Howorth works with Telstra Enterprise & Government for ‘best brand’ win at World Communications Awards

Howorth scored further award accolades last Wednesday, with Telstra Enterprise & Government taking out the 2010 Best Brand gong at the World Communications Awards ceremony in London.

The award recognises the more than two years of research and consultancy work for the ‘Telstra Productivity Indicator’, which is now an integrated program incorporating marketing, advertising, media relations and sales tools to provide productivity consultancy to Australia’s largest organisations.

Now in its 12^th year, the World Communications Awards recognises the best telecommunications companies across every sector. The best brand award recognises a carrier or service provider that has been the most effective in creating a compelling brand for its products or services in one or more branches of the media.

Major global award for Howorth & more nominations

Hot on the heels of the PRIA NSW award for the Telstra Productivity Indicator campaign, Howorth won the coveted worldwide WPP Public Relations WPPed Cream Crème de la Crème award, for the same campaign. According to Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO WPP: “Every year WPP companies succeed in producing the exceptional with greater and greater consistency: and that, to me, is the real test of professional excellence. The one-off masterpiece is to be welcomed and rewarded – but permanently high standards deserve our highest praise.”

Marcia Silverman, the public relations jury chairman, said: “The competition has grown tremendously as we enter the fourth year of the WPPED Cream awards. The entries, which came in from all over the world, were of the highest calibre of work. This year we had an astounding 28 submissions for consideration from more than ten different agencies in the Public Relations/Public Affairs categories of: business-to-business, consumer marketing, and corporate & public affairs. After careful consideration, I’m happy to announce that the PR Crème de la Crème winner for 2010 has been awarded to Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide/Howorth out of Sydney, Australia. Their superior efforts for the Telstra Corporation allowed their client to have a marked increase in sales while outperforming competitors. We all agreed that their efforts to innovate their clients reputation and business-to-business offerings merited this highest of distinctions.”

Given the competition for these awards, this is an outstanding achievement for Howorth.

And the news just gets better.

Yesterday, the shortlisted finalists for the PR Week awards Asia Pacific were announced, and Howorth is shortlisted for four awards. In total, Ogilvy Public Relations Australia has been shortlisted for 12 awards in 11 categories. The winners will be announced on Monday 22 November in Hong Kong.

The campaigns shortlisted are:

Category: Technology Campaign of the Year
Campaign: Citizen Mayors of Sydney Unite
Client: Microsoft Australia

Category: Best Use of Digital
Campaign: Citizen Mayors of Sydney Unite
Client: Microsoft Australia

Category: Business-to-Business Campaign of the Year
Campaign: TP12 Powerful PR addresses the productivity gap
Client: Telstra

Category: Product Brand Development Campaign of the Year
Campaign: Australia – Who do you think you really are?
Client: Ancestry.com.au

Finally, Howorth will discover on October 5 whether it has won an award at the 2010 Platinum PR Awards. The nomination is for Howorth’s Microsoft Australia Windows 7 Launch: “Windows 7 Was My Idea”, in the product category.

Howorth fills its ranks with new hires

We’re happy to announce the recent addition of eight new talented employees to support continued growth across our corporate, IT and consumer technology teams.

Le Tran, senior account manager who joined Howorth late last year,  took a whirlwind six week trip to Vietnam to do volunteer work at an orphanage. She rejoins the corporate/B2B team, bringing her experience of creating and executing award-winning thought leadership campaigns. Meanwhile, Simon Gomes  joined Howorth as an account manager, and works on Microsoft and PGi. From the UK, he has worked with a range of technology brands, including VeriSign, NetApp, Epson, Quantum and Buffalo Technology, boasting a wealth of experience dealing with technology and specialist media. He holds a Bachelor of Economic and Social Studies with Honours in Politics from Cardiff University.

Duncan Smith and Adam Clatworthy, both senior consultants, also arrived fresh from the UK. B2B PR specialist Duncan began his career at UK agency Bell Pottinger, where he focused on national and international corporate and digital campaigns for brands that included Nikon, Roche, Kimberly Clark and Johnson & Johnson. Meanwhile, Adam brings significant experience in IT and telecommunications to Howorth, having executed PR programs for D-Link, Nuance Communications, Trend Micro, VASCO and Claro Software during a four year stint at UK agency NSPR.

UTS alumni Dorea Lau and Erin Copping – both with track records in technology, business and not-for-profit sectors – have also stepped into the fold. Dorea and Erin can count client experience including Hewlett-Packard, Accenture, Motorola, Microsoft, Citrix, Toshiba and the Jane McGrath Foundation. This is Erin’s second spell with Howorth.

Recently graduated from Charles Sturt University, Anna Barnes has become a full-time account coordinator, having previously completed an internship last year. Anna currently provides support across all aspects of the Microsoft account. Meanwhile, Sophie Jones has joined the Howorth family as our office coordinator. Sophie comes from an event management background, and has the challenge of keeping the Howorth team on its toes and the office running smoothly.

Last but not least, Amanda Do and Tara Mills will also be joining us next week to fill two much needed account coordinator roles. Both have displayed fantastic initiative whilst completing internships at Howorth earlier in the year, and we look forward to their coming on board.

Welcome folks!

Calling all Foursquare Mayors! World’s first ‘Office Mayor Meetup’

To launch Microsoft Office 2010 in Australia, Microsoft is hosting the world’s first ‘Office Mayor Meetup’ via Foursquare at Martin Place next Tuesday!

So come on down. For your chance to win a copy of Microsoft Office 2010:

• Be a Foursquare Mayor of your office, business, home or school (or wherever you do your work!)
• Show up at Martin Place Amphitheatre area and look for the Microsoft Office 2010 signs
• Check in on Foursquare at the Office 2010 Mayor Meetup
• Leave a message when you check in saying why you want to win a copy of Office 2010

So if you’re a Mayor of your workplace, mark your calendars (Outlook, of course) and head down next Tuesday for the Office Mayor Meetup at Martin Place! Join in on the fun and don’t forget to follow the hashtag #OfficeMayor

Look forward to seeing you there.

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 for eight days in January 2010.  With the door to the past wide open, we had to convince the public to come knocking.

Insight

Howorth constructed a public relations campaign, tied into Australia Day, to get consumers thinking about how their families originally made it to the Lucky Country, before encouraging them to dig down into their own pasts.

Creative idea, relentless execution

We knew we needed a high-profile partner for the campaign launch, so we secured a national News Limited exclusive for Australia Day itself, which resulted in coverage in all news.com.au sites across Australia.  We also targeted metropolitan radio talk back programs with embargoed material so they could incorporate the story into the weekly plan. Following this initial coverage burst, the release was then issued to all other media.

Outcomes

The response locally for the convict collection was overwhelming, with more than 200 pieces of coverage, including breaking news online across Fairfax and news.com.au, and radio news bulletins. 20 radio interviews were conducted across commercial, AM and community radio, from the ABC to 2GB, with some stations syndicating the interviews across their networks and regions to raise coverage levels even further.  Print coverage included major pieces in the Hobart Mercury, Canberra Times and Sunday Territorian. Through our social media engagement, we also generated 21 ‘Tweets’ on the open Convict Collection indexes, with some of the influential Twitter users having over 1000 followers.

As a result of the PR campaign, Ancestry.com.au received their highest ever unique visitors for a single day on Australia Day (25^th January 2010).

Gratifyingly, the client was thrilled with the results; “The Howorth team achieved results well beyond our expectations. This is a great start to our relationship,” said Debra Chesterton, Managing Director, Ancestry.com.au.

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 Australians through media coverage: punching well above the investment.   Coverage has included a cover story in Macworld and articles now running into the double figures across tier one targets like The West Australian, The Courier Mail, Gizmodo, Cybershack, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday Herald Sun, Girlfriend and Home Entertainment Magazine.

Samantha Allen appointed MD of Global Consumer Marketing

Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (Ogilvy PR), an integrated global communications firm, announced today that Samantha Allen has been appointed Managing Director of the agency’s Global Consumer Marketing practice, effective July 1.  With nearly 20 years of experience, Allen brings strong expertise in building effective and award-winning consumer marketing campaigns for her clients and leading multi-national teams.

“One of the most  powerful things a large agency network can do is rejuvenate and refresh its thinking by moving great talent around the planet,” said Christopher Graves, chief executive officer, Ogilvy PR. “Samantha has the guts and resiliency of an entrepreneur, the professionalism of a world class practice leader, and the creative leaps of imagination of an inventor. She has won some of the top awards in the world for her creative work connecting people and ideas in ways no one else could.”

Allen will relocate to New York and report directly to Graves. She founded Pulse Communications as a consumer PR agency in Australia, which is part of the Ogilvy PR network. It’s one of Asia Pacific’s most awarded and successful consumer PR agencies with a client base that includes LG Electronics, Tourism Australia, Fosters CUB, Rolls Royce, Ford, Unilever and more. Pulse was awarded the Best New Consultancy in 2004 (Asia Pacific PR Awards), Campaign of the Year (2008 Asia Pacific PR Awards), and has gone on to win over 50 Australian and global awards including the top honour for all WPP-owned PR agencies worldwide.

In congratulating Allen on her appointment, Ogilvy PR Australia’s Managing Director, John Studdert said:  “This appointment formally recognizes the outstanding leadership that Australia has shown in the field of consumer public relations. Samantha knows how to build brands through creative programs and is a talented thinker who delivers strong results for clients.  We’re proud and excited to have her move to this role, and look forward to working with her in the future as she takes up global responsibilities.”

Allen said she was both honored and excited to be appointed to the global position, which she said would be “an undoubtedly challenging, but rewarding role.”

“Since joining Pulse, I have had the chance to work with this country’s most outstanding PR practitioners on some of the most interesting and exciting client projects available, and achieved my wildest PR goals.  As a result it feels bittersweet to be leaving this behind, but it’s time for my next challenge.  I’m looking forward to making the global consumer marketing practice a living, breathing community, full of the most talented consumer PR people in our industry,” she added.

Prior to joining Pulse, Allen worked in various agency roles in London and San Francisco.  She also founded Chocolate Communications, a full-service consultancy offering consumer, corporate and business-to-business public relations, attracting companies such as Ben & Jerry’s and Diageo. While in the UK, Allen led campaigns for a variety of consumer brands including Nokia, Packard Bell, Dualit Homewares and Nescafe.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from RMIT (Melbourne) and a post-graduate diploma in accounting and finance from Guildhall University (London).

Ogilvy PR Australia is a joint venture between Ogilvy PR Worldwide and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group.

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 a variety of online, print and broadcast outlets, including key metropolitan, consumer, technology and business media targets. Stand out pieces following launch included a five minute, live-to-air interview on Sky Business News’ Tech Report and a live demonstration of Surface on Channel 9’s TODAY program. The show’s technology editor, Charlie Brown, and host Karl Stefanovic demonstrated the Surface product and discussed its potential commercial uses.

Howorth’s primary role was to drive awareness across broadcast, consumer and IT media to strengthen Microsoft’s profile as an innovator and leader in the technology field, as well as to promote Microsoft Surface as a desirable and game-changing product to potential partners and customers. The results of Howorth’s PR strategy helped generate an extremely positive buzz around the launch event. The coverage that appeared in the days following positioned Microsoft as an innovative company and highlighted the collaborative and inventive features of Microsoft’s new Surface unit.

Following the launch, Microsoft Australia Developer Evangelist, Michael Kordahi praised Howorth’s efforts by saying, “Howorth deserve some major credit for delivering a successful launch. They not only delivered, they delivered with the highest of standards and passion. Despite the very aggressive timeframe of the launch, they provided a-class service.”

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 was to package up new product information within a wider marketing campaign, challenging distributors to take part in ‘Operation XFACTOR’.

We took updated sales collateral, developed e-communications and a striking X-Factor website to cover off all channels, ensuring that distributors could not help but be exposed to XLERPLATE® steel.  Once the buzz had been created around the product, a three stage online competition created strong incentives for participants to review and retain key product information, with Red Balloon vouchers rewarding those who successfully completed a ‘Quest for Quality’ around the plate’s key features and benefits.

Howorth worked with Random Studio and Alpha Salmon to deliver the PR campaign, including the development and design of marketing collateral and website. Participation rates have been strong and initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive:

“I wish our marketing department thought of this a long time ago”
“Really clever concept…”
“Appreciate all of the new info. Thanks so much”
“Quality information”

The first phase of the PR program will continue through to May 2010 – Howorth is also in discussions with BlueScope Steel about subsequent phases of the campaign.

Australia faces widening ‘productivity gap’

Australia’s productivity gap – the difference between productivity expectations and action – has widened from 29 per cent in 2009 to 34 per cent this year, according to new Telstra research.

Underlining the findings of the Government’s Intergenerational Report, the Telstra Productivity Indicator research found that improving customer service and productivity are the key priorities for Australian organisations, ranking 78 per cent and 76 per cent respectively

The Productivity Indicator also found that only 42% of decision makers measure productivity, have a target and know what that target is compared with 49% in last year’s report.

The Telstra Productivity Indicator was the brainchild of Howorth and sister agency Parker&Partners and is now in its second year.  The report has already received widespread media coverage in Australia.

For more information please visit http://www.interactivemediarelease.com/back/productivity

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