How do you get distributors x-cited about steel?
March 4, 2010 by admin
Filed under B2B, Case studies, Featured Content
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.
Steely thought leadership and stakeholder engagement
June 5, 2009 by Lucy Craven
Filed under B2B, Case studies, Featured Content
Steel is strong, yet Australia’s leading steel company, BlueScope Steel, had a less-than-acceptable media presence in vertical industry media. That is before Howorth designed a public relations program built around a thought leadership and stakeholder engagement strategy.
Part of Howorth’s public relations program was a campaign that resulted in over 50 media clippings over a six month period to promote BlueScope’s XLERPLATE®brand.
The importance of this media presence is underlined by key factors:
- All of the coverage was in-depth, rather than merely BlueScope or XLERPLATE® brand ‘mentions’
- The company’s credibility was enhanced through extensive use of technical education and thought leadership articles authored by its staff
- 3rd party endorsement of BlueScope was communicated through the use of case studies, where numerous industry partners and customers were featured and quoted.
Howorth’s public relations campaign successfully enhanced BlueScope’s industry leadership credentials across the vertical industrial sectors of most importance to it: mining, engineering and construction.
Howorth did this by discussing issues of importance to Australia’s steel-using community in the media and value-adding to stakeholders’ knowledge and expertise.
Content generated for media was also used in an upgraded direct mail customer newsletter, which was revamped with stronger, more valuable content. This delivered additional ROI for BlueScope and resulted in an integrated communication program, leading to a more pronounced impact on stakeholders than would have otherwise occurred.
The content was customised to users’ interests, adopted a hard-nosed journalistic approach and featured the perspectives of multiple stakeholders.
As such, the newsletter had more of an industry, as opposed to a purely BlueScope-oriented, perspective. This embracing of different perspectives and partnering with different stakeholders reinforced BlueScope’s collaborative approach to business and its inherent importance and value to the industries it is involved in.
Content developed for the newsletter was of such a high standard that the media embraced and used the copy. Examples of publications that featured coverage were Manufacturer’s Monthly, Mining Monthly, Materials Australia and Building Contractor. Other examples of media coverage included:
The campaign has generated a considerable degree of momentum with the media’s appetite for BlueScope content being stimulated and stakeholder awareness and advocacy on the rise.
