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It seems like the question I get asked by clients most frequently these days is: “What should we be doing in social media and PR 2.0?” Not surprising, given that one in four online consumers now participates in a social network such as YouTube or Facebook, according to the latest Forrester research. Nearly half are consuming content created in blogs, user-generated video or discussion forums.
The question that’s most important is, how does a company design, implement and execute on a successful social media communications strategy – and it’s something we at Access, spearheaded by our dedicated PR 2.0 team, are investing a great deal of time in understanding. What we do know is that the rules of engagement have been irrevocably altered. Even as we’re able to create more intimate connections than ever before with customers and consumers, they are feeling increasingly more empowered in the decision-making process, thanks to the tools and technologies that give more volume to their voice in the social media dialogue.
What we know from helping clients navigate new courses in social media is the imperative of authenticity – keeping it real. Consumers today – across every demographic – demand a new engagement…one that is interactive, empowering, democratic and personal…these are the attributes that must inform any social media strategy.
We are in the process of unveiling a new Access website, even as we are amidst developing social media strategies for several of our clients. In the meantime, we showcase in this edition of Inside Access the results of three successful campaigns on behalf of clients in security, remote collaboration software and gaming. As always, I welcome your feedback, insights and thoughts.
Susan G. Butenhoff, President & CEO
susan@accesspr.com
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Trend Micro Scores
at RSA
Trend Micro wanted to make a splash at the RSA Conference, the Internet security industry’s biggest show. With more than 300 security vendors converging on San Francisco to launch new products and build their profiles, the battle for mindshare would not only be fought in the booths and at conference speaking panels, but at the many increasingly important after-show media events and parties.
Trend Micro had high profile booth location, two speaking engagements and the team had secured its share of pre-show media coverage. Yet the company was looking for a big idea to draw reporters away from parties thrown by other vendors. Access had to think outside the box, or in this case—the diamond, to draw reporters to a Trend event.
For the first time in many years, the RSA Conference was scheduled for April instead of its usual time around Valentine’s Day. Since Opening Week for the San Francisco Giants baseball season would coincide with the RSA, the Trend-Access team determined at trip to the ball park was in order.
Working the phones in advance of the show and using an HTML mailer to break through the pre-show PR noise, Access booked 30 reporters from business publications, dailies, wire services and trade publications attended the baseball mixer.
Reporters mingled with Trend Micro team, including members of the company’s elite Threat Research Team while also enjoying beer, wine and ballpark fare before heading down to the watch the Giants battle their division rivals, the San Diego Padres. Not only did the Giants win in the bottom of the ninth, but the RSA media mixer was a grand slam by providing Trend Micro executives an opportunity to strengthen and renew relationships with key reporters that continues to pay dividends.
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OnMessage™
With Citrix Online
At Access, we are obsessed with getting our clients’ messaging right. Too many times, new companies launch or existing companies bring products or services to market with poorly articulated, confusing, or overly complicated messaging and the results are almost always the same – insufficient traction, lack of differentiation, no competitive edge. It’s about message pull-through – making sure that your spokespeople – CEOs, product managers, stakeholders – are speaking on-message to get your story out. That’s why we insist on working closely with our clients on intensive message development and media training.
Citrix Online is preparing for a big year: two major product launches, new product feature sets and new market segments to penetrate, competing in a space – remote collaboration and IT administration – that is increasingly more competitive with big names like WebEx (now owned by Cisco) and emerging challengers like LogMeIn.
In advance of these events, we worked with the Citrix Online team and crafted an entirely new message architecture – cascading from high level thought leadership, to addressing broad, SMB issues, drivers and challenges and finally down to product specific solution sets – designed to underscore the company’s market leader role, position it as a collaboration and innovation partner to small and medium size businesses and map its product suite feature sets specifically to the business needs and requirements of its target customers. With this completed, we then conducted extensive OnMessage training and OnTarget medis training with company president Brett Caine.
We planned a high level media tour, with a threefold objective: solidify Citrix Online as an authority leader in its space; firmly link the company’s business vision and collaboration toolset with the focus on innovation in the SMB space; and sensitize the market to the upcoming slate of major product releases .
Our media pitbulls booked an incredible lineup of interviews with platinum media covering the business of technology, to showcase Brett and put our new messaging to the test: BusinessWeek, Financial Times, US News & World Report, Barron’s, IBD, Forbes.com TV, and Fox Business Channel led off the tour, with more still underway. Did we achieve message pull-through? We’ll let this clip from Brett’s appearance on Fox answer the question.
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Media Blitz Helps SEGA Sell Five Million Games
SEGA and Nintendo are widely regarded as the founding fathers of the modern videogame industry. So when Access learned they would co-publish a new game called Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games we knew this title, pitting two legendary mascots against one another, would be a truly historic event. The partnership provided an opportunity to influence media perceptions about SEGA and reinforce the company’s leadership position as a top international game publisher.
The key to the launch would be to make the historic Mario and Sega pairing a definitive pop culture event rather than another title launch. To this end, Access built a compelling narrative around the significance of the joint SEGA-Nintendo title and recommended a media strategy aimed at securing coverage in platinum print, online and wire service to hit in tandem with the announcement and a radio news release. Access handpicked influential business reporters at Newsweek, USA Today, and Reuters to conduct interviews with top executives at each company.
On announcement day, Access launched an all-out media assault and secured coverage in USA Today, Reuters, Wired, Wall Street Journal, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, Detroit Free Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press along with every tier-one gaming publication reaching a combined audience of 192 million consumers across print, online, TV and radio.
The PR launch was extremely successful for SEGA and helped drive the sales of more than five million copies of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games worldwide – a figure that represents a third of SEGA’s entire title sales the year before.
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Adchemy is revolutionizing the world of online customer acquisition. It is the first company to truly combine data on the Web with advanced scientific algorithms to give marketers powerful products designed to increase qualified users and reduce acquisition costs.
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Vonage is a leading provider of broadband telephone services with 2.5 million subscriber lines. The company’s award-winning technology enables anyone to make and receive phone calls with a touch tone telephone almost anywhere a broadband Internet connection is available. We offer feature-rich and cost effective communication services that offer users an experience similar to traditional telephone services.
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Credo is a different kind of mobile communications company. One uniquely dedicated to making it easy for its customers to support the causes that are important to them. Every time a customer make a call with their Credo phone, 1% of the charges automatically go to groups such as Planned Parenthood, Rainforest Action Network, Human Rights Watch, the ACLU.
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TRUSTe is the recognized authority on best practices for privacy on the Internet. Through its Web Privacy Seal, Email Privacy Seal and Trusted Download Program, the company helps consumers and businesses identify trustworthy online organizations. With more than 2,500 Websites certified, including leading companies such as Microsoft, AOL, IBM, eBay, Disney and the New York Times.
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V&S Plymouth Ltd, part of V&S Absolut Spirits, is the owner and producer of Plymouth Gin Original Strength, Plymouth Gin Navy Strength, Plymouth Sloe Gin, Plymouth Damson Liqueur and Plymouth Fruit Cup. Always and only made at Black Friars Distillery in Plymouth England since 1793, Plymouth Gin is available in all major gin markets around the world.
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