Established in 1984, Aldec is an Electronic Design Automation (EDA) company. The company’s products are extremely high tech and are used by engineers to develop and verify the correctness of complex designs that end up inside electronic components – and provide crucial functionality – in aircraft, cars, satellites, mobile phones, commercial goods and a host of other applications.

Indeed, it’s most likely you have used a product that contains an integrated circuit (IC or ‘chip’) programmed or verified by one of Aldec’s EDA solutions.

Some of Aldec’s solutions are software-based (apps that run on high-end PCs).  Others, like the HES-7 shown below, are platforms, used to prototype and verify the functionality of a design before committing to the considerable cost of manufacturing an IC.

Declaration has been working closely with Aldec for several years, helping communicate the features and benefits of the company’s products to an audience that is up against extremely complex technical design challenges and intense commercial pressures. Customers designing for safety-critical aerospace applications also have the added pressure of proving their designs meet strict industry regulations.

We have been:

• Prioritising the provision of advice and guidance to existing and potential customers over ‘hard sell’ marketing techniques, noting that it is only in recent years that the B2B marketers (and search engines) have started to see the true value in content.
• Making clear and concise communications that appeal to multiple stakeholders (i.e., design engineers, senior managers, safety specialists etc.). Again, Declaration was ahead of the game in recognizing there is no single ‘buyer persona’ when it comes to technical B2B marketing.
• Ensuring information can be found on Aldec’s website when customers go looking for a solution to a problem.
• Being recognised and valued as a ‘thought leader’ in the media, and in this respect we recently secured a cover story for Aldec in a leading technical publication.

In Action

B2B marketing is challenging at the best of times, and even more so in advanced engineering sectors. However, during Richard Warrilow’s time as a journalist in the mid-1990s, he recognised that B2B technical marketing’s main goal should be to establish a benefits-focused flow of information from one company’s engineers (those who have developed solutions to problems) to the engineers in another company (those in need of a solution to a problem).

We work very closely with, and have become friends with, Aldec’s product managers and technical specialists. These are very clever and experienced engineers. They are also the guys at the coal face. They are in touch with customers and know their challenges and pains; and is why Aldec has the enviable reputation for developing solutions the market needs; whereas other EDA companies tend to adopt more of a ‘you-should-be-using-this’ approach!

We also take full advantage of trade shows / exhibitions (see above photo). If an Aldec product manager has any spare time between meetings with existing or potential customers, we use that time to conduct an interview. Typical questions we ask include: How are your customers keeping you busy? What are the biggest challenges in the industry right now? When you’re giving demos, what features seem to impress customers most? What questions are you being asked?

The answers to questions like that are marketing gold as, nine times out of ten, an article or blog idea will come from those discussions; an article or blog that is topical, current and portrays Aldec as the thought leader the company is.

Trust

With such great access to Aldec’s engineers, for producing marcomms material, we’re able to supply the trade press with articles written by engineers for engineers.

This has earned Declaration a great reputation with the trade press, which also means press releases we distribute on behalf of Aldec generally receive good coverage too. Editors know they can contact us if they have any questions or would like an article developing around any theme within the press release. We are a Press Office in the truest sense, providing valuable representation and not simply distributing news.

 Our technical backgrounds and interview techniques also come in useful when hosting Aldec’s webinars, which are typically live broadcasts and not pre-recorded. We prefer live. It’s more engaging and demonstrates the confidence of a true thought leader.

Hosting Aldec’s webinars is an honour, as is being entrusted with @aldec.com email addresses.