Enabling the journey of this neuromorphic sensing pioneer from start-up to industry leader 

Interview with Mike Sottak and Rebecca Renner of Wired Island on Prophesee

Q: Tell me more about Wired Island’s relationship with Prophesee. How long have they been a client and how has that relationship changed over the years? 

Prophesee has been a great client, one that we have kind of grown up with.  Our relationship began back in 2014 when they were just getting started. In fact, we actually wrote their first press release! We were introduced to their founder Luca Verre through a “French connection” and there was good chemistry right from the get-go. Since then, we have worked side by side with Prophesee as the company has grown and evolved. Looking back over the past seven years, it’s impressive and rewarding to see how Prophesee has become a force in the machine vision industry. We are proud that we helped evangelize their innovative approach to vision sensing– event-based vision – and how they are truly recognized as the pioneer in this space. Our collaborative efforts have had some nice results, from Luca participating in the World Economic Forum to getting into Forbes to supporting their product rollouts and funding rounds – it is all starting to pay off for them. We have a great internal contact we work with which makes a big difference, too. He is always willing to listen to new ideas.  It’s exciting to partner with a company like Prophesee as they gain traction and establish themselves as a leader in their space. 

Q: Given Prophesee has such a unique audience, how have you modeled your efforts to bring more value to them as compared to an internal PR team? 

We operate as an extension of their internal communications and marketing team yet we bring outside perspective and connections. Wired Island has a history of relationships with the high-tech outlets that are relevant to Prophesee. Our global network of influencers, as well as industry experience, enable us to bring value to the team.  We can work with Propshee to create messaging that resonates. Our team is able to be flexible as their company’s needs ebb and flow throughout the year. I think that is a big plus for an organization like Prophesee versus a dedicated internal person. They have a seasoned team available to them on demand and we bring value to the table that they appreciate exactly when they need it. 

Q: Seems like the big recent news has been their partnership with Sony. How has that helped him?

From a PR perspective, Sony is obviously a great name to be associated with, especially since they are the market leader in CMOS image sensors. They chose to partner with Prophesee and leverage Prophesee’s unique event-based vision technology – that’s a very rare type of thing for Sony to do, to work with an external technology provider –  and underscores the innovation Prophesee brings. So we are able to get good PR mileage out of the relationship, both when the joint technology collaboration was announced at an industry conference in 2020 and when the actual Sony products were announced about a year later. We’re really happy with the coverage in technical trades especially, like IEEE Spectrum. These are reaching Prophesee’s core audience of engineers but have influence all the way up teh management chain of their customers.

Q: And awards seem to be a part of the program?

Yes, with a company like Prophesee that has such disruptive and pioneering technology, recognition through awards are a great way to amplify what they are doing. We’ve helped them with some really nice ones, like the VISION Award at a major industry event, and recognition from key publications like SME and Robotics Report.

Q: Around this time last year the Wired Island Team helped Prophesee announce a breakout product, Metavision Intelligence Suite How did you ensure the right audience was exposed to this announcement and that the messaging aligned with the company’s vision? 

This was an interesting announcement because it was their first software product and really established them as being able to provide a complete solution based on their technology innovation. It was more than just a new product –it is an attempt to build an entire ecosystem around their technology platform.  And, it was important for them to appeal to a much broader set of customers in different markets than we had traditionally focused on. We started by expanding our normal set of target publications to those covering the software space (vs hardware). Some of the key applications also allowed us to expand their messaging to new verticals and trade magazines. We also helped the team expand their messaging beyond just putting out a news release by ensuring it was reflected on their website, social media, email newsletter and more. A few years ago, Prophesee was perceived as being in a single market – automotive. Now they are viewed as a much broader solution provider across many different industries and application areas. 

Q: I also noticed you have worked with Prophesee through an impressive amount of growth in the form of funding. For a growing company like Prophesee, could you detail how those announcements are handled? 

For any start up, industry validation in the form of investors is important. Prophesee has had a very deliberate strategy to work with strategic investors and not necessarily just take money from anyone who approaches them. We helped create the right messages around each funding round, including the most recent one, which wasn’t huge in terms of dollars by current standards but was super strategic in that it opened up a whole new market for them in China, and also got them the endorsement of a highly respected expert in AI. Funding announcements are fun to work on but also can be challenging especially in today’s environment when multi hundred-million-dollar rounds are becoming common. Sometimes it’s not the amount you raise that’s important, but who you are working with. 

Q: What other ways do you support Prophesee? 

We like to think our experience is an important asset for them to draw on and we offer them advice and counsel beyond just PR tactics. The way our relationship works – they can ask for our input on a wide array of topics and it all strengthens the communications program.  In addition to PR, we help with content development – from news releases to thought leadership articles to their web site copy. Awards, events and speaking opportunities are also a part of the mix. We continue to work closely with the Prophesee team on social media content and best practices too. The past year has seen steady growth for their Twitter and LinkedIn accounts both in terms of quantity and quality engagements. Twitter has seen a steady growth in followers with a 65% increase in engagement year over year while their LinkedIn community gained over 1,000 new followers and a 40% increase in engagement. This can be attributed to the busy year they have had and as a result of the increase in post pace and engagement opportunities. The executive team has continued to be active as well, which adds a personal touch and helps to nurture the online community, especially on LinkedIn. 

While the full value of the relationship with Prophesee goes beyond press coverage, you can see more of the results we have had by visiting our results page.