Neo Technology & Sarum win Platinum LACP award as Panama Papers media success ranks 17th in Top 100 Global Communications Campaigns

Worldwide impact of the mainstream campaign has put the global spotlight on the Swedish graph database leader

Salisbury, UK – November 15th, 2016 – Digital PR and Brand Journalism agency Sarum and client Neo Technology have won the top – Platinum - award in the prestigious League of American Communication Professionals (LACP) Global Communication Competition, for the impact of a global Panama Papers campaign spearheaded by Sarum.

The global media achievement, which LACP has ranked 17th in the Global 100 Communication Campaigns of 2016, has put graph database specialist Neo Technology centre stage for a mainstream audience.

Key to the campaign’s success was Sarum’s speed as ‘first responder’ to the opportunity, harnessing the global furore around the Panama Papers scandal for its technology client when the news broke in April 2016. Agencies from the US, France and Germany joined the global effort to maximise the impact for Neo.

The Panama Papers scandal was deemed the largest leak of secret documents in history: records from specialist law firm in Panama whose discovery exposed large-scale tax evasion by high-profile individuals around the world. The cases were dissected at length by the world’s media over several months – with reference to Neo’s technology never far away (it was Neo’s powerful search technology that helped uncover the tax evasion).

“This was a dream opportunity to give Neo a global, mainstream media platform,” commented Carina Birt, founder of Sarum.

“Through this huge news event we were able to highlight the unique capabilities of Neo’s technology that might otherwise have been missed by the mainstream media – ie the fact that even the best whistle-blower data is useless without a tool that can analyse tremendous amounts of very complex data very quickly,” she explained. “Making this connection gave an extra dimension to the story, while expanding Neo’s audience.”

The Neo story secured coverage in high-profile publications including Forbes and The Washington Post as well as the complete spectrum of IT media. It also drew a record audience to Neo’s annual user event in London this year.

“The scale and depth of the campaign’s impact, which still endures today, would not have been possible without Sarum’s speed of response and creative direction,” commented Utpal Bhatt, Neo Technology’s Chief Marketing Officer.

“We have always known we were onto something spectacular with our technology, but no one could have predicted that a database company from Swedish roots could have stirred up such a storm in the global market – now cemented with this Platinum award in our competition class, beating the likes of Skoda.

“To be ranked 17th in the Top 100 Global Communications campaigns is a major achievement, and is thanks to Sarum’s quick thinking that we and our agencies around the world were able to capitalise on this platform, promoting Neo as well as the ICIJ [International Consortium of Investigative Journalists] and its brave individuals who uncovered this huge public interest story.”

Neo’s star continues to rise: the company has just announced $36 million in new funding as its powerful search technology surges into the mainstream.

Sarum is no stranger to LACP award success, having secured Gold last year for its success with AIIM’s World Paper Free Day campaign.

Neo’s PR partners in the US, France and Germany namely Kulesa Faul, BS Conseil & Communication and Lucy Turpin PR, also played an instrumental role in delivering the Panama Papers success.

About Neo Technology

Neo Technology (Neo4j.com; @Neo4j) is the creator of Neo4j, the world’s leading graph database. Using it, companies can build intelligent applications that meet today's evolving connected data challenges including fraud detection, real-time recommendations, master data management, network security and IT operations. Global enterprises including Walmart, UBS, Cisco, HP, adidas Group and Lufthansa, and hot start-ups such as Medium, Qualia and Glowbl, rely on Neo4j to exploit powerful data connections.

About Sarum

Award-winning digital PR and brand journalism agency, Sarum, delivers strategic PR and communications services to UK, USA and European based clients and is run by Carina Birt who founded the agency over 20 years ago.

Sarum includes among its clients AIIM, Neo Technology, EASY Software, AMPLEXOR Life Sciences, VoiceSage and Intelligence Node.

For further information please contact:

Carina Birt, Sarum
+44 1722 322916
carina@sarumpr.com
@birtie ; @SarumPR

All trademarks and registered trademarks, including Neo Technology® and Neo4j® are the property of their respective owners.