This week, over 120 companies will be launching products at one of two trade shows focused on start ups: Demo 08 and TechCrunch 50. Having worked with companies launching at previous Demo shows, I know that preparation for these shows takes an incredible investment of time, resources and money on the part of the start up. Unfortunately, when two similar shows occur at the same time, the one predictable result is that spotlight is removed from the start ups, and the volume of news makes it much harder for any particular start up to attract attention.

As previously noted, more people read about a trade show, then attend. This means that garnering press coverage is one of the most important aspects of trade show exhibiting. This is especially true when the trade show is sponsored by a major media organization – in this case TechCrunch and IDG News.

With the first two days of each conference completed, what can we say about the press coverage. Much of the mainstream media coverage has been about the organizers, the competition, and comments about commenting about the competition. The two shows also have generated a firehose of information.

Quite frankly, with 120 companies in 2 days, the overall impression becomes a blur of start ups with mobile, social networking, video, microblogging, advertising platforms. To make matters worse, there also is a CTIA Wireless show in San Francisco this week with hundreds of companies vying for press attention.

For companies that are not exhibiting at these shows, avoiding issuing news during high traffic trade show weeks becomes an imperative. The collateral damage from these simultaneous shows is not limited to exhbitors.

The decision as to when to launch a PR campaign is more about determining your marketing goals than about picking a date. When you launch a PR campaign, you are shining a kleig light on your company and inviting the world to take a look. Typically, this means that your product is available, with website and marketing materials ready.

However, we are starting to see a trend where companies are now looking to raise awareness in advance of having an actual product. These companies tend to be in developing areas of technology where the start ups want to establish themselves as thought leaders and experts in their emerging fields. It is especially important for a start up with products that have long purchase cycles to get on the radar of their potential customers as early as possible.

Another reason to get started with PR early is if the start up is looking for financing. Coverage in publications followed by VCs and angel investors can expand the universe of financing options and create the opportunity to finance on better terms.

Thinking about launching a PR campaign…but rethinking it because it’s the middle of the summer and who’s around? Think again.

Yes, editors and analysts go on vacation but they do come back in a week or two. Summer tends to be a time when they might have more flexibility with their work schedule to take an intro briefing or take the time to view a product demo from a new company. Although there might be less news announcements during the summer months, news still needs to be posted.

Likewise, if your company is thinking about a fall product launch or aggressive campaign for Q4; the time to start that campaign is not September 1. The time to start that campaign is now so you’re out the door on September 1.

Ideally, to prepare for a Q4 campaign you want to start now – yesterday.

• What about company messaging? Does this need a rehaul? Is it outdated? Vantage Communications can organize a messaging workshop with the key company executives to uncover new messaging for your organization. Once the messaging has been refined – and this will take a few rounds – especially, if several executives or board members need to approve it.

• Testing the messaging. We love it but what does the industry think? We always recommend reaching out to a third-party expert for industry validation. They might love it, too or offer some suggestions for improvement. Vantage can take care of this for you.

• New messaging approved. Next step: The company website needs to be updated with the new messaging. Content needs to be created and updated to reflect this. Company backgrounders, boilerplates, company presentations, etc. all should reflect the new messaging.

• Planning for the new product launch – Media Blitz: What should we do? Press tour, analyst tour, trade show event, podcast, video segment, a launch including other customers or partners? These all sound like great ideas that need to be agreed upon and then planned out including starting the logistics. Before the logistics can begin, the strategy needs to be determined and the timing confirmed. The Vantage team can assist with the best strategy and then execute it.

There is so much more to plan for an effective campaign but I think you get the idea…

Thinking about a PR campaign? What are you waiting for? The summer is a perfect time!

One aspect that many companies initially fail to consider is how their products will reach the market. Although the Internet provides a direct channel for software, hardware vendors have to rely on the sales channel (aka VARs and resellers) that have direct contact with their users. This is especially true for B to B start ups that sell to the enterprise, government and SMBs.

The most successful B to B startups have spent time focusing on building their channel and have developed a network of resellers that put their product in front of potential customers. But it is also important that the PR effort also be targeted to reach these key influencers. This means focusing on the publications, blogs, etc. that focus on the channel. One of the most important channel publication is CRN.

With that background, I am very proud to tell you that 4 Vantage clients were named to CRN’s Emerging Tech Vendors. They are Array Networks, eTelemetry, KEMP Technologies and Objectworld. The award recognizes the success of these companies in developing these sales channels. The award is important because, according to a CRN survey, 61 percent of solutions providers surveyed plan to increase the number of emerging technology vendors they partner with in the next 12 months. The Emerging Tech Vendor list is among the first places they will look.

Congratulations to the winners and their teams whose hard work and creativity have been recognized by CRN.

When people ask what Vantage Communications does, we answer that we are in the third party recommendation business. We mean that we liase with the people that influence your customers, partners, VCs, etc. This has two key benefits. One is that your audience is getting information about your company from someone that they trust, which increases its credibility. You can talk about yourself (aka advertising), but people tend to discount or even ignore people saying great things about themselves. After all, what else would they say?

The other benefit is extreme efficiency. By interacting with a small number of editors, analysts, and bloggers, you can reach millions of people. That efficiency also applies to a B-to-B start up that is not trying to reach millions. By targeting the right publications, you can open the doors to potential customers and partners that are unwilling to deal with companies that they never heard of. We had a client that was trying in the worst way to directly contact a potential customer. After an article about them ran in a trade publication, the customer contacted them and became a flagship customer!

One thing that start ups underestimate is how many people are part of the buying decision in a business. We had one potential client ask why he needed PR when he knew someone at all of his potential customers. So I asked him how much product he was selling at one of the larger potential customers. The response: “Nothing yet. The guy I know is in sales and he needs to speak to someone in engineering who needs to speak to……”

Implicit in the PR process is identifying your potential partners and customers and determining where they get their information. This universe is expandig rapidly, with the rise of blogs and web publications (and the decline of mainstream media). Since start ups have limited resources, they need to be efficient in their PR efforts. If your customers are reading Engadget or Light Reading, it makes sense to focus your efforts there. But the assumption that getting on the cover of a business publication is going to make your company does not really hold water unless your audience reads the publication. And the wasted time and cost can divert valuable marketing resources.

According to an article by Amy Schurr of Network World, Gartner has released the 10 technologies which every IT executive should keep in mind between now and 2012. Wondering if social networking is just a fad? Think again…

According to the report, social networking is here to stay. As Amy mentions in her article, “David Cearley, a Gartner fellow, said enterprise applications will begin to offer features found in popular social software such as Facebook and MySpace. These capabilities can help companies improve collaboration and tap feedback from customers.”

Other technologies that Gartner reports are here to stay? Multicore processors, web mashups, user interfaces, virtualization and fabric computing, cloud computing, contextual computing, augmented reality and semantics.

As PR and marketing professionals, this is great insight for us to keep in mind. How do these technologies affect our clients or our company? And if you’re not already “in the know” with them, it just might be the time to jump on the bandwagon!

Like the “Bat signal,” sometimes blog topics present themselves like a bright shining light. Last week I attended a conference that featured a panel of journalists talking on the subject of PR for start ups. While most of them knew what not to do, none of them could speak about how start ups should be thinking about “whether and when they consider” starting a PR effort and how to go about doing so. Upon returning home, I was greeted by a Facebook request from Christian Gammill, who works with a number of start ups in Southern California looking for input on the value of PR for start ups. There was also a recent post on TechCrunch on the topic.

But I have not seen anyone tackle the topic of describing how a tech start up should approach PR and the things to consider in the decision-making process. So Vantage is here to help. Over the next few weeks, we will be taking you through how to make the right PR decisions for your tech start up. Stay tuned.