HOUSTON — BMC Software has hired WCG to handle its global PR following a reorg of its comms function to include customer engagement.

WCG secured the multimillion-dollar business, after a competitive pitch against Edelman and Waggener Edstrom, largely because of its analytics capabilities that use data to guide campaign planning, said Mark Stouse, VP of BMC global communications. Using WCG’s analytics platform, Stouse predicts the company will gain “20 percent to 25 percent” efficiency in its PR programs.

“I’ve become less interested in the after-action report and more interested in using analytics to have a good idea on what the return on a particular idea is going to be,” Stouse explained. For example, the team plans to implement a “'Net Promoter Score' for content," surveying how many IP addresses access a piece of content and how quickly this group expands, in addition to traditional baseline metrics, like share of voice.

"You want to be able to be experimental, but you don't want to just throw your money away. You want to have a fast failure or fast success," Stouse said.

With consumers driving more IT decisions, BMC is also tuning its message to “connect to the man on the street” with products, like the MyIT app that delivers IT services directly to users. This includes renaming corporate comms to “'global connect' because our goals are about connecting with people as individuals and not just an amorphous audience,” Stouse said.

This shift has been under way since Stouse rejoined BMC in May 2012 after more than one year as global VP of marcoms at Honeywell Aerospace. BMC also hired Kim DeCarlis in December to head its global marketing team. She was previously VP of corporate marketing at Citrix.

WCG, once known as a healthcare specialty firm, is expecting tech to make up more than 10 percent of its overall revenues this year, said Tim Marklein, tech and analytics practice leader at the W2O Group, WCG's parent company. In 2011, WCG reported fee income of around $48 million.

The agency’s win comes after a rigorous review process that emphasized BMC’s aim to hire “a global sales force for comms” and included special projects and spontaneous tests to assess industry know-how and acumen of pitching team members. The account will focus primarily on media and analyst relations and measure against objectives designed to make the comms process more precise.

Stouse previously worked with Waggener Edstrom at Honeywell. Incumbent Ogilvy PR did not re-pitch the business.

Following a missed profit forecast, BMC underwent an operational review starting 31 December to direct spending towards its better performing products.