John shares his thoughts with BNET’s Phil Dobbie on the opportunities and challenges that business leaders will likely encounter when devising and deploying social media strategies. He also explains the reasons why it’s important to make social media part of the corporate-wide strategy that promotes long term engagement.

Listen to the interview here:

So come on down. For your chance to win a copy of Microsoft Office 2010:

• Be a Foursquare Mayor of your office, business, home or school (or wherever you do your work!)
• Show up at Martin Place Amphitheatre area and look for the Microsoft Office 2010 signs
• Check in on Foursquare at the Office 2010 Mayor Meetup
• Leave a message when you check in saying why you want to win a copy of Office 2010

So if you’re a Mayor of your workplace, mark your calendars (Outlook, of course) and head down next Tuesday for the Office Mayor Meetup at Martin Place! Join in on the fun and don’t forget to follow the hashtag #OfficeMayor

Look forward to seeing you there.

Howorth successfully orchestrated Motorola’s Australian comeback, with the PR launch of its new range of Android powered smart-phone devices. Howorth’s objectives?  Simple – create mass-market interest across consumer and technology media, reaching out to consumers looking for a new smart-phone.

Insight

Differentiating a phone from the pack can be difficult, but Motorola’s new Android range of smart-phones held one key ingredient , MOTOBLUR – the first mobile experience to deliver your social life straight to your mobile phone, streaming conversations, friends and widgets right into your handset to provide a never-ending flow of updates.

We understood that the media would need to try out the phone themselves to get the full effect of the MOTOBLUR package, so they could appreciate first-hand how it could link their lives via the web.  As a result, Howorth’s PR strategy was designed to ensure media had maximum exposure to the MOTOBLUR experience – from one-on-one demos and the opportunity to take handsets for review, to a fully immersive and interactive launch.

Creative idea, relentless execution

Rebuilding a brand and restoring consumer confidence is no small feat. Howorth held 12 one to one briefings and handset demonstrations in the lead-up to the event, with outlets handpicked to ensure a wide depth of coverage on launch day.   Media were enticed to explore MOTOBLUR before its official launch included the Daily Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald, Channel 7, Channel 9, T3, Grazia and Women’s Health.

The focus then switched to the event itself.  Taking over the Cargo Hall at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, MOTOBLUR’s features were unveiled through stunning visuals presented on a mammoth concave screen: embracing our presenters to showcase social streaming as life in motion, a network surrounding us in all that we do.

Outcomes

On the day of launch, Motorola and Optus spokespeople conducted one to one media briefings at the event with key influencers The Australian, iTNews and iTWire.

These interviews, plus our strategic warm-up prior to the event, generated more than 100 pieces of coverage across metropolitan, consumer, technology and business media (print, broadcast and online).  Highlights to date include a demonstration on Channel 9’s Today show, the front page of Australian T3, and pick-up across a range of specialist outlets like Gizmodo, ITnews.com.au, Good Gear Guide, Zoo Weekly, Smarthouse, iTWire.com.au, CNET Australia and GadgetGuy.com.au.

With more than 2.3 million criminal and convict records now available online, Ancestry.com.au made the entirety of its 15-part Australian Convicts Collection accessible for free for eight days in January 2010.  With the door to the past wide open, we had to convince the public to come knocking.

Insight

Howorth constructed a public relations campaign, tied into Australia Day, to get consumers thinking about how their families originally made it to the Lucky Country, before encouraging them to dig down into their own pasts.

Creative idea, relentless execution

We knew we needed a high-profile partner for the campaign launch, so we secured a national News Limited exclusive for Australia Day itself, which resulted in coverage in all news.com.au sites across Australia.  We also targeted metropolitan radio talk back programs with embargoed material so they could incorporate the story into the weekly plan. Following this initial coverage burst, the release was then issued to all other media.

Outcomes

The response locally for the convict collection was overwhelming, with more than 200 pieces of coverage, including breaking news online across Fairfax and news.com.au, and radio news bulletins. 20 radio interviews were conducted across commercial, AM and community radio, from the ABC to 2GB, with some stations syndicating the interviews across their networks and regions to raise coverage levels even further.  Print coverage included major pieces in the Hobart Mercury, Canberra Times and Sunday Territorian. Through our social media engagement, we also generated 21 ‘Tweets’ on the open Convict Collection indexes, with some of the influential Twitter users having over 1000 followers.

As a result of the PR campaign, Ancestry.com.au received their highest ever unique visitors for a single day on Australia Day (25^th January 2010).

Gratifyingly, the client was thrilled with the results; “The Howorth team achieved results well beyond our expectations. This is a great start to our relationship,” said Debra Chesterton, Managing Director, Ancestry.com.au.

Howorth began working with Australian family-owned Mac accessories distributor Try & Byte in November last year, briefed to raise awareness of their website via positive media relations.

A distributor of new consumer products aimed at Mac users and general consumers, www.tryandbyte.com.au regularly releases innovative technology to its customers.

With a small budget, we needed to find effective ways to pitch the latest Try & Byte accessories and products into consumer and consumer technology media. We therefore focused on the latest five products available on the site, selecting highly targeted media for reviews and profiles.

Our campaign has so far reached over 4.5 million Australians through media coverage: punching well above the investment.   Coverage has included a cover story in Macworld and articles now running into the double figures across tier one targets like The West Australian, The Courier Mail, Gizmodo, Cybershack, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday Herald Sun, Girlfriend and Home Entertainment Magazine.

Prior to taking up his new role, Dahllof was the managing director of Ogilvy PR’s Global Strategy+Planning Group. He replaces Christopher Graves, who has taken over as Ogilvy’s Global CEO.

Dahllof, who is based in Hong Kong, was making his first visit to Australia since assuming the position in January. At the dinner he spoke of the pivotal role Ogilvy PR Australia was playing in the worldwide organisation, pointing particularly to the exporting of intellectual property like Ogilvy Earth, the sustainability communications practice established in Australia which has now become the model for Ogilvy worldwide, and Ogilvy Illumination, Ogilvy Australia’s research firm which is similarly being seen as a global template for the company.

Ogilvy’s Asia Pacific network spans more than 30 offices in Asia, India, Southeast Asia and Australia. The region was recently named as Asia PR Awards’ 2009 Asia Pacific PR Network of the Year. ?

“One of the most  powerful things a large agency network can do is rejuvenate and refresh its thinking by moving great talent around the planet,” said Christopher Graves, chief executive officer, Ogilvy PR. “Samantha has the guts and resiliency of an entrepreneur, the professionalism of a world class practice leader, and the creative leaps of imagination of an inventor. She has won some of the top awards in the world for her creative work connecting people and ideas in ways no one else could.”

Allen will relocate to New York and report directly to Graves. She founded Pulse Communications as a consumer PR agency in Australia, which is part of the Ogilvy PR network. It’s one of Asia Pacific’s most awarded and successful consumer PR agencies with a client base that includes LG Electronics, Tourism Australia, Fosters CUB, Rolls Royce, Ford, Unilever and more. Pulse was awarded the Best New Consultancy in 2004 (Asia Pacific PR Awards), Campaign of the Year (2008 Asia Pacific PR Awards), and has gone on to win over 50 Australian and global awards including the top honour for all WPP-owned PR agencies worldwide.

In congratulating Allen on her appointment, Ogilvy PR Australia’s Managing Director, John Studdert said:  “This appointment formally recognizes the outstanding leadership that Australia has shown in the field of consumer public relations. Samantha knows how to build brands through creative programs and is a talented thinker who delivers strong results for clients.  We’re proud and excited to have her move to this role, and look forward to working with her in the future as she takes up global responsibilities.”

Allen said she was both honored and excited to be appointed to the global position, which she said would be “an undoubtedly challenging, but rewarding role.”

“Since joining Pulse, I have had the chance to work with this country’s most outstanding PR practitioners on some of the most interesting and exciting client projects available, and achieved my wildest PR goals.  As a result it feels bittersweet to be leaving this behind, but it’s time for my next challenge.  I’m looking forward to making the global consumer marketing practice a living, breathing community, full of the most talented consumer PR people in our industry,” she added.

Prior to joining Pulse, Allen worked in various agency roles in London and San Francisco.  She also founded Chocolate Communications, a full-service consultancy offering consumer, corporate and business-to-business public relations, attracting companies such as Ben & Jerry’s and Diageo. While in the UK, Allen led campaigns for a variety of consumer brands including Nokia, Packard Bell, Dualit Homewares and Nescafe.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from RMIT (Melbourne) and a post-graduate diploma in accounting and finance from Guildhall University (London).

Ogilvy PR Australia is a joint venture between Ogilvy PR Worldwide and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group.

To mark the commercial availability of Microsoft Surface, Microsoft Australia hosted a media launch event to showcase the features of this innovative new hardware device at their Australian headquarters in Sydney on Tuesday, 9 February 2010. Surface is a new multi-touch product, developed as a software and hardware combination technology. The device allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of gesture recognition.

The launch produced fantastic results for Microsoft, with 32 key media and analysts attending the event including The Australian, SMH.com.au and CNET. Following the launch, over 40 pieces of coverage were published across a variety of online, print and broadcast outlets, including key metropolitan, consumer, technology and business media targets. Stand out pieces following launch included a five minute, live-to-air interview on Sky Business News’ Tech Report and a live demonstration of Surface on Channel 9’s TODAY program. The show’s technology editor, Charlie Brown, and host Karl Stefanovic demonstrated the Surface product and discussed its potential commercial uses.

Howorth’s primary role was to drive awareness across broadcast, consumer and IT media to strengthen Microsoft’s profile as an innovator and leader in the technology field, as well as to promote Microsoft Surface as a desirable and game-changing product to potential partners and customers. The results of Howorth’s PR strategy helped generate an extremely positive buzz around the launch event. The coverage that appeared in the days following positioned Microsoft as an innovative company and highlighted the collaborative and inventive features of Microsoft’s new Surface unit.

Following the launch, Microsoft Australia Developer Evangelist, Michael Kordahi praised Howorth’s efforts by saying, “Howorth deserve some major credit for delivering a successful launch. They not only delivered, they delivered with the highest of standards and passion. Despite the very aggressive timeframe of the launch, they provided a-class service.”

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.

Underlining the findings of the Government’s Intergenerational Report, the Telstra Productivity Indicator research found that improving customer service and productivity are the key priorities for Australian organisations, ranking 78 per cent and 76 per cent respectively

The Productivity Indicator also found that only 42% of decision makers measure productivity, have a target and know what that target is compared with 49% in last year’s report.

The Telstra Productivity Indicator was the brainchild of Howorth and sister agency Parker&Partners and is now in its second year.  The report has already received widespread media coverage in Australia.

For more information please visit http://www.interactivemediarelease.com/back/productivity