What was the goal?

Every established player in this space was a large national event organizer with an advertising budget to match. Pictage had neither the budget nor the name recognition to compete on those terms. I was brought in as fractional CMO to build a growth strategy from a different foundation entirely, community and word of mouth rather than paid reach.

When you can't outspend the market, you build the room the market wants to be in.

Solution

User groups and guerrilla marketing tactics became the primary growth channel, working alongside a team of 10 across every inbound and outbound sales touchpoint. The centerpiece of the strategy was an annual conference, a format that didn't exist anywhere else in this industry at the time. Pictage was the only software represented at the event, but other vendors were invited to attend and help fund it, turning what could have been a pure marketing expense into a self-sustaining industry gathering.

That conference became more than a marketing tactic. It became the place where the industry's user base gathered, which meant Pictage owned the room even without owning the largest ad budget.

Results

Pictage was acquired by Apollo Global for $29M within a few years of this strategy taking hold, a private equity acquisition built on the user growth and market position the conference and community strategy had created.