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First Friday fits the bill
Our clients ABB, Morgan Crucible and Saft have experienced the benefits of joining the ‘Engineering Press Editor's First Friday Club’, a cost-effective and hassle-free alternative to the traditional press conference.
The First Friday Club takes place on the first Friday of every month. Around 20 editors from the UK engineering press get together for a lunch in London. They are joined by representatives from three or four of the sort of companies they write about on a daily basis. Before lunch, there is the chance to make a 15-minute presentation on any subject. This could be a new product or technology, a key issue or a general company profile. Afterwards, there's the chance to socialise over lunch in a relaxed atmosphere.
While we know that distribution of press material at First Friday can deliver good results, where the event really scores is in helping to build the closer working relationships with key editors that help to generate first-class in-depth coverage. For example, after Sarah Thomas Cleevely, then editor of Materials World, met Morgan Crucible at First Friday she asked to visit their technical facilities. The outcome was a three-page feature on Morgan’s biomimetic fuel cell technology.
The presenting companies share the cost of First Friday, which for 2005 is £1,050 each, a fraction of the cost of hosting a 'press event' individually, with none of the organisational concerns!
ABB’s university challenge
Six Degrees has been helping ABB to maximise the publicity for the signing of its new long term strategic research partnership agreements with Cambridge University and Imperial College, London.
Cutting edge technology gives ABB’s core businesses in power and automation a distinct advantage over its competition. And a central task of ABB’s R&D team is to transform university research into industry-ready technology platforms. This concept, honed in recent years, comes to life in more than 50 university partnerships in the US, Europe and Asia. Underling the importance of this approach, in 2004 ABB signed new long-term, strategic relationships with Cambridge University and Imperial College.
To promote the signing of the agreement with Cambridge University in March, Six Degrees organised a mini-media tour for Dr Markus Bayegan, ABB’s chief technology officer. This included an in-depth interview with the Engineer magazine and a guest spot on CNBC Europe’s Power Lunch TV programme.
In December, Markus Bayegan was back in the UK to sign an agreement with Imperial College. This time, Six Degrees worked closely with Imperial College’s PR department to set-up a breakfast briefing for key technical journalists. This was followed by an in-depth interview with IEE Manufacturing Engineer magazine and Markus Bayegan was also invited back by CNBC Europe to appear on its Morning Exchange.
Securing authoritative coverage
Twice a year, leading Internet security vendor Symantec publishes its authoritative Internet Security Threat Report, which analyses the actual threats to business posed by cyber attacks of various kinds. Our role is to handle the launch of the report to the UK media, with the aim of positioning Symantec as the leading authority in the field and its report as the most comprehensive, up-to-date source of hype-free statistics and insights into cyber attack trends. The two most recent media launches have generated over 110 pieces of coverage, from news and analysis to features and comment, including spin-off opinion pieces.
Shedding light on innovation
OSRAM, one of the world’s top three lamp (light bulb) manufacturers, asked us to help promote its innovation messages to trade and OEM audiences in the UK. The real challenge was to reach a diverse set of audiences. We used a combination of three media relations elements: targeted journalist relationship-building activities; a hard-hitting issues-based campaign; and case studies highlighting product and design innovation. Over 70 items of innovation-related coverage were generated in the first six months by the proactive media relations programme.
Getting news on the wires
France-based Nexans is the market-leading global supplier of cable for electrical, telecoms and IT industries – but has historically had a relatively low profile in the UK media. We were appointed to handle Nexans' PR in the UK in order to raise awareness of the company and its capabilities. One of the main priorities has been to arrange a series of meetings and get-togethers with the vertical media in key sectors to enable Nexans’ senior management to introduce themselves and explain the company’s strategy and business activities. Important successes include an automotive round-table event as well as a factory visit to Norway for journalists writing about the offshore oil and gas industry.
Not just for the ‘big guys’
Analyst reports can sometimes seem like a closed shop: the usual big players get all the coverage, while the smaller players rarely get a mention. US-based web testing and monitoring specialist Empirix has some big-name competitors, and recognizes the value of keeping industry analysts informed when it comes to influencing the media and getting on to customers’ RFQ (request for quotation) lists. We have been supporting Empirix in setting up a series of briefings and producing a quarterly newsletter for analysts in the UK. These activities have already paid off, with some positive mentions for the company by leading analysts in the target media – proving that you don’t need to be a ‘big guy’ with big budgets to get analysts’ attention.
Telling the story – from the customer’s perspective
The customer case study is hard to beat for credibility and persuasiveness. We have helped Saft, the battery company, to create a series of customer case studies for its industrial and speciality battery businesses. The growing library of clearly written, succinct and informative leaflets gives salespeople a steady flow of new material and examples to present to customers and prospects.
Fast Forwarding the customer relationship
Growing competition for the attention of customers, whose time is precious, means that any communications material that customers receive must be immediately interesting and appealing. FastForward, the quarterly customer magazine of ABB’s Power Technologies Division, is designed and written to be just that. Its content covers technical issues in the power distribution and transmission sector, solutions with case histories and information on new products and services. It is entirely researched and written by Six Degrees with design by ArtHaus. The emphasis is on the topics that affect readers rather than simply the products that ABB wants to promote.
Precision timing for targeted messages
Ongoing media relations are excellent for building up widespread and influential coverage of a company and its key messages. But sometimes more precise control of timing and content is required, and the advertorial – paid for ‘editorial-style’ advertising – can be the perfect solution. Advertorials are especially useful when detailed and sometimes complex information needs to be conveyed in a highly readable way to a particular audience at a particular time. We have supported global telecommunications network supplier Ericsson with the writing and production of advertorials for national, business and trade/technical press over a number of years. A recent example was double-page spread advertorial that highlighted Ericsson’s ability to help telecoms operators boost the traffic, and revenue, generated in their networks. This was used during a major telecoms industry exhibition, where it was inserted in the special edition of the official trade magazine for the event.
Levelling the playing field
When you’re a relatively small player competing in a market dominated by big global customers, and competitors, it pays to give a ‘big-company’ impression. Telspec is a highly successful niche supplier of telecoms network equipment that needed to ‘punch above its weight’ in marketing terms. One effective tool in this situation is the company newsletter. We developed a publication with the content and ‘look and feel’ that supported and enhanced Telspec’s reputation as a leader in its field. This is reinforced through the regular flow of customers success stories, company and product news and educational feature articles that the newsletter provides.
Delivering the right message in the right way
When global telecoms vendor Ericsson wanted to spread the word about the lifestyle and business benefits of the Mobile Internet to the wider world – not just technology specialists – Ericsson was able to tap into our knowledge and understanding of the subject matter to produce marketing communications materials for a wide variety of audiences. We researched and wrote a number of sector/segment-specific press materials, a 48-page explanatory booklet aimed at a general business audience, a white paper, an advertorial, CD-ROM and acted ‘scenario’ scripts, press and newsletter articles and, of course, web copy.
A world of news for worldwide employees
Keeping employees around the world in touch with all that is happening in a widespread group is always a challenge. For Kidde plc, the leader in fire detection, prevention and suppression, the solution has been a quarterly online e-magazine -– Kidde Newsline, written and produced by Roger Staton Associates. Stories and language are kept brief and simple to suit the medium and to appeal to the many employees whose first language is not English. A recent reader survey showed that the publication is valued by readers throughout the world.
Making a mark …
As a project for Lexmark, the former printer division of IBM, we had to find a way of turning a potentially ordinary product launch for a new model of laser printer into something more – to be successful, the client felt that there needed to be at least 50 media at the event. We persuaded the client to change to a more compelling venue and using original, thought-provoking graphic design work. There were 55 journalists in attendance on the day, with standing room only at the Groucho Club. It was a lively and memorable event that communicated key messages about the products, produced substantial press coverage and, critically, awareness of the company that lay behind it.
Picture this
When audio-visual and communications solutions provider, SmartComm Group decided to launch its new range of video-conferencing products, we were brought in to provide help on the project. The ViewCall Range was the latest in fully-integrated videoconferencing units and the ViewCall Station was the first product launched. The challenge – how do you make a VC unit look like anything other than a TV unit and photograph it in a way that will catch the media's eye? We came up with a distinctive new look using the latest digital photography. The image was imported on to a futuristic backdrop and a picture of a VC participant projected on to the unit's plasma screen. The launch story was sent to key audio-visual titles, accompanied by the innovative photography. We set up media briefings for SmartComm's managing director with leading industry journalists. The launch received coverage in key trade publications, resulting in business leads for SmartComm.
Valuable advantage
We started working for Forrester Research, the US analyst firm, when the firm was unknown in Europe, and continued for over six years until UK acquisition brought in-house PR expertise. Our brief was to secure high-level coverage across a wide range of media to build brand recognition in support of business expansion in Europe. This meant having a good understanding of a broad number of technology industries and subjects, so that we could match journalists’ interests with the right information. Working with the founder George F. Colony and his senior analyst team, we consistently placed comment and information that was seen by millions of relevant audiences every month, in pan-European business, national, broadcast and trade publications.
A PR OASiS
Our ability to make sense of the complex, and to unravel and disseminate difficult concepts, led to an interesting assignment for management consultants OASiS. Contacting us on recommendation, they asked us to consider a key business problem for them: how to communicate effectively its differentiation from the classic management consultancy to the potential new business audience. OASiS had struggled to find a PR partner who could grasp its defining concept of value over need, which characterised its point of difference from its competitors. We were able to clarify the total 'value proposition' and give the company the new direction it needed in communications terms.
Of men and mice
Logitech, the world leader in peripherals design and technology, wanted SoHo and lifestyle media to attend an event to unveil a new logo and show off a host of mice and joysticks already previewed. This required some lateral thinking. We created a teaser mailing to reinforce the new logo design and to communicate the 'sense' theme that we devised for the launch of the range. The imaginative choice of venue of the Design Museum at night gave the event an extra dimension, underlining the key design element of the new corporate logo and product positioning. The new logo was projected onto the stark white walls of London's Design Museum at night proved an eye-catching sight for journalists as they entered the foyer's temporary cyber café. There, they were invited to test Logitech's new peripherals range and hear all about it from Logitech. The event was judged an all round success.
From little acorns …
A veritable forest of invitations for interviews crowd on to technology journalists' desks daily. How to stand out? For Verity, launching intranet software delivering an easy-to-use directory tree of company knowledge, we went back to its creative roots. A tiny packet of beech seeds was despatched with a clever teaser message and growing instructions. Inexpensively and inventively, we achieved attention for Verity and the interviews they sought.
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