BLUE BELL, PA — Information technology giant Unisys has tapped Grayling as its corporate and product PR agency in the US following a competitive review that resulted in it parting ways with Lewis PR.

Grayling comes on board just as Unisys is emerging from “getting our financial house in order” after the company was removed from the S&P 500 in 2008 because its market capitalization fell below the required minimum (the company is traded on the NYSE). Jim Kerr, VP of global public and analyst relations at Unisys, said Grayling has been brought on for a three-year engagement as the billion-dollar company “goes on the offensive” to be in the top five for share-of-voice in its sector.

CMO Quincy Allen, who joined two years ago, reports directly to the Unisys CEO Ed Coleman showing that marketing “is intimately involved in the company’s day to day and future strategy,” Kerr noted. In 2014, Unisys expects to increase its sales and marketing spend between 1% and 2% of the company’s revenues.

“We’re a $3.5 billion company, so even a 1% increase of our overall revenues is a significant investment,” Kerr said. It is expected the three-year agreement with Grayling is in the seven-figure range.

Grayling is working with Unisys to develop its overall messaging and narrative primarily in the US, but potentially for other markets around the world. The gist of its corporate story is, having weathered many waves of computing and IT, the company understands the sector and has an ongoing legacy of innovation and rich engineering.

Head of tech Andy Getsey will lead the account out of San Francisco, but it will involve teams across Washington DC and New York that are focused on reputation management and the federal market. Unisys is one of Grayling’s top five accounts in the US. 

“As you invest more in marketing and PR, it becomes harder to quantify,” Kerr said. “But we take a data-driven approach. We do a monthly PR dashboard in terms of outreach, hits and articles. Grayling lets us take that to a whole new level.”

Grayling began its work on April 1 that, from a tactical standpoint, includes media relations, social media and measurement/analytics. Unisys handles analyst relations in-house.