Flypaper Studio, Inc.

Flypaper Studio created the first ever editable Flash content creation tool. Companies use Flypaper to create highly engaging learning, marketing and digital signage content that can be easily created by non-designers and then edited on the fly. Flypapers’ ease of use and creative suite of features empower businesses to create content for a fraction of the time and cost typically associated with such projects.

Ubiquity PR helped Flypaper launch in 2008. At the time, Flypaper had spun off from an eLearning development company called Interactive Alchemy, to focus solely on the Flypaper solution. The company was focused on the eLearning market. Ubiquity helped Flypaper position within the eLearning industry as a robust new tool that could save time and cost while improving corporate learning programs. The company soon became a leader among authoring tools in the eLearning space.

In Flypaper’s first two years, Ubiquity PR was able to secure more than 40 original articles and reviews, and five awards, including the highly coveted DEMO God award at the 2008 DEMO conference where Flypaper launched. Ubiquity was also able to secure three speaking opportunities at industry tradeshows, and get Flypaper included in three eLearning analyst reports at no cost to Flypaper. Notable press who covered Flypaper during this time include: 

Wall Street Journal

TechCrunch

VentureBeat

PC World

InformationWeek

CNET

In 2010, Flypaper followed a hunch and went to the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas to show the platform to major players in the booming digital signage industry. They hit the jackpot. The digital signage market was starving for a software solution that would enable quick, easy, high impact content development. Developers and end users alike also needed a solution that was agnostic to digital signage hardware and scheduling software, meaning no matter what the nature of the digital signage network, it could play Flypaper content.

The Challenge

Flypaper knew they had a huge opportunity and a limited window to position as the top content creation tool for digital signage networks, developers, and end users. They just needed to know how to make these players take notice of the Flypaper solution.

“There was a clear, significant opportunity but we didn’t have a clear lay of the land,” said Don Pierson, founder and President of Flypaper. “We knew who the major players were, and we knew the companies that were specific to the industry. What we didn’t know about was who the influencers were. Who are the bloggers? Who are the analysts? Who are key press who will help spread the word? We needed help with that and Ubiquity was ready to tackle the job.”

The major challenge here was that this industry was so young and there weren’t many defined resources yet, at least not as many as other, more mature industries. In the spring of 2010, Ubiquity put its entire focus for Flypaper on the digital signage world. The account team quickly identified a list of the top 30 bloggers, traditional journalists, market analysts, and general “influencers” who could help move the needle if they knew about Flypaper. The next step: get Flypaper on their radar.

Over the next 18 months Ubiquity went after that core list, while constantly finding new up and comers to add to it. Every news announcement, case study, and story angle was developed with this list in mind. Very quickly, Ubiquity was able to facilitate introductions between Flypaper’s president, Don Pierson, and the people who would be reviewing and writing about the Flypaper platform.

“The digital signage industry is channel-centric, and going directly to the biggest distributors and resellers was crucial to our success. But to do that takes a very big budget and resources, which we didn’t have. What we were able to do instead was gain name recognition through good PR. It wasn’t very long before the big players began coming to us. All of a sudden the channel resellers had customers demanding Flypaper and they had to come to us to carry it.”

Ubiquity was able to help Flypaper grow its brand recognition among the many different buyers within digital signage. Through press outreach and careful placement of thought leadership articles, Ubiquity was able to go after press & bloggers who reached channel resellers, digital marketers, content developers, and the digital signage industry at large. Ubiquity was able to secure over 20 original media placements, a recurring column for Don Pierson in Digital Signage Today, and win two awards.

Notable press quotes:

“In the right hands, content creation tools and templates that speed up production are a great thing, and something like Flypaper gives network operators more capability to keep their content fresh and interesting, as well as deliver work that DOESN’T need to be done by someone with Flash Actionscripting skills.” – Dave Haynes, Sixteen:Nine

“The Flypaper platform solves a key content problem for digital signage networks.” – Mark Cox, eChannelLine

“…for the record, I think this platform is a game changer.” – Paul Flanigan, Digital Signage blogger and consultant

During the summer of 2011, Flypaper was acquired by Trivantis Corp., an eLearning company known for its eLearning authoring tools. The company had previously integrated Flypaper into one of its solutions, and had been following the company as it moved into the digital signage market.

“Flypaper’s PR made us look like an extremely credible, growing, exciting company. That’s what helped make us attractive to acquisition targets. Ubiquity did a great job positioning us as an important piece of the digital signage pie. Since this industry was still the Wild West, our entrée into it as well as early success and notoriety made Flypaper a perfect acquisition target.”