The Skimmer campaign targeted two main audiences: the advertising and marketing trades and technology experts and influentials. We wanted to make it clear that the project was not intended solely to garner ad industry buzz, but that there was also serious weight and intention behind it. We wanted to show the industry that our agency is a forward thinker in the category, and the best way to do that was to secure reviews by and support from the most well-respected technology personalities and publications in the country.Our challenge was to create a technology sector story about a non-tech company building a truly useful software application. To add to the challenge, we needed to build buzz around this unlikely story in an environment where software receives only three percent of the technology press- just a fraction of the attention paid to gadgetry.We secured over 100 stories around the world, including in The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, The Washington Post, TechCrunch (U.S. and JP), CNET, Bangkok Post, MyTech (IT), Strategies (FR), Mashable (U.S., FR), livedoor (JP), IDG (SWE), and geekomatic (FR).

The agency specifically took an approach counter to the typical Web 2.0 “undersign” by putting user experience over function. Design has long been considered superfluous to these kinds of services, and application development has come to tie itself to customary user testing that results in design by committee. The agency believe design is fundamental to usability and experience, and this idea determined every step of the project development process.As a social media product offering, the agency approached technology media and influentials as well as traditional advertising and consumer media, effectively multiplying buzz several times over.

The estimated number of people reached to date as a result of our PR activities is over 35 million. This includes traditional and online press, as well as extended social media and digital viral word of mouth from blog and Twitter activity. The day after Skimmer launched, it was the fifth most discussed Twitter topic. Because of the technology and social media focus of the project, we reached more than twice as many people as we would have with traditional media alone- and in multiple industries that otherwise would never have heard of Fallon or its philosophy. Our goal of 10,000 users within one month was met- and exceeded- in less than one week, and as of this writing, our count is over twice that original goal. We secured over 100 stories around the world, including in The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, The Washington Post, TechCrunch (U.S. and JP), CNET, and Bangkok Post.