20
Strategic Narrative

Catapult Celebrates 20 Years: 20 PR Lessons Learned

Twenty years ago today Terri Douglas and I took our own good advice and started our PR firm — Catapult PR. Since 9/9/99, there’s been a lot of hard work, an awesome group of employees past and present, many great clients, and a whole lot to be grateful for. There are also many lessons learned along the way on this wild and crazy ride. This year is especially significant because it marks the big “2-0”

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PR Firm
Uncategorized

How to Prepare for Your First Day at a PR Firm

A new job is a fresh start for many people. Whether you’re moving to a new state, starting at a new company or landing your first job after college, it’s an exciting time. For me, I landed my first job out of college at a boutique PR firm in Boulder, CO. Like many people, I had been dreaming about this day for a long time and the hard part was finally over, I got a

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category leader
Strategic Narrative

Elements of Strategic Narrative Marketing for Category Leadership

‘Strategic Narrative Marketing’ elevates company positioning and messaging to help B2B organizations become category winners through their industry narrative BOULDER, Colo., June 12, 2019 — Catapult PR-IR (www.catapultpr-ir.com), a high-tech public relations and Strategic Narrative Marketing agency, today released the four elements for building a strategic narrative focused on industry megatrends, insights, vision and category definition. The four elements help companies discover their narrative for the industry so they can tell a story that is

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Google
Uncategorized

Boost Productivity with these Five Favorite Google Apps and Extensions

I’ve found that whenever something frustrates me or slows me down in my digital workspace (which is pretty much 100% Google Chrome) — there’s an app for that! Chances are, if I’m getting tripped up time and again, someone else has had the same problem and a solution is out there. The Internet ecosystem includes hundreds of helpful and creative Gmail and Chrome browser extensions that make work life easier. Over the years I’ve installed

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Strategic Narrative Marketing
Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narrative Marketing: Four Lessons Learned

It has been a couple of years since we (Catapult) formally launched Strategic Narrative Marketing. What a roller coaster ride it has been to introduce something totally new to the PR market! If one thing is clear today- it’s that Strategic Narrative Marketing is our true differentiator as a PR firm. Along with our journey, we’ve had the opportunity to refine and adapt Strategic Narrative Marketing. If you’re new here, Strategic Narrative Marketing is an

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celebrating
Strategic Narrative

We’re Celebrating Our 19th Anniversary as a High Tech PR Firm

Wow – it’s hard to believe that we’re celebrating 19 years in business. Time flies when you’re having fun – and boy do we know how to have fun. As we reflect over almost two decades of hard work and success, we can’t help but feel a sense of pride as we think about all the good work we’ve done to help our tech company friends build awareness, thought leadership and create attention-grabbing positioning and

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Market Leadership

Catapult Adds Zype to B2B High Tech Client Roster

We are pleased to announce that Catapult has been retained by Zype, a video content and distribution company out of New York, for PR and Strategic Narrative Marketing services. Through our Narrative Practice service offering, we will help position Zype as a market category owner in the rapidly growing direct-to-consumer streaming video market. Zype CEO, Ed Laczynski, shared his thoughts on this new partnership: “We’re excited to position Zype as an industry leader with Catapult’s narrative

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brand leadership
Strategic Narrative

Brand Leadership And The Narrative Economy

The following is an excerpt from an article by Guy Murrel titled, “Brand Leadership and the Narrative Economy,” that was originally published on Forbes.com While just “words,” the power of narrative is now a force to be reckoned with — from politics and pop culture to social movements and business. All too often, we now see narrative take down the mighty and powerful and, at the same time, expose the once obscure to great fame.

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Top Quotes on PR and Narrative from Catapult

In a previous blog, I shared some tips on what I learned from my first couple of weeks in the PR industry. One thing I learned after joining the Catapult team is that, “Tips from co-workers are the best… if a co-worker gives you any information on how to make your time more productive or to make others in the office happier, take it. Many of my co-workers at Catapult have helped me with this.” Shouldn’t

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collaboration
Market Leadership

Collaboration: the Ultimate Win/Win for Everyone

Think about it. What is it about certain people or environments that make you enjoy your work more? You probably feel empowered, that there is an open exchange of ideas, and encouragement to express your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. Whether it’s personal or in the business world, it is clear. The more collaboration, the greater the trust, learning, growth and innovation. According to Wikipedia, collaboration is “the process of two or more people or organizations

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B2B Content Marketing Strategy
Market Leadership

Anchor Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy with a Strategic Narrative

Your content is only as good as your B2B content marketing strategy. Evidence supports this theory in the Content Marketing Institute’s 2018 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report. According to the report, 91 percent of respondents use content marketing. However, similar to previous years’ reports, it’s the organizations with documented content marketing strategies who report higher levels of content marketing success. Yet, only 37 percent of respondents have a documented strategy. A top reason

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Strategic Narrative

How Communications Pros can get the Whole Company Excited About Category Building

Communications and PR people get the importance of narrative. You don’t need to convince us, it’s the world we live in. Stories shape and redefine our companies, our clients, the industry we are in and the industries we represent.  Our day-to-day work involves digging up those narratives, editing them, analyzing them and acting with the story as the backbone of our activity. Therefore, when the marketing team creates a plan or the PR agency comes

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

Why You Shouldn’t Leave it up to the Industry Analysts to Define and Claim Your Market Category

If you are in the tech space, you are familiar with all the industry research firms who tout their worth and value when it comes to defining who your company is and where you fit within their various market categories. Companies pay a LOT of money to get on analysts’ radar screens and utilize their advice and services. There’s nothing really wrong with this approach. There is definitely certain value you get out of paid

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Catapult PR and CorSource Develop and Launch ‘Staffing Lifecycle Management’ Through the Strategic Narrative Marketing Approach

Today we are excited to announce that we helped CorSource create and launch a new process framework through the Strategic Narrative Marketing approach. Read the news below: Industry framework establishes a unique platform for CorSource to address employee management challenges in tech with concrete steps to improve the Talent Economy. Here’s the news release: BOULDER, Colo., April 17, 2018 – Catapult PR-IR (www.catapultpr-ir.com), a Strategic Narrative communications agency, today announced it helped CorSource develop and launch,

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Strategic Narrative

It’s Budget Time. . . .

And you know what that means. Looking at what you spent last year and seeing what worked, what didn’t (and why) Investigating ways to streamline resources, budget, yet get more impact Seeing where to invest to ‘move the needle’ so your organization/company can get more sales, be acquired, raise more money Let’s be honest. It’s stressful. Boards want justification for the money you (your company) spent and why. Investors want the same, but, they want

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stranger things in PR
Strategic Narrative

“Stranger Things” in Public Relations

Public relations can expose some interesting, challenging and even spooky situations. Oftentimes, PR professionals can feel lost when it comes to delivering (and measuring) results for their clientele. Unless specific goals and key performance indicators are set and understood from the start, trouble can arise. Additionally, the call to quantify public relations’ value for the boardroom can seem never-ending. Many are even starting to eliminate some (or all) of the PR line item from budgets

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Thought Leadership

Starting My Career in the PR Industry: What I Did That Helped & What I Wish I Would Have Known

Well, I’m straight out of college and have my first job in the public relations industry. Catapult PR gave me a home after graduation, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Now that first week jitters have come and gone it’s the perfect time to reflect on my thoughts from this past couple of weeks. Arriving at Catapult on my first day wasn’t at all bad. I had met everyone throughout the interview process, so seeing

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Strategic Narrative

Find us Today at TechDay LA

We are thrilled to join more than 300 hundred startups and 12,000 attendees for a whirlwind, one-day event –  TechDay LA! Our very own Guy Murrel, co-founder and principal, and Charles Trowbridge, senior account executive, are manning the Catapult PR table. At 2:40 p.m. PDT, Guy will take the general stage for a three-minute demonstration on Strategic Narrative Marketing, a ground-breaking new approach to company messaging that aims to build category owners and establish true

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Strategic Narrative

Catapult Wins TWO National Industry Awards for Strategic Narrative Marketing

We are honored to share that we recently received two national awards for our Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) messaging framework that helps organizations define and own categories. We are now the proud owners of a Gold Stevie Award for PR Innovation in the 2017 American Business Awards™, and Silver for New Products and Services in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations in the 2017 Golden Bridge Awards.  “This is a big milestone for Catapult as we work

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Strategic Narrative

Strategic Narrative Marketing 101: What is a ‘Messaging Space?’

We (Catapult PR) talk a lot about our unique approach to positioning and messaging called Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM). The approach defies traditional company-centric messaging because it challenges a company to look at messaging from a higher-level and focus on the industry. When this is done correctly, the company has an opportunity to be more strategic and develop a narrative that is unique, compelling and actually means something to the industry. When we share tips

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

The (Only) Three Questions to Ask Your PR Firm

After being in the PR business for more than 30 years, it’s been an interesting ride to see how it’s evolved, morphed and changed. Yet, while PR has been around for a while, it still is a mystery for many CEOs, CMOs and marketing folks. Oftentimes, they don’t understand what kind of results they should expect and, if they are hiring a PR firm, how they operate. We often get asked the standard questions when

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Market Leadership

Social Media Marketing World: The Future of Social Marketing

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend Social Media Marketing World 2017 (SMMW) in sunny San Diego. Coming into the conference as an intermediate member of the social media world, I was excited to learn a lot. And, boy, did I learn! The conference covered just about every corner of social media marketing, including tracks specifically dedicated to blogging, vlogging, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, analytics and more. With more than 100 sessions lead

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strategic narrative
Strategic Narrative

Demand Grows for Strategic Narrative Marketing Services

Today Catapult PR announced strong momentum for our new Strategic Narrative Marketing services after launching our book, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing.” Strategic Narrative Marketing (SNM) is a new approach to market positioning that focuses on higher-level industry vision and category-building, giving organizations unique, compelling and useful messaging to communicate to the market. Read the full press release here to learn more. To learn more about the SNM Workshop, visit: http://www.catapultpr-ir.com/strategic-narrative-messaging-workshop/

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

Your Strategic Narrative | Part 9

If strategic narrative you’ve followed along with our Strategic Narrative Marketing blog series, you’ve learned about this new industry approach that was developed by Catapult PR to help companies lead markets, stand apart from their competitors, and have something meaningful to say in crowded content spaces. Recently we transitioned from the “what” to the “how.” We covered the basics of conducting a discovery session to unwrap a Strategic Narrative and explained how that will lead

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

Crafting Your Strategic Narrative Statement | Part 8

To continue our ongoing series on “Strategic Narrative Development: Elements of Success,” we’ll take a look this week at actually creating a strategic narrative statement. Last week, we discussed the elements most important to conducting a workshop and developing a category: gathering the right people, thinking at an industry level, using the workshop for discovery and not to answer questions, and to hold an extensive discussion that allows the team to consider all its options

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Strategic Narrative
Market Leadership

The New Standard for Quality Content

My son, a kindergartner, is learning how to read and write. He tends to rush through his assignments so he can move on to more important things, like recess. His teacher, on the other hand, is a big proponent of “quality work.” She encourages him to take his time. My husband and I (also supporters of quality work), make him slow down when we practice with him outside of school but, he doesn’t quite get

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Social Media
Market Leadership

Three Reasons to Adopt a Social Media Strategy

At Catapult PR, we offer a wide variety of services to our B2B tech clients. From analyst and media relations to content development, to capturing speaking and award opportunities there isn’t much we can’t do. While programs such as these are pretty painless in terms of getting clients on board, there is one initiative that is often a struggle: social media. Perhaps it’s because of how new social media is in terms of being a

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Market Leadership

Unwrap Your Company’s Strategic Narrative | Part 6

If you’ve been following along with our Strategic Narrative Marketing blog series, you’ve learned how your organization has a unique opportunity to be heard in the face of today’s oversaturated content and digital marketing channels. You’ve learned how a Strategic Narrative can help elevate your organization above the competition with a higher-level, strategic approach to positioning and messaging. You’ve also learned some of the key building blocks of a Strategic Narrative – including tenets to

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

The Rules of Engagement: PR Edition

rule of en·gage·ment noun “A directive issued by a military authority specifying the circumstances and limitations under which forces will engage in combat with the enemy.” The [PR] rules of engagement (ROE) are standing orders to public relations firms (and individual PR professionals) that define the circumstances, conditions, degree, and manner in which the use of pitching, writing or socializing may be applied. These rules provide authorization for and/or limits on, among other things, the

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Strategic Narrative
Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative Marketing: Core Tenets of an Industry Narrative | Part 5

Today we are diving into Part 5 of our Strategic Narrative Marketing Blog series. To guide you through this new, unique approach to company messaging and strategy, we’ve broken down the key pillars of what makes up a marketing-based Strategic Narrative. Our aim is twofold: 1) help those of us in charge of “messaging” create a more industry level industry narrative and, 2) provide a guide that is open and available to make a meaningful

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strategic narrative marketing
Market Leadership

Get to Know the Mind Behind, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing”

A few weeks ago we announced a new book by Catapult co-founder and principal, Guy Murrel. The book, “A Practical Guide to Strategic Narrative Marketing,” is a brief ‘how-to’ guide for those looking to lead their market and stand apart from competitors while embracing a new messaging strategy. I asked Guy a few questions this week to get his perspective on what Strategic Narrative Marketing is and what it means to the PR and marketing

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strategic narrative
Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative Themes: Creating Messaging that is New and Meaningful | Part 4

For the past several weeks we have been writing about key Strategic Narrative Marketing practices on our Catapult blog. We’ve looked at how you can find your company’s voice, think higher than a mission statement, and guide strategic direction with a strategic narrative. Today we look at creating entirely unique strategic narrative spaces and themes. What, exactly, do we mean by that? Let’s start with the common understand that to standout in the marketplace, you

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Strategic Narrative
Market Leadership

Drop Your Mission Statement, Pick Up a Strategic Narrative | Part 2

We all have that “one” friend. The one we dread inviting over for dinner or out to brunch because we know all they will do is talk about themselves. While we wait for a natural pause to interject our own thoughts, we begin to lose interest in what they are saying and perhaps begin daydreaming, watching the final cares we have drift away. Think of this friend as the traditional approach to positioning and messaging.

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Strategic Narrative Workshop
Market Leadership

What Is a Strategic Narrative Workshop?

As you’ve been reading in our blog, Strategic Narrative Marketing is an entirely new approach to what some folks refer to as “storytelling” or traditional “positioning and messaging.” Strategic Narrative Marketing elevates both of these to a much higher industry level that gets companies out of talking about themselves, their products, services, bits and bytes, and instead focuses on important issues taking place in their industries. It is a way for companies to not only

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Find your voice
Market Leadership

Find Your Voice with Strategic Narrative Marketing | Part 1

How loud is your company’s voice? No matter the industry, I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of us are seeing heavy saturation when it comes to online publishing and content marketing. The noise has its advantages and disadvantages. While you have the opportunity to disrupt the marketplace on platforms that can reach big audiences through PR and marketing, you might find it difficult to make an impact amongst the noise. Here’s an

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Strategic Narrative Marketing
Market Leadership

Strategic Narrative Marketing – A New Marketing Category To Help Companies Stand Out & Be Noticed

Today is a special day at Catapult. Strategic Narrative Marketing After years of helping our clients develop their stories and turn them into narratives and entire market categories, we have taken our own good advice. We have formally packaged up this proven service offering and are now making it available to clients, small and large. We call it “Strategic Narrative Marketing.” It’s a new marketing category designed to help lift organizations up above the fray

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Strategic Narratives
Market Leadership

Strategic Narratives: How Industry Vision Creates Leadership and New Messaging Spaces

All too often businesses struggle with having something unique and compelling to say in their marketplace. Now, with the rise of content marketing as a means of connecting with customers and standing out in the market, the challenge of “what to say” seems to increase daily. If you’re looking for new, fertile messaging ground to build your story, *stop looking inward* and at “how to” topics, and look upward at the larger scope of your

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Life of a Ghostwriter
Market Leadership

Life of a Ghostwriter

In a crowded, self-publishing digital world an organization will be noticed if they present a strong industry narrative through quality content. Most marketers would agree that good content goes a long way – and other stakeholders within organizations are starting to recognize its value as well. This is evident in the time and resources directed towards content development and marketing across industries. For many businesses, the content marketing strategy calls for thought leadership content “from”

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Catapult 17 years
Market Leadership

Cheers to 17 Years for Catapult in the high-tech PR trenches!

Today Catapult PR is celebrating 17 years as a boutique public relations firm in the high-tech B2B market. Since 1999, this agency has ridden the highs and lows of the tech industry. We’ve helped numerous companies lead markets, build and own categories and, in many instances, get purchased or lead to successful IPOs. Over the years, we’ve become a leader in developing our clients’ strategic narratives; increasing their visibility among industry influencers and their audiences;

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Lead your market
Market Leadership

Is your marketing content helping you lead your market?

Whether you are a content or digital marketer, branding guru, PR professional or C-level executive, the content you put out there matters. You probably want your content to be seen. You might even want your content to be strong enough to secure leads and engage your audience. If all those things are true, I’m willing to bet that you want to be recognized in your industry as a leader. So how is it going? Has

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Telling the Same Story
Market Leadership

Telling the Same Story? Look Higher at an Industry Narrative

Every brand has a story to tell.  Content and digital marketing teams spend hours toiling over ways they can capture the hearts of their audience through storytelling.  While there is a clear value in storytelling when it works, it’s not easy to come up with a compelling, sustainable and unique story that will grab your audience’s attention and make a difference in the marketplace. This is especially true for many B2B tech companies.  Despite the

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Strategic Narrative
Market Leadership

Market Confusion – Obstacle or Opportunity?

Market confusion brought on by disruptive mega-trends, new legislation or shifting industry norms can be difficult. However, this confusion also can present a wonderful opportunity to stand out as an industry leader by actively clarifying any misperceptions that are adversely impacting your industry. Companies that lead markets will always play an active role in shaping a positive industry narrative, and proactively and consistently educating the market about the overall benefits, advancements and evolution of the

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Strategic Narrative Marketing-Be Unique-Catapult PR-IR
Market Leadership

Avoid Blind Spots with an Industry Strategic Narrative

At Catapult we run industry Strategic Narrative workshops that help organizations dig deep into mega trends, category dynamics, transformational shifts and future possibilities – focused primarily on leading industry success and maturity. Our intent is to create a higher-level messaging framework that defines and leads categories, and goes beyond storytelling to guide all forms of marketing. However, the process also serves as a forcing function to address key issues that ultimately guide the strategic direction

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16226019243_9c026e6621_k
Market Leadership

Three Reasons CEOs Need an Industry Strategic Narrative

Every great company benefits from clear vision and leadership. The dynamics of an organization’s culture is set at the top, and it is the job of every CEO to connect and inspire people to effectively move toward a common strategic goal. Here are 3 reasons why every CEO should have a strategic narrative that outlines the current state of the industry, vision for the category and role the organization will play to advance the overall

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