promoting technology PR THAT CONNECTS
ISSUE 16
CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY
IN THIS ISSUE
Das bling GIVEN THE DOMINANCE of the iconic Apple iPod in the global MP3 player market, you may be surprised to learn that the top-selling MP3 players in Germany are made by a company called TrekStor. In fact, TrekStor is one of the country’s fastest-growing companies, and now wants to take the UK by storm with its range of MP3 players, external hard drives and USB sticks. TrekStor aims to build its brand in the UK with the help of Six Degrees, who will be working alongside other Eurocom partner agencies – including Schwartz PR in Germany, M&CM in Italy and Best Relations in Spain – to reach out to the company’s target market of 16- to 29-year-olds.
“It’s a really exciting project for us,” explained Jennifer Andersson, Consultant at Six Degrees. “We feel this is a great story for our established contacts in the consumer lifestyle press – not least in offering TrekStor as a serious alternative in product reviews and features.” Last year TrekStor launched the world’s most expensive MP3 player, the i.Beat Organix Gold, cast in 18 karat gold with 63 diamonds (1 karat). The company has had great success with celebrity endorsement, such as using pop singer P!nk to promote its i.Beat p!nk player which, you will not be surprised to read, is shocking pink. TrekStor is a family business, but has grown rapidly – from eight employees in 2004 to nearly 200 today. Now TrekStor aims to become an established brand globally.
BLANKET COVERAGE How 3’s Skypephone launch dominated the media landscape Page 2
The world’s most expensive MP3 player: the i.Beat Organix Gold from TrekStor
www.trekstor.de
CONTENT IS KING CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN
The basis for all good PR, strong writing
School’s out for Steljes CASE STUDIES ARE the lifeblood of marketing communications campaigns – and it pays to maximise customer success stories, not only for use with prospects, but also in the press, on the company web site, in newsletters and as collateral for trade shows. Technology pioneer Steljes’s role in implementing and managing Anytime Learning at Beatrix Potter Primary School in London was a critical one – and certainly something we needed to capture accurately and sensitively on a visit there to shoot a video case study.
As part of its new Steljes Anytime proposition – that helps schools deliver personalised learning and extend learning beyond the classroom – Steljes was keen to capture the essence of this concept in a real-life setting to support its presence at BETT, the UK’s leading educational trade show. The team, led by Six Degrees, directed the shoot so that the pupils and teachers told the story with the enthusiasm and excitement that is often hard to capture in print. Since the children were using the technology in the field for a project about World War I soldiers buried at the local Wandsworth Cemetary, we used the location as the backdrop and to help bring the story to life.
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SPECIAL EFFECT Trolltech software wows movie industry
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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Davos calling THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (WEF) annual meeting, held in Davos, Switzerland, sets the business, economic and political media agendas for many months to follow. For the past two years, we have had the opportunity to support a number of clients with media activity surrounding the conference and it seemed a great opportunity to share some of the lessons we’ve learned.
The atmosphere at WEF is unique. With some of the most powerful people in the world converged in the same place, it is an ideal opportunity for business people to mingle with leading politicians, religious leaders, academics and other dignitaries. The focus of the week-long event is squarely on macro-economic and global issues. This is not the opportunity for companies to launch their latest gadget or service. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
THE SIMPSONS Our partner agency, Simpson FTPR, reveals why Ireland is an innovation hotspot Page 4
Bono (R), William H. Gates III, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation, USA (2R), H.M. Queen Rania (3R) Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, Gordon Brown (4R), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Yar' Adua, President of Nigeria (5R) and other participants stand together to 'Call to Action on the Millenium Development Goals' during the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 25 January, 2008. © World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Andy Mettler
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PRODUCT LAUNCH
Mobilising skype THE 29 OCTOBER 2007 was a milestone in the UK telecoms market, as mobile operator 3 and Skype launched the 3 Skypephone, which lets 3’s customers make free Skype-to-Skype calls and send free Skype instant messages from their mobile phone to other Skype users, no matter where in the world they are. From dawn to dusk, broadcasters focused on the innovative new offering. From BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme at breakfast time to the Newsnight late-evening current affairs programme – and pretty much every other news and current affairs slot inbetween – the 3 Skypephone dominated the media landscape.
PUTTING IN THE GROUNDWORK … “The real work started back in September, when we worked with Skype, 3 and their agencies, to map
out a staged launch programme for media and blogs. One element of the campaign was to seed the story with bloggers three weeks prior to the launch event,” said Lesley Booth, senior consultant, Six Degrees. “This generated ‘buzz’ in the blogosphere and prompted key journalists who monitor blogs to start talking about the imminent launch. The challenge was to create enough buzz without killing the story for launch day.” Separate media briefings were arranged for national newspaper correspondents and for consumer lifestyle, mobile trade media, bloggers and broadcasters. Attendees were given a demonstration of the new 3 Skypephone and had the opportunity for one-to-one briefings with spokespeople from Skype and 3.
… LEADS TO RESULTS The following day, every national newspaper in the UK covered the 3 Skypephone launch. But the media campaign didn’t end there. Journalists who were not able to attend the 29 October events were
offered ‘deskside’ briefings, and many reviewers were given phones to test in the lead-up to Christmas. A radio tour also helped promote the device as the perfect Christmas gift. Six Degrees has continued working closely with 3’s own agencies to place 3 Skypephones with celebrities, and target specific ex-pat media. Online competitions and product reviews have provided
another steady flow of coverage for the product. The objectives of the campaign were to bring mobile Skype to a mass market. Combining mobility with free Internet-based communications, has sparked a mobile-calling revolution. It is not often that competitors admire a PR campaign, but the 3 Skypephone launch has had industry-wide recognition.
STAT ATTACK • 60+ pieces of print and online coverage on launch day, including every national daily paper, Radio 4 The Today Programme, BBC Breakfast News and a 4 minute TV feature on Newsnight • Nearly 2 Million listings on Google (incl. 10,000 blog listings) to date
RESEARCH
Banking on good online service TWO-THIRDS OF THE UK now banks online, but one bad experience can result in a bank’s reputation being permanently damaged. This is just one of the findings of research undertaken by web performance management company Gomez. Gomez is used by more than 1000 companies worldwide, including eight of the top 10 most visited sites, six of
the top 10 retailers, nine of the top 10 financial services firms, five of the top 10 social networking companies, and four of the top 10 industrial companies. Gomez wanted to test the public’s attitude to online banking to help the company and its customers better understand consumers’ needs and concerns. Six Degrees helped design and commission the research and publicise it to the media, including radio stations and trade publications. Total broadcast listening figures
THE KEY FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH
reached 1.8 million and print coverage highlights included New Media Age, Internet Retailing and Financial Sector Technology. “This campaign really highlighted the need for banks to deliver a positive online customer experience,” said David Flower, VP EMEA, Gomez. “Many could find their brands damaged if they don’t improve online services.” The research will help Gomez highlight to retail banks that
On message CAN YOU DESCRIBE what your company does in fewer than 100 words? When you’re selling complex technology, this can be harder than it seems.
43% 27%
would tell more than five people if they had a bad online experience
said they would stop using a bank entirely after just one mistake Research conducted by ICM
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BANKS NEED TO BE AWARE THAT THE UK PUBLIC IS GROWING INCREASINGLY WARY AND INTOLERANT OF BAD ONLINE SERVICE IN GENERAL, AND ARE PREPARED TO TAKE DIRECT ACTION
STRATEGIC MESSAGING
60%
of the population said that one mishap would change their attitude towards online banking
customers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and demanding more from online banking. “Banks need to be aware that the UK public is growing increasingly wary and intolerant of bad online service in general, and are prepared to take direct action,” said Lesley Booth, senior consultant, Six Degrees. “Most banks know that to service customers’ accounts online is costefficient, but poor service can really affect the bottom line.”
An example of one of Barco’s innovative displays in a broadcast production room
This was the issue facing Barco’s Security and Monitoring Division, a leader in control room and display solutions. Six Degrees recently helped the Division develop its strategic messaging through an intensive workshop, attended by the market managers from all six sectors in which the division operates.
The outcome was a succinct, simple message to capture the essence of what Barco’s Security and Monitoring Division offers, supported by several more specific business attributes and proof-points. “Each market and set of customers has very different needs,” said Geert de Vuyst, marketing communications director at Barco’s Security and Monitoring Division. “Using a workshop to develop a single over-arching message that works across all sectors helps us to communicate with clarity and consistency.”
SPOTLIGHT: CONTENT CREATION
NEW IN BRIEF
Write on cue IT CAN BE TEMPTING to think of copywriting as an add-on service that can simply be bought in for PR and marketing communications campaigns. But is it a good idea to separate the task of writing from the strategic development and hands-on implementation of PR and marcoms campaigns? Writing has always been viewed as a core skill at Six Degrees. We view writing with authority as a true test of our ability to understand and analyse the issues at hand. Good writing = good thinking. The importance of thinking time in the creative process is a given in the advertising world. Companies spend millions in search of a good tag line or slogan because it takes skill and time to capture the essence of a brand and articulate it succinctly. This applies to PR, which might not always be perceived as a creative activity. However, being able to absorb and order sometimes complex information, analyse it and then compose a written document that
appeals to its intended audience are all important PR skills. These same skills and knowledge can be applied to other areas of the marketing communications mix. Six Degrees works with most clients on a wide range of collateral for PR and marcoms campaigns. This includes researching and developing news releases, backgrounders, fact sheets, customer testimonials, white papers and contributed articles for key publications. The ability to adapt the same ‘raw materials’ to appeal to a variety of audiences is key. “You can’t simply repeat a news release for an advertorial, customer newsletter or an article in an employee magazine,” according to Mark James, Director, Six Degrees. “The messages may stay the same, but it’s important to adjust the length and tone to fit the particular medium and audience.”
WORKING 9 TO 5 Six Degrees has written and edited Vodafone UK’s Working Nation reports. These form a major ongoing study to understand the attitudes and trends that shape the UK at work. The reports are now in the British Library and have received praise from both academics and business professionals. The study has helped stimulate debate on important workplace issues in the UK media.
PROSE ENGINEERING Engineering giant ABB is proud of its customer magazine FastForward. Researched and written by Six Degrees, the magazine has become an integral part of ABB’s marketing communications mix, and a web version of the magazine expands upon printed articles and helps to drive customers to its website.
BIRTHDAY THANKS Thanks to all the clients and friends of Six Degrees who came along to our 30th birthday celebrations at celeb hang-out Volsted in London. Both MD Jennifer Janson and original founder Roger Staton welcomed guests and made short speeches. The winning cocktail from Six Degrees’s employee competition was the toast of the party and retro sweets from the 1970s were served to accompany the cool tunes.
SKYPE TAKES SILVER Being shortlisted for an industry award is always a boost. But to win one has that added ‘wow’ factor! In December, Six Degrees was awarded a Silver at the CIPR PRide Awards for its Skype ‘Talking for Britain’ consumer campaign, which combined traditional PR tactics with more experimental activity – such as ‘planting’ actors on busy trains to talk about Skype and a targeted outreach campaign aimed at migrant communities living in the UK. Six Degrees was also a finalist in the ‘Outstanding PR Consultancy’ category at the recent awards.
BATTERIES INCLUDED Saft, a world specialist in the design and manufacture of high-tech batteries for industry, published a white paper called The vital role of batteries in the modern rail industry. This research was prompted by a widespread misconception in the rail industry about the safety of particular types of battery. Six Degrees researched and drafted this white paper in conjunction with Saft. The agency also adapted the white paper to create a contributed article for European Rail Outlook magazine.
NEAR HIT The short-range wireless communication technology, Near Field Communication (NFC) is becoming one of the hottest topics around. Over the past two years, Innovision Research & Technology has tasked Six Degrees with developing educational white papers on the subject. Placed more than a dozen times in the media, posted on numerous sites and used repeatedly as a reference and for speaker placements, the papers are still highly respected and often quoted.
MEDIA RELATIONS
May the Open Source be with you Films like Star Wars require high levels of skill and, these days, immense computing power to ensure that special effects work well. Software development has become a vital part of any successful studio’s operations. Open Source software developer Trolltech recently collaborated with Lucasfilm Ltd, the company behind the Star Wars films, to enable the studio to develop its digital entertainment software faster and more cost-efficiently. Trolltech provided Lucasfilm with its Qt open platform for software development. This works across Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems to provide cross-platform software development. Qt is used by many studios, including Duboi, Sony Pictures Imageworks and
Walt Disney Feature Animation. Many companies have found that they can save 30 to 50 per cent in development time when they use Qt, especially when it comes to rich graphical user interface (GUI) development. The Qt platform also ensures that developers can create applications that have the same look and feel of the latest operating systems. “Using Qt will not only save us time and money, but will also let us focus more on innovation,” said Steve Sullivan, director of R&D, Lucasfilm Ltd. “Our previous user interface framework was already stretched to a point that could no longer meet our growing needs, and signing on with Trolltech was the smart move for us.” Six Degrees publicised the news that Trolltech was supplying
TEACHER’S BETT BETT is the world’s largest educational technology event, held annually at Olympia, London. This year Six Degrees client NetOp took part. NetOp, which develops and markets software based on remote control technology, pre-released its new product; NetOp School 5.5. The company gave potential customers, distributors and journalists pre-view demonstrations at the show. This unique software enables a teacher to control a networked classroom and is a development of software already used by over a third of UK secondary schools.
ACE EVENT
Composite photograph of the Millennium Falcon and the planet Tatooine. © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd.)
Lucasfilm Ltd which includes Industrial Light & Magic, LucasArts, Skywalker Sound and Lucasfilm Animations. The use of
a great photo (see above) helped secure coverage in important developer media including developmag.com.
We’re always looking for fun, informal ways to get together with journalists. So when web security-as-aservice client ScanSafe and Six Degrees decided to host a poker evening for key security writers, all bets were on! VNUnet, Silicon, IT Pro and others were introduced to the game by the experts, and then went head-to-head with ScanSafe for prizes, including the latest iPod and a donation to the winner’s charity of choice. Journalists were so impressed that one declared it ‘the best PR event I’ve ever been to’ (well, he was the winner!).
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PR THAT CONNECTS
WORLDWIDE PARTNERS
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Introducing Simpson Financial & Technology PR Six Degrees is the UK member of Eurocom Worldwide, a global network of like-minded independent PR consultancies. Many clients tap into this network when planning international campaigns that demand local expertise, delivered in a consistent way. With more and more multi-national companies basing their European headquarters in Ireland, it seemed a great time to catch up with Ronnie Simpson, founder of Simpson FTPR, based in Dublin. “I began the agency back in 1995 when it was very unusual to have a specialist PR consultancy in Ireland. We originally worked with many home-grown Irish companies and with a relatively small domestic market, it is no surprise that most were focused on wanting to expand throughout Europe and the rest of the world. The PR campaigns we designed with our clients had to look beyond Ireland.” Now Simpson FTPR’s client list includes many major brands such as O2, as well as global Irish companies like StatCounter.com, a provider of a free web traffic analysis tool and whose CEO was named as Business Week’s 2007 Young European Entrepreneur of the Year. Ireland has a very dynamic and innovative business landscape and
the country continues to attract many technology and knowledge-based businesses to locate there. According to Ronnie Simpson, “About eighty-five per cent of venture capital investments are in these tech based industries, whereas in the rest of Europe the average is seventeen per cent. This makes Ireland very much a high-tech centre.” Simpson FTPR and Six Degrees work together on Saaspoint, the largest European integrator of salesforce.com. Although Saaspoint is headquartered in Ireland, it has rapid North American and European expansion plans including breaking into the Nordic region and is working with a further Eurocom partner Springtime to raise awareness in Sweden. John Appleby, Chairman of Saaspoint, sums up working with the Irish agency: "Simpson FTPR has shown us how to get not only Irish market but international reach through a focused PR campaign. The PR has generated very tangible results in terms of new customer leads, web traffic, potential alliances and recruitment.” Like many of the partners of the Eurocom Worldwide network, Simpson FTPR has topped the bill
Davos calling CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Some of the world’s top journalists also attend WEF, and it is our job to ensure that clients participating at the annual meeting get the most from any networking and media opportunities. That said, here are a few top tips:
1. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN
Account director Mary O’Brien with client Micéal Whelan, Project Manager – Communications, NovaUCD.
for industry accolades. It has consistently been a PRCA Ireland award-winning agency with 10 PRCA Certificates for Excellence in Communications and overall awards for Corporate and Business-toBusiness PR.
Dublin, Ireland 1995 Irish Association of Pension Funds, Irish Venture Capital Association, O2, Saaspoint, Salesforce.com, Sogeti, StatCounter, Sun Microsystems www.simpsonftpr.ie
In order to make the most of your Davos experience, make sure that you plan in advance – ideally starting in November. Tie the topics your executives can speak about to the main theme of the conference, and go prepared with good background information on the journalists you are meeting. Target specific customers or individuals you’d like to meet and make arrangements in advance.
2. BE FLEXIBLE Despite this year’s stated theme of ‘collaborative innovation’, the main topic of conversation at every level was about the state of the economy, both in the US, and beyond. Be prepared for last-minute changes and make sure you can tailor your messages, making them relevant to what the journalists are writing about.
3. GO FOR BALANCE WEF provides an ideal opportunity for high-level networking, and the ability to hear first-hand what issues are being debated on a global stage (and how these might be relevant to your business in the long run).
Make sure you have enough time to attend sessions, go to social events, and meet with customers and partners, in addition to meeting top tier media. 4. THINK THROUGH THE LOGISTICS Dull as it may seem, logistics are critical when it comes to Davos. If you are not an official attendee, you should consider booking a hotel a year in advance. And make sure that you ask your WEF contact about security access – in addition to the Congress Hall itself, there are a number of hotels which you cannot enter without special pre-approved security clearance. Davos is not the place to do things ‘on the fly’.
KEY DAVOS EVENTS • 1987: Hans-Dietrick Genscher, German foreign minister, makes speech that many consider to be the beginning of the end of the cold war • 2005: Sharon Stone raises US$1 million in five minutes for malaria mosquito nets by asking the audience listening to Tanzanian president to donate money • 2007: The Belvedere Hotel hosts a drinks reception in a large igloo to highlight concerns about global warming Source: The Daily Telegraph, 15 January 2008
INDUSTRY ROUNDTABLE
Capturing off-shore wind power Have you ever wondered how energy captured by off-shore windfarms is actually ‘harvested’ and sent back to land? ABB, the global power and automation technology company, made sure that key influential media were fully up to speed on this hot topic and related issues through an educational media roundtable. The traditional method of transmitting electricity using alternating current (AC) has a number of drawbacks when used over long distances – the most serious being power loss. It is also harder to control the flow of power in different directions than with direct current (DC). These are serious challenges when trying to build a business case for renewable energy generated by wind turbines that may be hundreds of kilometres offshore. Conventional HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) transmission requires very large converter stations to convert the AC generated by wind turbines to DC, for transmission, and back to AC again for domestic and business use. These can be
expensive to build and maintain, and make renewable energy projects costly options for power companies. ABB has been a pioneering developer of HVDC technology for over 50 years. Its latest HVDC Light solution helps power companies harness the energy captured by offshore windfarms in a more efficient and controllable way. The solution only requires an ummanned converter station the size of a ‘portacabin’, which can be preassembled – making it much easier to install on an offshore platform. It also uses strong and flexible extruded polymer insulated cables that are perfect for severe installation conditions. The technology may be 50 years old, but ABB views it as future-proof. It will help renewable energy projects attract the funding they need from investors who naturally want to see a return on their investments.
ABB GETS A-ROUND The educational roundtable, organised by Six Degrees, was attended by key international journalists from Infrastructure Journal, Modern Power Systems, Power
Engineering, International Power in Europe, T&D World and Utility Week. Duncan Botting, head of technology and business development, ABB UK chaired the discussion, while HVDC experts Peter Jones and Bo Westman provided an additional hook for journalists to attend. The issues discussed provided material for a special issue of ABB’s customer magazine FastForward, which was not only distributed through ABB’s usual channels, but also as a supplement in leading trade magazine Electrical Review. The valves at an HVDC converter station help deliver green energy to homes
Six Degrees Limited Old Trinity Church, Trinity Road Marlow, Buckinghamshire SL7 3AN United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)1628 480280 editor@sixdegreespr.com www.sixdegreespr.com
PR THAT CONNECTS