications, Brandon Gubitosa, put it, "Si14 Global played a pivotal role in Rivery's growth journey, culminating in our successful acquisition by Boomi. Their strategic approach to PR and communications significantly elevated our profile, translating our technology into compelling media narratives that led to high-impact coverage across both mainstream and trade publications, and helping us gain significant traction with industry analysts. The team was more than just a PR agency – they were strategic partners who truly invested in our success."

PR and AR can be difficult to measure, especially in the B2B space. We’ve had clients tell us outright that PR has increased their valuation, got them inbound interest from top tier investors, customers and potential acquirers, and that these third-party sources provided the highest levels of credibility and validation. Moreover, while most people think of trade publications as a foot in the door to potential customers, we have also had clients tell us they saved $$$ in headhunting fees when coverage in trades led top candidates in their space to call them interested in joining the team.

Most startups can’t rely on mega financial news to propel their brand. It takes a mix of PR and AR activities to establish credibility and a steady program to build momentum over time. Even powerhouses like Wiz, that came out of the gates at full charge, developed a varied program to create and grow a slew of touchpoints with various target audiences.

Where do you stand against the competition? How can you differentiate in a noisy marketplace? What’s your Share of Voice (SOV)? At Si14 Global Communications, we developed a process, the PR Brand Pulse™ that enables companies to develop informed strategies, maximize resources and achieve utmost impact.

To find out where you stand PR-wise against competitors and get actionable strategic insights, learn more about our customized Brand Pulse offering here.

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