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Answers.com

Situation

In January 2005, Internet company GuruNet decided to move away from their subscription-driven 1-click reference look-up software application. They “bet the business” and launched an advertising-driven Internet-based product known as Answers.com.

Instead of providing hundreds or thousands of links where answers to users’ burning questions could be found – like a traditional search engine – Answers.com provides a single page of information, replete with statistics, facts and images from the top reference titles available, including Wikipedia, CBS Sportsline, Columbia University Press and Houghton Mifflin Company.

While GuruNet had received copious positive media attention for their original subscription-based product in 2003, they had received little coverage since then. At the same time, they wanted their move to an advertising-driven model be understood for what it was: non-invasive, non-intrusive and bereft of popups.

GuruNet hired RLM Public Relations one day before the launch of Answers.com. RLM was tasked with garnering immediate media attention to build the Answers.com brand and drive users to the site.

Within a few weeks, Answers.com saw top-tier coverage in USA Today, News & Observer and The Wall Street Journal, as well as on CBNC’s Power Lunch, the first week of launch. Regular coverage continued to roll in throughout the entire first year of the product’s existence; noted journalists Hiawatha Bray, Leslie Walker, Eric Auchard and many others all eventually wrote about Answers.com in one way or another. And it was all positive.

After spending months building solid relationships between the top tech reporters across the country and Answers.com executives, Answers.com and RLM realized there was an opportunity to refocus some of their efforts toward the educational market. The positioning paid off this past September,  Answers.com’s highest traffic month, when they achieved more than 4 million hits — almost double their usual summer traffic.

Strategy and Tactics

Understanding that Answers.com would be genuinely useful to journalists and that media word-of-mouth would be tremendously effective in driving on-message media coverage, RLM immediately identified potential “media advocates” for Answers.com—the majority of which were tech reviewers.

But that soon changed. By leveraging the depth of the Answers.com pages, RLM created a trend among journalists using Answers.com in their work, regardless of their beat. Travel beat reporters, college newspapers writers, culture columnists and more cited Answers.com as an invaluable source of information in their articles. To this day, Answers.com typically sees one or two citations daily in newspapers and magazines across the country.

Simultaneously, RLM relentlessly pitched print tech writers and began setting up desk-side briefings with CEO Bob Rosenschein. Three weeks later, Forbes called Answers.com, “the best Internet innovation in years.” Stock in GuruNet shot up 20% immediately after the article was published.

RLM also spear-headed a number of grassroots marketing efforts:

  • USB key chains pre-loaded with GuruNet and Answers.com collateral were sent to targeted reporters. This useful tsachke heightened awareness in newsrooms that translated to coverage.
  • 2,000 shirts were handed out to Rutgers University students to look up “contumacious” at Answers.com. Answers.com saw an immediate spike in traffic from Rutgers students and a 5% increase in searches of just that word.
  • More than 150,000 citation posters have been distributed to teachers to hang in their classrooms. Designed by RLM, these posters give them tips on teaching proper citation techniques for online sites – such as Answers.com – to their students.
  • Resource Centers featuring a mixture of content already existing on Answers.com and original content specifically drafted for the Centers help bring Answers.com to the non-tech crowd, as well as provide historical context to topics in the news. RLM suggested creating these Resource Centers for students, teachers, journalists, moms, dads, etc. on topics such as hurricanes, the Academy Awards, Back-to-School, Small Business and more.
  • RLM brought Answers.com to the attention of the blogosphere—before traditional press even picked up on the term. RLM used these relationships and contacts to help drive traffic to Answers.com’s alter-ego Web site, Blufr, which was designed to drive traffic to Answers.com.

RLM used trends in lifestyle and technology to create opportunities to position Answers.com spokespeople as experts in the vertical search industry.

RLM also utilized technology and education trade shows Answers.com attended to schedule booth appointments and garner coverage even months after the show, based on relationships created there.

Results

By identifying and owning a specific space in the search industry—answers—Answers.com saw their one million visitors per day double in one month. Since beginning their engagement with RLM, Answers.com’s visitor rate has increased over 1,000% and their stock price has doubled.

As Answers.com established additional partnerships with online properties such as Google, Firefox, Wikipedia, Shopping.com and IceRocket.com, RLM continued to identify effective PR tactics to keep the buzz going.

Answers.com is now a Web site to watch for thanks to the hard work of RLM’s team. According to Fortune, Answers.com is among three companies that are vying to be the next Google. Stories placed by RLM have reached many millions of people in the US and Canada. Answers.com coverage garnered by RLM included: