Mformation had been working with Spark to raise the level of their PR output. Great progress had been made in the first 12 months, with Mformation owning the front page of the Mobile World Commerce issue of the Financial Times Digital Business. With Spark exceeding its target, it was challenged to raise the bar again.
Using consumers to reach a b2b audience
Spark’s team came to the table with a multi-faceted plan of how the company could achieve this. One element of the plan included a consumer PR campaign based on real consumer research across a number of territories. Mobile Operators are constantly looking for ways to increase customer loyalty and sell more services to their customers. As such, information straight from customers always gets their attention. Mformation’s MDM technology offers this and a big media splash outlining the benefits to consumers would ultimately create ‘pull’ with the operators.
Spark suggested a headline-driven research project focused on mobile phone set-up issues. The aim was to show that when applications and services don’t work on a mobile phone consumers will just give up and not use them, which in turn generates a pretty negative customer experience. This approach allowed Mformation to talk about how MDM could address this issue. By showing that consumer demand for applications and services would drop if they were not easy to access, set up and use, Mformation was able to demonstrate to operators the importance of getting this right.
The b2b message
While a creative, high profile campaign was important, the team also created a phase one b2b campaign targeting the UK mobile and telecommunications press and analyst community. This would enhance awareness among operators of Mformation and the benefits it offered so that, when the consumer campaign hit, they would already have a solid understanding of the company’s USPs. The consumer campaign would then create heightened awareness around the company and serve to emphasise the demand for MDM among end-users.
Guaranteed results
While Mformation really liked the concept, they were concerned that a consumer research project was a major investment so results needed to be guaranteed. Spark offered Mformation an SLA with coverage guarantees and, with an energetic team phoning journalists and analysts, Mformation felt confident that the campaign would be a success.
However, their expectations were exceeded both in terms of press coverage and the impact the campaign had on its target audience, the operators. Not only was the campaign the most-read story on the BBC news website, the company received significant industry feedback with many comments from media, analysts and bloggers across the trade and general categories validating the issue and the campaign’s success. The Mformation website also experienced some of its highest ever traffic levels during the campaign.
“The senior counsel from Spark was evident from day one. We wanted to punch above our weight when it came to influencing the market. Spark came up with a really creative campaign that generated significant awareness among influencers in the industry, which in turn opened doors to our sales targets. In addition, by moving our analyst relations programme from a tactical to strategic PR function Spark has really helped increase our sphere of influence.” -Rob Dalgety, Marketing Director, Mformation
Mformation
Mformation had been working with Spark to raise the level of their PR output. Great progress had been made in the first 12 months, with Mformation owning the front page of the Mobile World Commerce issue of the Financial Times Digital Business. With Spark exceeding its target, it was challenged to raise the bar again.
Using consumers to reach a b2b audience
Spark’s team came to the table with a multi-faceted plan of how the company could achieve this. One element of the plan included a consumer PR campaign based on real consumer research across a number of territories. Mobile Operators are constantly looking for ways to increase customer loyalty and sell more services to their customers. As such, information straight from customers always gets their attention. Mformation’s MDM technology offers this and a big media splash outlining the benefits to consumers would ultimately create ‘pull’ with the operators.
Spark suggested a headline-driven research project focused on mobile phone set-up issues. The aim was to show that when applications and services don’t work on a mobile phone consumers will just give up and not use them, which in turn generates a pretty negative customer experience. This approach allowed Mformation to talk about how MDM could address this issue. By showing that consumer demand for applications and services would drop if they were not easy to access, set up and use, Mformation was able to demonstrate to operators the importance of getting this right.
The b2b message
While a creative, high profile campaign was important, the team also created a phase one b2b campaign targeting the UK mobile and telecommunications press and analyst community. This would enhance awareness among operators of Mformation and the benefits it offered so that, when the consumer campaign hit, they would already have a solid understanding of the company’s USPs. The consumer campaign would then create heightened awareness around the company and serve to emphasise the demand for MDM among end-users.
Guaranteed results
While Mformation really liked the concept, they were concerned that a consumer research project was a major investment so results needed to be guaranteed. Spark offered Mformation an SLA with coverage guarantees and, with an energetic team phoning journalists and analysts, Mformation felt confident that the campaign would be a success.
However, their expectations were exceeded both in terms of press coverage and the impact the campaign had on its target audience, the operators. Not only was the campaign the most-read story on the BBC news website, the company received significant industry feedback with many comments from media, analysts and bloggers across the trade and general categories validating the issue and the campaign’s success. The Mformation website also experienced some of its highest ever traffic levels during the campaign.
“The senior counsel from Spark was evident from day one. We wanted to punch above our weight when it came to influencing the market. Spark came up with a really creative campaign that generated significant awareness among influencers in the industry, which in turn opened doors to our sales targets. In addition, by moving our analyst relations programme from a tactical to strategic PR function Spark has really helped increase our sphere of influence.” -Rob Dalgety, Marketing Director, Mformation