Building Thought Leadership for the Next Wave of Enterprise Data – Our Work

The Problem

Pure Storage first burst onto the technology infrastructure scene more than a decade ago as an upstart innovator in flash storage. Fast forward to 2022 and it is on its way to achieving $2 billion in annual revenue. As the market leader in flash storage, Pure is focused not only on solving for their customers’ current needs, but on enabling them to take advantage of the next wave of modern data and applications to fuel their business.

But with the maturity earned over a dozen years, it was time to take Pure from darling to established and trusted provider. We needed to break through with an elevated narrative demonstrating Pure’s ongoing relevance and pacesetting innovation. Achieving stronger share of voice in thought leadership is an important ongoing differentiator in that effort.

The Solution – How we Uncomplicated the Complicated

To maintain its position as a leader in its space, we needed to be a true authority, thinking outside of the products to truly guide the industry forward with thought leadership as the world navigates new trends, challenges and rapid digital transformation. An important channel for us to insert our voice and perspective is through contributed content.

The Access Team has worked with Pure to establish a regular cadence of contributed articles that help shape how the market views newly emerging opportunities in the use of data, and the infrastructure and skillset required for the enterprise to succeed. Over the course of a typical year, we have content in development for a half dozen or more Pure executives and subject matter experts on topics ranging from the rise of unstructured data to the infrastructure needed to support emerging trends like 5G. We have also worked with customers that were more reticent to take media interviews, to draft and place bylines on their behalf and with their input as a controlled approach to media engagement through case studies. What success looks like:

Collaboration – Our Pure clients are generous with their time, working with the Access content team in 1:1 “download” sessions – part deep dive, part brainstorm – to share their expertise, and remaining engaged through the revision process. When execs or customers are pressed for time, we’re resourceful and quick to leverage existing media briefing notes, case studies and other content too. One interview can sometimes yield multiple pieces of content, optimizing their effectiveness for our team and driving visibility while taking the burden off executives.

Output – In 2021 we worked with more than a half dozen executives and customers to produce a steady mix of earned and paid bylines showcasing Pure’s leadership in key outlets amid a shrinking world of journalism. Collectively, they played a critical role in helping elevate Pure’s share of voice for the year. The company moved into the #2 position of SOV in its competitive set – a long-time goal.

Impact – An article penned by an executive fully exploring a topic important to Pure complements the team’s pitching efforts and enables Pure to share a much richer POV. Bylines have helped to gain greater ability for key thought leadership topics that are foundational to Pure’s business strategy. And by establishing ourselves as a provider of insightful, non-promotional content, managing editors are more keen to work with us and Pure because they know the quality we deliver.