We love working with tech start up businesses that are genuinely solving real world business problems. We really appreciate the enthusiasm and drive, the speed of decision making and the lack of red tape to get things moving.

The latest such start up to reach out to Pollen was Sydney based, Zync. These clever chaps had developed a unique platform that enabled (any) user to assemble and deliver corporate scale communication (Voice, Email, SMS) campaigns right from within the browser.

We immediately saw that Zync really did have a unique product. What they didn’t have was a cool name for the product, or a clear plan of how to take it to market. This was our gig.

Many start-up businesses get off to a shaky start, with an identity that pigeonholes the business as just another bootstrapped tech company. Plus the world does not need another misspelled verb ending in -ify. We needed to start with a product name that was strong enough to hold-up in the boardrooms of the Fortune 500, something solid, modern and refined.

Upwire is all about making connections, not just between brands and their customers. The GUI that Zync had already created utilised drag and drop modules to assemble messaging workflows, so we took their lead and started experimenting with different visualisations of connections. It brought to mind the old phone patch board of yesteryear using physical wires to patch the communication flow. This became the bedrock of the branding, a series of 3D wires we could use to tell the Upwire story.

We then set about developing two key communication pieces to take the new brand and platform to market - website and product explainer video. Without taking you through the detail of the website, it had to clearly explain the product offering, encourage trial of the platform, outline pricing and house the brand blog - which is of course part of the ongoing brand communications.

The site also housed the primary product explainer video, here Pollen riffed off the initial brand elements and ideas to develop a short animated video piece to quickly communicate the core product offering and benefits.

One of great things about Upwire (and also its achilles in some ways) is that it has so many applications, it can be utilised by so many different verticals or industries. A good problem to have from an ongoing business POV, though it did represent an initial communication problem.

We solved this by developing industry specific templates that could be used in tandem with SEO/SEM to drive traffic to key landing pages that outlined the product benefits to key industry segments we knew would love the product. So rather than a one size fits all solution, the benefits and application workflow examples can be heavily targeted to the audience needs.

The product launch is your big opportunity to capitalise on the momentum generated around your idea. But a well-structured go-to-market strategy, doesn’t begin on launch day. Our strategy for Upwire, is broken into three phases, each focussing on a specific objective:

• Pre-launch
  Increase size of Upwire community
• Launch day
  Increase visitor logins/sign-ups on the Upwire site
• Post-launch
  Increase product use (repeat visitation) and purchase

With a sound foundation now on which to build, we’re sure Upwire will become the next big global tech success story from Australia, and we’re glad to have been part of that journey with the team.

Visit the site