From my past manufacturer's experience, I fully agree with that strategy, which is probably the most effective.
When you are a manufacturer or software editors, you are sellin 1 or 2 tiers and it's very - very difficult to get market feed back and authorizations to publish success stories, because of security, confidentiality reasons, and difficulties to get testimonials from people you are not in direct touch with. Also, some SI wont ever give informations to avoid competition to enter their private areas.
Marketing and PR guys are always trying to get some "fresh" stories in strategic vertical markets, but it's much easier to put directly some rewards to make it happen. What is 1000$ regarding 2 or 20 new customers convinced by a nicecase story matching their proper needs ?