Case Study

Challenge
Elance Though Elance was the largest online marketplace for on-demand work, the company received little media attention. The objectives for the company were to increase the size of the Elance community, bring new small business employers to the site and position the company as the premier place for on-demand work.

Solution
Borders + Gratehouse kick-started the company's PR program with a Harris Consumer Poll highlighting the benefits of working with a virtual assistant through sites like Elance. The PR program continued to gain traction with storylines tied to hot media topics such as the economy and rising gas prices. In addition, a strong customer testimonial program resulted in ongoing validation for the Elance work system.

Results
In the most recent quarter, Elance media coverage topped 54,000,000 impressions. Placements included ABC's Good Morning America, BusinessWeek, Fox News Morning Show, Wall Street Journal, CNN, PC World and ABCNews.com. Elance attributes much of its recent growth to PR efforts and has seen the number of new jobs posted on the site grow by 65% along with 22,000 new jobs posted in September 2008, up 68% year over year. Elance has also averaged 633,000 unique visitors a month, an increase of 66%.