The four-man Aussie squad – Canon’s technicians battle it out for cup title

In October 2011 four technicians from Canon Australia and New Zealand flew to Shanghai to compete for the title of Canon’s undisputed top technician at the Asia Pacific (APAC) Cup.

The APAC Cup is a Canon technician’s version of the football grand final, but instead of battling it out on the footy field, they’re troubleshooting business imaging equipment. It’s a highly skilled and very competitive series of practical and theoretical tests.

It’s also a way for Canon to provide its technicians with opportunities to build their skills by sharing ‘tricks of the trade’ with colleagues from around the world.

Howorth spotted an opportunity to get involved in the hype that surrounded the Rugby World Cup – from one international sporting event to another.

What started as an internal competition in Australia caught the imagination of the media and became one of Canon’s biggest corporate stories for 2011. In total there were 23 pieces across Australia of coverage around the APAC cup including The Today Show, Herald Sun, News.com, MX, ABC 720 Perth, 2GB Sydney, 4KQ Brisbane and Adelaide Now.

The Daily Telegraph even made this online video to accompany its story about the competition.

“Forget Cadel Evans, forget Sam Stosur and forget that guy who won the Nobel Prize for discovering what the universe was made of – Australia has a new hero.” –The Daily Telegraph

“Got a paper jam? Can’t get your printer working? Mt Gravatt based technician Daniel Leong is the man who knows how to solve your printing woes.” – Southern Star

“O’Brien is a paper jam’s worst enemy.” – The Daily Telegraph

“Newing, a specialist senior engineer with Canon, earned his spot in the four-man Aussie squad to compete at the Canon Asia Pacific Cup.” – MX

Shane McClelland, marketing and communication manager of Canon Australia, said it was great to be able to recognise the technicians for all their hard work and enthusiasm.

“We were very pleased with the coverage we received around the APAC Cup and the media hype was fantastic for the finalists – Paul O’Brien even mentioned that he was stopped on the street once and asked if he was “the Canon technician from the TV?,” said Shane.

The Canon APAC Cup showed that the right story angle can make a niche story go a long way.

Did they bring home the cup? Although the four-man Australian squad wasn’t successful in bringing home the APAC Cup – they did prove that good old Aussie sportsmanship is alive and well – on and off the footy field.

The Great Information Glut 2011

Case Study: DHL Export Barometer 2011

The challenge:

DHL Express enlisted the Howorth B2B team to develop and execute a media strategy to release the results of the 2011 DHL Export Barometer, the annual survey into the health of the Australian export economy.

Conducted by independent researchers and supported with analysis from Tim Harcourt, Chief Economist of Austrade, the Barometer provides insights into factors impacting Australia’s exporters by conducting in depth research across range of industries including agriculture, manufacturing, mining, tourism and professional services.

Our approach:

Hot topics in the Australian media in the weeks leading up to the launch of the Barometer were the negative impact that the strong dollar and online retailing were having on Australian businesses.

The Howorth team spotted an opportunity to capitalise on this by linking the Barometer findings to these topics but adding new elements to the conversation – the growth opportunities that online commerce was presenting Australian businesses and highlighting that exporters were maintaining employment levels despite the challenges presented by exchange rates.

The results:

Over 60 pieces of editorial across TV, radio, print and online were generated in the two days following the release of the Barometer.  Highlights included:

• An eleven minute interview on Sky Business News with DHL’s Gary Edstein and Austrade’s Tim Harcourt.

• Gary and Tim featured in tier one media targets including The Australian Financial Review, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph in addition to news.com.au, SBS news online, yahoo7 and ninemsn.

• International coverage across the London Stock Exchange website, NASDAQ.com and the Dow Jones international news wire.

Blockbuster Bites Back!

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.

JVC announces major new partnership with Ruby Rose

JVC is working with Australia’s favourite VJ, model, designer and DJ, Ruby Rose, throughout 2011 in a special partnership which will see Ruby Rose launch Sydney’s newest pop-up festival, Bustival.

A one-day, portable festival which will tour various Sydney destinations by bus, Bustival will be fronted and curated by Ruby Rose as the event’s DJ, and will launch at the start of Sydney’s summer festival season. Music fans, festival-goers and Ruby followers will be invited to co-create the experience, from the music Ruby plays, to the destinations the festival visits, driven by public voting.

In addition to Bustival, the JVC Ruby Rose partnership will also see Rose appear in a range of marketing activities, including an advertising campaign, a series of digital films, and retail POS material.

Launched by the Howorth Digital Lifestyle team who will handle the PR and publicity for the partnership and the Bustival event, JVC is also working in conjunction with a number of agencies on the wider marketing activity, including IM Advertising and The Punch Agency.

JVC’s partnership with Rose is the first time the brand has brought a major personality on board to support its portfolio of audio, visual and car entertainment products in Australia. As well as integrating the products into her lifestyle, Rose will feature in marketing activities and advertising for JVC specifically created for each product category. Rose will also engage with JVC’s key target demographic talking directly with users of technology.

Commenting on the partnership, Howorth Digital Lifestyle Director Amanda Kiddle said: “Bustival is a new kind of co-created experience that invites people to get closer to, and personalise, their own festival experience.

“Ruby Rose has a strong connection with Australians from all walks of life, and the partnership with JVC will enable fans to enjoy new kinds of Ruby Rose-curated content and experiences that are delivered through JVC’s extensive range of entertainment products.”

Comments Ruby Rose: “JVC products fit really closely with how I live my life so the brand was a natural fit for me. With a number of exciting new launches scheduled for this year, there’s a product that taps in to everything I’m interested in right now, from music to filming to learning to drive – so it’s great to be working with JVC and together bringing new experiences for my fans this year.”

Ruby Rose is currently hosting MTV STYLE Sunday nights at 6:30 PM on MTV and is a proud ambassador of Head Space Australia (www.headspace.org.au).  Ruby is also currently DJing Australia wide.

Details of the Bustival event will be released throughout the coming year, and fans can get further information on the event by following: http://www.facebook.com/JVCAustralia, http://twitter.com/JVCAustralia , http://twitter.com/RubyRose1, www.rubyrose.com.au and www.facebook.com/OfficialRubyRose.

Election fever: where did they come from?

Capitalising on the interest and broad media attention surrounding the 2010 Australian Federal Election, Ancestry.com.au set the Howorth Digital Lifestyle team the challenge to find an opportunity to get the family history website into the 2010 election debate.

Our Solution
We immediately spotted a powerful media opportunity to unearth the findings of family history research into the two main 2010 Federal Election candidates.  Our research revealed the news that, for the first time in over 87 years, Australia’s elected Prime Minister would not be Australian born, with both Gillard and Abbott both from the UK.

Working closely with the Ancestry.com.au team to pitch this unique insight to the media, we negotiated an exclusive opportunity with Channel Nine’s Today Show. This was followed by special briefings with print and radio, with many interviews conducted under embargo.

Results
The campaign highlighted the real reward brands can reap by exploiting a topical news issue, and taking ownership of it by interjecting it with a related brand-owned insight. The story generated:

• Over 44 stories across national radio, television, print and online reaching more than 3.4 million Australians.
• Highlights included a five minute live-to-air TV interview on Australia’s highest rating morning show, the Today Show.

The team also secured a full page feature article in The Daily Telegraph and an 18 minute interview with 2GB Radio in Sydney.

A very royal “I do”: marrying a brand with a global cultural phenomenon

The Challenge
Wills and Kate’s Royal Wedding saw many brands trying to jump on the magic in order to drive media traction. Our challenge was to create a differentiated voice for the Ancestry brand, and one that would cut through the clutter, delivering a tangible business return i.e. site traffic and subscriptions – not just be ‘publicity for publicity’s sake’.

Our Solution
We set about theming our story around the real number of Royal Weddings i.e. the number of Australians that had a direct correlation to royalty through their ancestry. Partnering with the Innovations Team at News.com.au, we challenged the nation to reveal the real royal ties in their family tree.

The team opened up the Ancestry.com.au marriage indexes on the site, which drove widespread reach and visibility, as well as delivering site trial and subscriptions. To kick-start the launch, we leveraged research and case studies to drive a story targeting weekend news cycles one week prior to Wedding Day.

Results
The results showed what a solid media strategy can deliver when it meets a global cultural phenomenon with a differentiated brand storytelling twist. This one-off media drive generated:

• Over 71 pieces of branded coverage across all media channels – radio, print and television
• 15 radio interviews were generated with an Ancestry.com.au spokesperson

Keystone coverage was placed in leading Australian titles such as : Sunrise, Sunday Telegraph, News.com.au, Adelaide Now, 2GB, 2UE and ABC 702.

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.

Howorth goes green with mySmart CTI

Howorth began work with mySmart CTI in late 2009 and together, have worked to raise awareness of the solutions available for commercial building owners, facility managers, electrical engineers and lighting consultants.

mySmart CTI is an Australian company that saw a burgeoning market for energy efficient solutions, as early as 2001, when the business was formed.  The concept of green buildings was once deemed ‘new age’ and the challenge was in educating potential customers about energy efficiency. For some, it can seem overwhelming – business owners seeing both time and initial costs as barriers to making the switch.

Howorth has helped mySmart CTI to further enhance its reputation as a leader within the industry, building long term equity with key customers, partners and stakeholder groups. The campaign to-date has taken a phased approach:

• Phase 1: Educating target audiences about the issues, obligations and opportunities associated with sustainable practices.
• Phase 2: Demonstrating the effectiveness of mySmart CTI solutions through case studies, showcasing both the features and benefits of mySmart CTI products and projects.
• Phase 3: Elevating mySmart CTI’s profile through the use of opinion-driven content, by providing commentary on topical and regulatory issues.

mySmart CTI Managing Director, Peter Garrett, said the PR program had shown tangible results:

“There were several examples of leads directly attributable to PR in 2010,” he said. “The heightened awareness of our products and services has made a real difference in having conversations with customers.”

“We are working with Howorth to educate the industry, and our prospective customer base, on the energy efficiency issues directly relevant to them; to help them get the most out of their surroundings, while remaining environmentally responsible.”

The campaign has delivered coverage for mySmart CTI across a range of business titles, including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Open Forum, and industry publications including Sustainability Matters, The Circuit and Electrical Solutions.

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