The Great Information Glut 2011

Case Study: SKA – the world’s biggest telescope

Issue: Ogilvy PR (OPR) was engaged by the Department of Innovation Industry, Science and Research (DIISR)  to get the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) public behind the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) bid to bring the world’s biggest telescope to Australia. With the bid element of the project nearing crunch time (early 2012), it was time to ramp up public awareness, build excitement and most importantly gain the public’s support.

Challenges:

OPR had to overcome several challenges in order to successfully execute the campaign objectives:

-          Creating the news hook: Given there were no new bid milestones during the campaign activity period, OPR had no timely news hook to engage media around.

-          Making a complex message relevant and engaging for the public: The SKA is a technical scientific feat had previously only received interest from the science community. The radio astronomy jargon had to broken down and the question “why should I care about a telescope?” had to be answered before gaining the support of the ‘man on the street’ for the project.

-          Overcoming negative perceptions such as the project cost and environmental impact:  The SKA will cost the international community over $2 billion to build – to some, a perceived waste of tax payers’ money. Many Australians were also feeling uneasy about the way in which 3,000 dishes would change and impact the Australian landscape.

PR Strategy:

To create mass awareness and gain the support of the Australian public, OPR developed a number of media opportunities to feed to the media over the three month campaign period. In order to build these opportunities, OPR:

• Put a personal face to the story

Science commentator, author and radio presenter, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki was engaged as the campaign ambassador; a spokesperson which the Australian public could relate to and who transcends the science community, taking the story out of  the “geek” world and into the everyday. Dr Karl took part in a media tour supported by additional spokespeople relevant to different audiences and media outlets

• Created a unique media experience

To provide media with new and exclusive content, OPR coordinated a media visit to the proposed SKA site in Western Australia. TV, online and print journalists attended capturing photographs and footage of the site coupled with interviews with various key spokespeople

• Generated tailored stories that would spark interest with the different audience groups

OPR created a number of different angles to bring to life the bid for different media. This ensured the SKA message reached everyone from school children to young males, from the working professional to the tech savvy individual.

Telstra Productivity Indicator 2011

In 2009, Telstra Enterprise & Government (Telstra’s largest sales and service division, which provides services to more than 1,500 large organisations) launched a three-year thought leadership campaign to re-position the brand from transactional supplier to trusted advisor and differentiate it from its competitors.

For the third year, Howorth worked with Telstra Enterprise & Government to launch the “Telstra Productivity Indicator” – a commissioned research report surveying more than 300 directors, senior executives and managers around their attitudes and behaviours to productivity.  This year, the research focused on traits that successful businesses had in realising productivity improvements, a group Telstra labeled ‘Productivity Leaders’. Over the last three years the campaign has successfully been integrated into TEG’s sales and marketing initiatives, meaning that besides media relations activity, Howorth has been integral in developing internal collateral including sales materials, customer brochures and website copy.

The challenge in 2011 was in launching findings that would still continue to be relevant and interesting to Telstra’s target audiences and the media. As has worked well in previous years, embargoed media briefings were conducted with tier one business and technology media to maximise the amount of quality media coverage. Following the briefings, a general news release was distributed.

PR drove positive results with more than 40 pieces of traditional print and online media coverage achieved, with 31 articles appearing on launch day.

Key highlights so far this year have included:

• Paul Geason, TE&G Group Managing Director, was interviewed under embargo by eight national newspapers, news wires and business television programs including The Australian, AAP, Business Spectator, Sky Business News and ABC Lateline Business;

• 23 articles appeared in Telstra’s core media list (The Australian, iTWire, Business Spectator, BNET, Communications Day, Exchange, Sky Business News, BRW), doubling 2010’s day-one coverage;

• The Telstra Productivity Indicator continues its influence and reach to TEG’s key audiences – in April, the 2010 report was referenced in the Federal Government’s draft paper on its information and communications technology (ICT) strategy. Previous reports have also been referenced by Australian public policy think tank The Grattan Institute and in a speech by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Hu Yoshida, Hitachi Data Systems’ Chief Technology Officer visits Australia

Launching Microsoft CRM in the Cloud

In January 2011, Microsoft Corp. announced the global availability of its newest Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software suite – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Although an already established name in the Australian CRM marketplace, this was Microsoft Australia’s first cloud-based version in its Dynamics CRM product portfolio.

To execute a successful local launch, Howorth had to consider a number of factors, including a highly competitive local CRM marketplace and how to make this global launch relevant and interesting to our local media.

In preparation, our efforts focused on two key elements to support the release. Firstly, securing an Australian partner and customer to support the launch to give it a local flavour. And secondly, providing key media with an in-depth briefing and demonstration of the product, to show the benefits of the product and ensure the key messages landed in print.

As well as issuing a local news release to media – including the support of both an Australian customer and partner – Howorth also organised and hosted a CRM Online media workshop at Microsoft Australia’s offices. Six key Australian journalists attended and received a comprehensive overview of the news and product, from both a local and corporate viewpoint. To round off the workshop a Q&A session was hosted with the local customer and partner, providing the journalists with real examples of a customer and partner embracing the new product and an overview of the benefits they had already experienced. Howorth also secured nine break-out media interviews for Microsoft, customer and partner executives.

Almost 20 pieces of local coverage appeared throughout launch week and the news was also pushed out via Microsoft’s social media channels, including Twitter and blog posts.

Key themes picked up by media included the competitive landscape, pricing, customer offers, channel partner opportunity and the new product features. The vast majority of coverage was positive and Microsoft executives, partners and a local customer were all quoted extensively.

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 business days can be especially challenging.
• Complex logistical requirements :

1. The travel and accommodation arrangements for 21 attending media
2. Ensuring that media had access to the spokespeople they required to tell the best stories

The Howorth/ Microsoft public relations team spent many long hours ensuring the event went off without a hitch. Aside from standard media relations Howorth assisted in a number of key areas:

• Analyst relations
• Blogger outreach
• Social media monitoring

Despite the challenges, the joint team delivered a successful event that exceeded expectations of internal and external stakeholders and media.

The Great Information Glut

Information is a key asset for every organisation. But how many companies feel that they are choked with dealing with too much information and are struggling to manage this data?

To differentiate Hitachi Data Systems from its competitors and raise its profile, Howorth worked with Hitachi to develop a technology public relations campaign that would provide insights into this business issue. The result was an independent research report titled “The Great Information Glut”.

The Great Information Glut: key findings
Hitachi Data Systems commissioned an independent study conducted by Sweeney Research, which found that one in three organisations across Australia and New Zealand is struggling under the excessive growth of digital information and the management of that information. This has prompted Hitachi to call for an “information intervention”, calling on organisations to take a big picture look at existing systems and improve them to better manage growth, reduce costs, improve utilisation and enhance information governance.

Armed with these findings, Howorth was able to devise a media strategy that would maximise the reach this news. To provide a well rounded story, Howorth sourced third parties to get their perspectives on the research. This included Professor Susan Williams, Information Management Specialist, Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney as well as Hitachi Data Systems customer Austar. This approach helped journalists gain a deeper understanding of the key findings and implications for organisations across Australia and New Zealand.

As a result, significant media coverage included:

• Sky Business News (live-to-air interview)
• The Australian Financial Review
• Adelaide Advertiser
• New Zealand Herald
• BNET

Work from home, or not? Driving conversation through research

Working from home (or not) is a hot topic for the Australian workforce. With this in mind, Howorth worked on a public relations research project that aimed to drive conversation around the issue of working from home – and find out just which side of the fence Aussies sit on.

For Citrix Online – a technology company focused on enabling remote working via web services – Howorth constructed a public relations program around a research project that compared and contrasted the attitudes of workers and small business owners in Australia, the US and the UK.

Results from research polling company WomanTrend™ Inc. revealed a significant desire to work remotely. In fact, nearly one-fifth of Aussie workers would take a five per cent pay cut to work from home.

Using these findings, Howorth employed a tiered public relations strategy to position Citrix Online as a thought leader on remote working. Howorth engaged with key technology, consumer and small business media outlets to successfully:

• Seed the term ‘Web Commuting’ as an answer to ‘Telecommuting’
• Launch a comprehensive research report titled ‘Worldwide Workplace: The Web Commuting Imperative’ – which included trends relevant for the Australian media
• Used third party expert commentary from experts Joseph Sweeney, Advisor, IBRS and Bevis England, Director of Telework New Zealand

Through media outreach, Howorth successfully raised awareness around remote working trends and achieved more than 20 pieces of online, print, radio and media coverage including:

• News.com.au
• The Australian Financial Review
• Smart Company
• NOVA 96.9
• 2GB Sydney

The media outreach also drove social media coverage via blogs on local small business websites and Twitter chatter. Resulting interviews included discussion around the benefits of remote working technology including Citrix Online’s GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, and GoToAssist.

Viocorp delivers the world’s first live webcast of Palm Sunday Mass

Viocorp, one of Australia’s leading online video and digital media specialists, engaged Howorth public relations to spread the news about a momentous customer implementation.

For the first time in history, the Archdiocese of Sydney webcasted the Palm Sunday Mass with the Holy Father and the official handover of the World Youth Day Cross and Icon from Sydney to Madrid – using Viocorp’s online video technology.

Howorth would typically liaise with technology and marketing media to communicate the news. However, considering the size of the announcement with Catholic Communications, Howorth wanted to raise the bar in spreading the word.

SBS does not generally speak with vendors, but Howorth managed to successfully secure a segment on a Sunday edition of “World News Australia”, which featured a Viocorp interview and Viocorp brand placement. The segment was aired between a breaking news story about Guantanamo Bay and SBS’s Dateline program.

Howorth also secured interest from SBS’s “World News Australia” program and worked closely with their production team for several weeks to ensure that SBS was provided with the unique content they needed.

Howorth was able to coordinated a live interview between Cardinal George Pell and SBS while the Cardinal was in Rome. Howorth also coordinated an interview of  Viocorp’s CEO, Ian Gardiner, at the Viocorp offices in East Sydney to talk about the use of webcasting technology for such an important religious event.

Showcasing mission control – Telstra Enterprise and Government

On behalf of Telstra Enterprise and Government, Howorth launched the Managed Network Operations Centre (MNOC), highlighting the customer benefits of its multi-million dollar world class networking facility in Sydney’s CBD. This led to significant top tier media coverage in:

• ITNews
• Two articles on Computerworld
• Sky Business News
• Communications Day
• Voice and Data
• ZDNet

The MNOC is a mission control style ‘flight deck’ that enables Telstra’s 42 network engineers to monitor their network’s ‘health’.

The media launch of the operations centre reinforced Telstra’s dedication to delivering network reliability to its customers.

To obtain positive media coverage of the MNOC launch, Howorth invited top tier technology and business journalists to attend the event. The trade publications targeted were the most relevant media to the C level executives and IT managers of companies that Telstra Enterprise and Government’s MNOC serves.

Key components of the media interaction

• Media were educated on the importance of network performance, the technical details of the MNOC and Telstra’s Next G and Next IP networks
• A tour of the centre and a live demo of how it functions in the incident room
• One-on-one interviews with Nerida Caesar, Mark Gehan and Michael Rocca – key leaders within Telstra responsible for the creation of the centre.

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