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PeppercoinPeppercoin, Inc., is a micropayments company that enables profitable new business models for low-priced digital content and physical goods. Micropayments are typically defined as purchases of less than $5. Only Peppercoin helps merchants build market adoption quickly through a consumer-friendly, pay-as-you-go approach that eliminates prepayments. Peppercoin integrates easily with existing business models and systems to accelerate revenues and increase profits while dramatically lowering transaction costs. For more information, visit corp.peppercoin.com.IndustryPeppercoin’s technology benefits any company engaging in the sale of low-priced content, online or offline. These include online merchants for digital music and games as well as financial services companies involved in processing the payments.Business ChallengeWhen Peppercoin hired Schwartz Communications, the micropayments market had been rapidly re-emerging, largely due to the success of Apple iTunes. A number of companies were entering the space, but no company other than Peppercoin had the background and technology to address the needs of the largest merchants and financial services institutions. With this in mind, Peppercoin retained the public relations services of Schwartz in October 2003 to create and implement an aggressive media and analyst relations campaign designed to raise the awareness of the company and highlight its innovative solution to the payment processing dilemma that prevented merchants from profitably selling low-priced content due to high credit card transaction fees.Schwartz PR StrategyWorking with Peppercoin’s executives, Schwartz planned media and analyst relations activities around the Micropayments 2003 conference, the launch of the Peppercoin service and a series of ongoing public relations campaigns. The goal was to raise awareness of Peppercoin among reporters, analysts, potential customers and partners. Securing positive PR coverage in the business media and raising consumer awareness of Peppercoin’s micropayment technology was crucial to establishing the company as a thought and technology leader in this multi-billion dollar market. Results- In just six months, the aggressive PR campaign has generated impressive results. By leveraging news, events and proactive outreach, Schwartz has secured coverage for Peppercoin in more than 100 articles, including feature coverage in the Associated Press, The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, CNET and The New York Times. The articles in these publications contained Peppercoin’s key messages and have become an integral part of Peppercoin’s marketing efforts.
- Schwartz quickly established Peppercoin as the micropayments leader in the eyes of industry analysts. The company is now regularly highlighted in analyst reporters from firms including Gartner, Forrester Research and the Tower Group.
- Schwartz leveraged Peppercoin-commissioned surveys to help validate the growth of micropayments and the business opportunities it presented. Publications ranging from Business 2.0 to American Demographics covered survey results.
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