Howorth business to business and technology public relations

Revive a brand and launch a smartphone – all in a day’s work

Howorth successfully orchestrated Motorola’s Australian comeback, with the PR launch of its new range of Android powered smart-phone devices. Howorth’s objectives? Simple – create mass-market interest across consumer and technology media, reaching out to consumers looking for a new smart-phone. Insight Differentiating a phone from the pack can be difficult, but Motorola’s new Android range of smart-phones held one key ingredient , MOTOBLUR - the first mobile experience to deliver your social life straight to your mobile phone, streaming conversations, friends and widgets right into your handset to provide a never-ending flow of updates. We understood that the media would need to try ...

From clink to click: Ancestry.com.au calls up the past

Do you have a convict ancestor? If you did, would you know? In our first project for Australia’s leading family history website, Ancestry.com.au, Howorth led a PR campaign to launch two new convict-based historical record collections to the public. These records (the Convict Registers of Conditional and Absolute Pardons, 1791-1846 and the New South Wales Certificates of Freedom, 1827-1867) complete the journey from arrest to release of almost one third of all convicts transported to Australia. With more than 2.3 million criminal and convict records now available online, Ancestry.com.au made the entirety of its 15-part Australian Convicts Collection accessible for free ...

Small gadgets, small budget, BIG results

Howorth began working with Australian family-owned Mac accessories distributor Try & Byte in November last year, briefed to raise awareness of their website via positive media relations. A distributor of new consumer products aimed at Mac users and general consumers, www.tryandbyte.com.au regularly releases innovative technology to its customers. With a small budget, we needed to find effective ways to pitch the latest Try & Byte accessories and products into consumer and consumer technology media. We therefore focused on the latest five products available on the site, selecting highly targeted media for reviews and profiles. Our campaign has so far reached over 4.5 million ...

Microsoft Australia hosts commercial Surface launch

To mark the commercial availability of Microsoft Surface, Microsoft Australia hosted a media launch event to showcase the features of this innovative new hardware device at their Australian headquarters in Sydney on Tuesday, 9 February 2010. Surface is a new multi-touch product, developed as a software and hardware combination technology. The device allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of gesture recognition. The launch produced fantastic results for Microsoft, with 32 key media and analysts attending the event including The Australian, SMH.com.au and CNET. Following the launch, over 40 pieces of coverage were published across ...

How do you get distributors x-cited about steel?

In the face of challenging economic conditions, BlueScope Steel asked the Howorth business-to-business/corporate public relations practice to help build distributor awareness of its Australian manufactured XLERPLATE® steel plate products, converting them from passive referrers to passionate champions of the range. Steel producers and on-sellers had an extraordinarily tough year in 2009, with sales and revenues falling as global demand for steel weakened and import competition increased. While the public relations campaign needed to communicate the core brand values of XLERPLATE® (quality, flexibility, diversity), we needed to deliver these messages to a sales-savvy audience without them being rejected as marketing ‘clutter.’ Howorth’s insight ...

Microsoft Tech.Ed 2009

There are few technology events that match the scale and prestige of Microsoft Australia’s ‘Tech.Ed’. Howorth/ Microsoft public relations team continued its proud collaboration in co-ordinating this event in 2009. It was a huge year with several key announcements coming from the software leader including: The largest Windows 7 test environment with 2,500 netbooks given out to conference attendees The Windows 7 commercial launch Microsoft Office 2010 technical preview Key challenges in the public relations program included: Managing through a year of economic uncertainty and communicating the educational value of Tech.Ed to businesses during a time when justifying the release indispensable IT staff for three ...