Echodyne designs and manufactures radars.
Its patented metamaterials electronically scanned array (MESA®) technology unlocks previously unattained low size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) that outperform legacy systems in short to medium range radar. With the proliferation of drones, its radars provide high-fidelity situational awareness data pinpointing activity across multiple domains.
The application of Echodyne radars is across defense, government, security, counter-uncrewed aircraft systems (C-UAS), beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations, drone-as-first-responder (DFR), force protection, border security, critical infrastructure protection, public safety, autonomous vehicles, and uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS).
Based out of Washington State, the company has raised over $150m to date.
Echodyne has created a breakthrough radar platform that is relied on by defense, government, and commercial customers as the foundation for better situational awareness and safer outcomes.
However, being a company that manufactures dual-use technology, for both defense and commercial applications, creates a distinct challenge of trying to reach and influence two very different audiences of buyers and stakeholders. For example, defense audiences already clearly understand the value of radar and its role as a key sensor integrator for situational awareness in counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) like drones. By contrast, commercial audiences within critical infrastructure and public safety have a much broader threat profile focus, meaning it requires more informational and educational positioning and messaging to engage with effectively.
In order to bridge this communications gap, Echodyne wanted to onboard with a specialist defense and public safety PR agency that would create a highly targeted communication campaign that simultaneously reached both a defense, as well as critical infrastructure and public safety audience. Stakeholder groups included defense and governmental decision-makers, potential partners (UAS companies, defense primes and neo-primes) and commercial customers.
Thus, the core focus of the brief was to deliver a finely calibrated and targeted corporate communications campaign whereby strategic earned media placements would be prioritized to enhance brand reputation amongst prospective customers, partners and the wider industry ecosystem.
One requirement factored into the overall campaign was also a need to dovetail corporate PR announcements with an extensive number of industry events Echodyne was exhibiting at during a calendar year. A final, further workstream was defined to focus on raising industry visibility of the company’s executive team through an ongoing program of thought leadership and placement within podcast guest spots.
Based on Wise Up PR’s extensive defense PR experience, one immediate recommendation was to heavily segment messaging for the two differing audiences. Ahead of the execution phase, we conducted a comprehensive strategy review of the brand’s current positioning, as well as undertook an audience audit.
Distinctive audience message houses were created for the two separate ideal customer profiles (ICPs). This overall framework was assessed against every piece of public and media-facing materials to ensure tight alignment to each audience. This level of granularity applied to press releases, thought leadership content and even down to the brand’s boilerplates.
Moving beyond setting up messaging assets, our team also created a structured roadmap that factored in Echodyne’s annual event exhibition calendar. The approach was to strategically align corporate announcements with major defense events, such as AUSA and SOF Week, to generate both media interest and coverage, as well as drive visibility and on-the-floor conversations with prospects and potential partners at these events.
With partnerships and customer PR announcements forming a significant portion of the brief, Wise Up PR developed a toolkit aimed at being a turnkey asset for the marketing and sales team in their outreach to secure approval to proceed with any potential announcement. It formed a key artifact that could be selectively geared towards either large organizations with dedicated marketing functions, as well as smaller partners more reliant on sales or the C-suite. It was aimed at streamlining the entire partner program, as well as informing a partner on how the overall corporate announcement process would work.
The executive profiling work stream meant our team reviewed and refreshed corporate biographies, ideated quarterly thought leadership topic areas to achieve industry ownership over, and identified the most impactful podcast, as well as mainstream media opportunities available.
893 Articles
Coverage secured in top defense, critical infrastructure, public safety and business publications.
21.7 Million
Estimated audience that viewed the coverage generated.
66
Aggregate Domain Authority (DA) score of the publications which published.
1.4 Billion
Combined audience that are unique monthly visitors (UMVs) to the media outlets that covered Echodyne stories.
617,100
Coverage that was viewed via social posts accompanying media articles.
10,600
Organic social posts prompted by the launch media placements.
1
Industry recognition garnered via awards campaign for the work completed by Wise Up PR, with an accolade secured from a leading PR and marketing award program.
In this long-term corporate communications campaign, Wise Up PR strategically positioned Echodyne and enhanced its brand reputation with its highly targeted and specific audience. The structured approach created by our team has secured 893 articles and media placements since day one, with the coverage views estimated to be 21.7 million. Earned media coverage was generated in the likes of defense publications including Shephard Media and Janes, public safety outlets like Police 1 and mainstream media such as Forbes, BBC and Inc. Sustained executive interview placements on podcasts contributed to the overall campaign, with guest appearances secured with the likes of The Drone Radio Show, Military Embedded Systems Podcast and The Disaster Zone.
The highly strategic nature of this work also resulted in Wise Up PR being awarded as a Gold Winner, Best Media Relations Strategy, at the TITAN Awards.
“We’ve found a long-term trusted partner in Wise Up PR. The agency is highly skilled in corporate communication for defense brands and has delivered great results for Echodyne.”
Gold Winner, PR & Communications, Aerospace & Defense 2024
Looking For A Specialist Defense PR Agency?
Defense media is very different from critical infrastructure, a key consideration for defense brands that are dual use. The same messaging should never be used as the audience's levels of understanding differ. With this fundamental point at the front of your mind, map clearly where audiences are and then connect them with the media verticals they consume. This mapping exercise is an essential first step to building out a media list of relevant journalists and publications that your dual use brand should be targeting.
Given that defense and public safety are two very, very different domains, you’ll need to have a spokesperson bench that has different Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who can authoritatively address each market. Once in place, you can then leverage and build these spokespeople in two distinct domains, elevating your brand across your key markets in tandem. This is a powerful asset to have for any media outreach for a dual use technology company.
The defense sector has a large number of trade events, with journalists from industry titles, as well as mainstream media outlets attending. To get the most out of attending or exhibiting at such shows, you should attach product launches to these events to catch the attention of media who will be at the show and who will likely be interested in conducting an on-the-ground interview, as well as seeing your new technology up close. The great thing about this approach is that it can be strategically planned out well ahead of time, meaning you can create an action plan at the start of the year to work against.
Podcast interviews are incredible, long-form conversations that should be leveraged by defense and dual use companies. This is because there are both very broad and niche podcast interview opportunities that span warfare domains to industry verticals for dual use technology. One added benefit of spokespeople being interviewed on podcasts is that this video or audio can then be recycled on an ongoing basis on a brand’s LinkedIn company page and other social profiles, helping to fill out your content calendar.
