Archive for October, 2010

Thought leadership’s magic cube

Your thought leadership campaign should comprise four sides.  Tick the box on each and like a cube, your thought leadership will present a complete and strong face.   

The four sides should include the following:

1.       It should be eye-catching and topical

2.       It should say something new

3.       It should be founded in some sort of research i.e. be evidence based

4.       It should create a link to your brand

This is a short post so I am not going to go into huge detail on each but will cover the key points briefly.

1.       Thought leadership material should be eye-catching and topical

How much thought leadership material do you see that is eye catching or topical?

Why not? I think it is for three reasons:

·         Not enough thought is put into it

·         It is often merely regurgitated, repackaged content

·         Some companies believe their own PR, think their stuff is great and don‘t give enough thought to the audience and how they will benefit from it.

2.       Thought leadership should say something new

Very often this is because not enough attention is paid upfront to researching the client or their issues and challenges.  The deeper you understand your client’s issues the more likely it is you will provide something that means something to them and adds value to their lives new insights.

In the process you should also be researching what else is out in the market so you don’t already enter a crowded space.

3.       Thought leadership should be evidence based

Everyone can have an opinion.  There are thousands of companies out there sharing their opinions based on their knowledge and expertise in a particular sector.  Nothing wrong with that, many companies are paid top dollar for their insights.  However, to truly offer something valuable to your clients and prospects, insights should be supported by robust research – preferably third party research.

Think about your business – it is a lot easier to make decisions or convince your board about decisions based on evidence or strong research as opposed to opinion.        

4.       Thought leadership should create a link to your brand

Be warned.  Don’t get this one wrong.

Your thought leadership campaign is not an excuse to talk about your products and your brand too overtly.  In fact the opposite applies – you should avoid pushing your products and company in the early stages of your thought leadership campaign.  Only talk about it once the prospect starts opening the door to chat to about their issues and specific solutions off the back of what you have presented.

Remember the mere fact you, your colleagues and your brand are associated with the thought leadership piece means that you are aligned with it anyway.  The psychology of this is that if you are perceived to be deeply understanding of your chosen thought leadership field you must be the expert and ‘go to’ company in that space.

Make sure though that your thought leadership material is clearly branded with your company and contact details and try wherever possible to get in front of your prospects to share the information.

Productivity Indicator is a thought leadership winner

I need to declare up front that the thought leadership case study I am about to share was run by two sister companies in the Ogilvy Public Relations stable in Australia, Howorth and Parker & Partners.  It is a great example of thought leadership in action and it recently won the WPP Communications WPPED Cream award for best PR campaign.

Background

In late 2008, Australia’s leading telecommunications and information services company, Telstra, approached the team at Ogilvy PR Australia to devise a communication strategy to support its reinvigorated business-to-business offering.

The ensuing ‘Telstra Productivity Indicator’ campaign, not only successfully generated positive coverage in target business news and technology media, but the communication platform laid the foundation for all of Telstra’s marketing collateral: internal communications, website content, existing customer communication, advertising material and sales tools. 

The successful execution of the brief was demonstrated through increased sales figures and improvements in independent brand and media audits. Telstra’s positioning was so relevant to target business and government audiences that the then Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, quoted key research findings developed for the campaign during a national press conference in April 2009.

The campaign

Telstra’s largest division is Telstra Enterprise & Government (TEG), which provides network based solutions and services to organisations across Australia and New Zealand.

In a crowded marketplace, Telstra was finding it difficult to achieve neutral or positive media coverage, despite its world leading information and communication technology (ICT) offerings.  The Ogilvy team wanted to present TEG as a leader in ICT and an expert in productivity.  It followed research which showed that while Telstra’s competitors and other key stakeholders in the ICT space were all fighting for a share of the ‘innovation’ space, everyone was ignoring the driving force for potential customers – productivity.

There was a distinct lack of conversation around the topic presenting an ideal opportunity for TEG to embrace productivity and use it as the platform for the campaign.

The target publics

In order to communicate with their tier one target audiences: senior decisions makers, key influencers and IT executives within Australian business and government organisations, the campaign first had to reach business and technology media, industry associations, business groups and government stakeholders.

Implementation

1.       Research – Survey Report

An independent research company was commissioned to conduct a survey of senior decision makers at Australian business and government organisations on their approach and treatment of productivity and how it was defined, measured, managed and funded. The findings were compiled in a report titled: ‘The Telstra Productivity Indicator: A Report on business attitudes towards improving productivity in Australia’.

2.      Research – Whitepaper

Supplementing the report was a 36-page white paper, commissioned from a second independent organisation. The paper, ‘ICT as a driver of productivity’, examined in detail the impact of ICT on productivity and economics in Australia and around the world.

3.      Branding the insights – identifying Australia’s ‘productivity gap’

The research not only provided interesting content for media engagement, but uncovered insights to underpin the campaign.  Critically the results showed that while 78 per cent of Australia’s largest organisations said improving productivity was a high priority, only half had any systems to measure improvements or set targets.

This was termed the ‘Productivity Gap’ – the gap between the importance placed on productivity improvements and the lack of measurement and management around it. With productivity a large part of the rationale for ICT investment, the findings provided framework for new conversations with Telstra’s target audiences.

4.      Key messages identified, spokespeople briefed

Senior spokespeople were comprehensively briefed on the research with a series of key messages designed to deliver the productivity story.

5.      Direct mail to business and government

A personalised letter from the CEO detailing research findings and implications was sent to government officials and the heads of leading Australian business associations.

6.      Strategic media outreach

An extensive media outreach plan was implemented including:

·         Embargoed media interviews with Telstra’s most senior spokespeople and tier one media

·         An embargoed media release distributed to IT and telecommunications media the day before the launch

·         A general news release distributed on launch day

·         Targeted, long-lead media outreach  with tailored byline articles for vertical press 

7.      Speaking opportunities

Speaking opportunities were set up at corporate events for senior Telstra spokespeople.

8.      Employee Communications

The research was launched internally to employees through Telstra’s intranet.

9.      Sales Tools

The sales teams were armed with new diagnostic tools to present to existing and potential clients to quantify areas for productivity improvement.

10.  Advertising

The insights were supported by an above the line campaign including print, outdoor and online with a budget edition wrap of the Australian Financial Review newspaper.  

Measurement

 An independent media analysis company compared the analysis to Telstra’s competitors across reach, impact and favourability. From January to March 2009, TEG significantly increased its share of voice over competitors, holding 55 per cent of the brand mentions (with 96 per cent favourable). A spike in coverage was traced against the launch of the productivity campaign.

The Telstra Productivity Indicator dominated media discussion, with 29 per cent of coverage directly related to how Telstra could help enterprise and government improve productivity through the innovation and functionality of Telstra services. The analysis tracked an overall increase in the number of key messages appearing within campaign coverage.  More than 60 per cent of TEG coverage featured at least one of the pre-agreed key messages.

Importantly, the PR campaign set the foundation for all of TEG’s marketing and communications collateral and the messaging was adapted seamlessly for internal communications, existing customer communication, website content, an advertising campaign and sales tools.

The campaign drove online traffic to Telstra’s productivity website, becoming the second most visited site after the Telstra homepage.  At the time of the campaign, Google click-through increased by 72.3%.  There were 178 whitepaper registrations and site interactivity (clicks, print-outs and forwarding of content) increased by 200% month on month.

Over the campaign, Telstra sold and activated thosands of new PDAs and smartphones, migrated thousands of 2G devices to the NextG network and sold a number of fleet deals. The campaign elevated the Telstra brand to one synonymous with improved business productivity that in turn has driven demand for its product and services.

The integrated campaign directly affected perceived brand value. Telstra outperformed competitors in the ‘Customer Value Analysis’ brand positioning benchmark study in May 2009 on all performance drivers (service delivery; product; brand; Account Executive performance) showing a significant spike in approval. ‘Brand’ recorded the largest increase (up 11%). Besides improved buyer preference, Telstra was able to focus customer discussions away from price and towards value.