OpenOcean

Growing the brand of one of Europe's leading early-stage venture capital firms. 

OpenOcean is one of Europe's leading venture capital firms. They specialise in Series A funding for data software startups, boasting an impressive portfolio.

Over the past three years, Resonance has worked with the team to grow their brand and their partners to be leading authorities in the VC scene, securing regular and significant coverage within national, investor, technology and start-up media. 

Ekaterina Almasque

General Partner at OpenOcean, a leading VC firm

Challenge

OpenOcean needed to enhance its market presence within the broader VC ecosystem, while showcasing the significant achievements of its portfolio companies. They needed to attract both LPs and they wanted to increase awareness among the right founders and early stage technology companies.

Strategy

The PR was developed alongside the brand strategy and focused on storytelling, helping OpenOcean stand out from the VC crowd. Our approach was to deliver brand awareness, reputation and crisp, clear differentiation through the brand narrative and the OpenOcean personality.

This required a commitment to building deep and long-term relationships with tier one and two journalists/influencers in publications read by founders (primary) & LPs (secondary audience), gaining frequent coverage that highlighted OpenOcean's expertise in both investing and building businesses, its founder-centricity, and deep understanding of technology. Our goal was to build a community, to be found, to be understood, and to be a VC that target founders and LPs want to work with.

The specific marketing goals this programme will support are:

1. Generate awareness and reputation through a regular cadence of media coverage.
2. Establish and showcase a unique founder orientation, methodology & portfolio experience to produce top of the funnel media coverage containing the right messaging in the right publications.
3. Build the community: attract businesses with relevance and purpose, thus appealing to LPs and founders with purpose-driven messaging.
4. Use PR to become known as experts in your specialist technology areas, illuminating on the bigger picture and impact and raise the profile of three partners as spokespeople
   

Activation

Resonance implemented a strategic media relations plan, centred on establishing high-level thought leadership and fostering those enduring press relationships. This approach involved organising repeat engagements for OpenOcean's founders and their portfolio companies with targeted journalists.

A cornerstone of the strategy was the adept use of newsjacking, ensuring OpenOcean maintained visibility and relevance in rapidly changing news cycles.

Additionally, the plan prioritised securing feature interviews and thought leadership pieces in target publications, further elevating the profiles of both the founders and their ventures.

Results

In just over 3 years of work with OpenOcean, and its portfolio companies, we’ve grown their brand into a leading authority in early-stage venture capital, securing coverage across national, investor, tech, and start-up media.

In 2023 alone, Resonance achieved the following results: 

• 129 pieces of coverage
  • 89 pieces in tier 1 media outlets 
    6,000,000 estimated coverage views 

    • TechCrunch: UK rejoins Europe’s Horizon R&D program after prolonged Brexit stalemate

    • Evening Standard: City eyes Hunt reforms on pensions in Mansion House speech to boost London

    • Financial Times: How university spinouts can win more investment

• 25 interviews
  • Sifted x3, Business Insider x5, Financial Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, PitchBook, The Next Web, and many more

• 38 bylines 
  • 136,000 estimated coverage views

GLOBAL COVERAGE IN LEADING PUBLICATIONS. SUBSTANTIAL BRAND GROWTH FOR OPENOCEAN.