PR Vibes? 26 Years: A Q&A with Laura Borgstede, Chief Energizing Officer, Calysto

Calysto Communications is celebrating 26 years since its inception in February 1999, clocking multi-decade growth from its beginnings as the first global public relations agency focused on wireless and telecom, to its role now as a full marketing communications business that works with cutting-edge technology companies across the AI, Iot, mobile, wireless, and telecom segments.

PR Vibes sat down with founder and CEO Laura Borgstede, to talk about some of the modern changes that she's been tracking when it comes to content marketing and public relations, and how Calysto continues to innovate as it enters its next quarter-century of operations.

PR Vibes: What are the biggest changes that you've seen over the past year in your industry, and how is Calysto responding to them?

Laura Borgstede: Probably the biggest development is how many, many agencies are using AI to write pitches, press releases, articles, and other content – and we don't do that. We use ex- or current journalists to write all of our content and our clients’.? We always have, and that will continue to be a huge differentiator for us.

AI-written materials lack a voice, there's no tone, there's no style. It's frankly boring, and it's not the way we want to come across, and it's not the way we want our clients to come across either.

I also don't think an AI can really give you the whole context around the problem that a given client's solution is trying to address. It cannot innately know why a piece of content is important to specific publications or audiences. You need human expertise for that.

PR Vibes: Are there any other significant differentiators for how Calysto approaches content marketing?

Borgstede: We're trying to get our clients into more best practices with fitting content to the right platform, like shorter content for social media. Instead of writing a blog that's 900 words, you could and should focus on doing three of them at 300 words each, which are more social-friendly. But then, you can write something that's 900 words for a contributed "advertorial" piece for a publication; you can contribute an technical paper that's 2,000 words at least. It's about understanding the audience and the platform that you're on, and customizing the content for that, knowing what the best practices are around each platform.

PR Vibes: How can you make your content work best for your clients?

Borgstede: We are all about repurposing. So, one press release should be turned into at least five blogs and a media pitch, and possibly a thought leadership article. Within that we have other ways to make the content work harder; when we take a topic from a client that we're going to pitch for a thought leadership article, we'll write the base abstract, gain interest, draft the article, and then we'll customize it for each one of the appropriate vertical audiences and publications.

PR Vibes: What differentiates your strategy for media engagement?

Borgstede: We're not just going to pitch just one set of publications. We're going to pitch whatever the horizontal is (let's say Internet of Things), and then as many verticals as we can, which we work closely with the company to target based on where it has been successful in its go-to-market strategy, and where it's starting to see more success. Usually that's three-to-five verticals; taking the IoT example, that could be agriculture, or manufacturing, oil and gas or smart cities. Then we take those verticals and create PR tools, like developing a trade show calendar across the main agriculture conferences, for example. We research all the trade shows where the client should be, and all the editors that are writing about IoT in that smart farm space. We research the analysts that are covering those farming topics. So, I have my clients talking to agriculture analysts versus just the main IoT technology analysts at Gartner, IDC and so on.

Many companies come to us, and we find they've been targeting the wrong media and the wrong shows and the wrong analysts.

PR Vibes: This is where the "market opportunity press releases" come in?

Borgstede: Yes, a Market Opportunity announcement is something that we do that's unique. A “market” could be a geography or a vertical, and we try to ask, what is the problem this segment faces? And how does my client solve that problem? So the press release will introduce the company and its value proposition to a vertical like oil and gas, and allows us to introduce the brand to new editors and new analysts. And then when they do have a customer announcement or other news in that sector, then we already have established relationships.

PR Vibes: What are your priorities for the coming year and your future goals for Calysto?

Borgstede: There are definite areas where we see growth opportunities, especially in satellite IoT and satellite communications. Connected cars and autonomous vehicles is another big growth area; and then we're also focused on helping AI companies that have interesting and differentiated AI technology, especially in wireless.

We go deeper and more technical than most agencies; and we understand the technology. We're going to continue to focus on helping clients message to the right audiences, including the verticals, in the right format, with the right approaches for success.

Looking to supercharge your content approach and become more strategic with your brand marketing efforts? Calysto can help! Contact us today.