Capitalizing on Breaking News To Promote A New Product

PerkettPR Campaign For WebEx Leads to Bell Ringer Award From The Publicity Club of New England

"PerkettPR did an amazing job of thinking on their feet to capitalize on news and trends that benefit our PR efforts," said Greg Shenk, former Director of Communications at WebEx Communications. "We worked hand-in-hand with the PerkettPR team to ensure all the right internal resources came together to support the PR efforts and a successful roll-out of the free offer for our newly-launched WebOffice product. The campaign was a great success as we raised awareness for our product while also making the transit crisis less of a burden to New Yorkers."

Communications Challenge

When the New York City mass transit strike occurred in 2005, PerkettPR realized it was the perfect opportunity for one of its clients, WebEx, to promote the benefits of online collaboration tools that enable corporate teams to work together from anywhere in the world. During the strike, when many people could not get into New York City, WebEx's WebOffice product offered the perfect solution for a business that wanted to remain fully-functional despite the transit crisis. PerkettPR sprung into motion and seized the opportunity to promote the product to local news outlets. The team worked in conjunction with WebEx to create and promote a trial offer to prospective customers at a time when they would be most motivated to try the product. PerkettPR realized the value in a fast acting response, given that the duration of the strike was unknown and could end at any moment.

Our Approach

From start to finish, PerkettPR identified the transit strike news as an opportunity for WebEx, conceptualized the promotion, developed the pitch and executed all outreach. The agency worked in conjunction with the internal communication director to ensure all web site collateral as well as the customer service and sales staffs were aligned with the WebEx mission. PerkettPR developed a campaign to capitalize quickly on the transit strike news while illustrating the importance of the primary WebEx value proposition: provide solutions that enable businesses to maintain productivity from anywhere at anytime. This clear demonstration of the power of WebEx increased visibility for the company in the greater Manhattan area and ultimately increased trials for the WebEx WebOffice solution.

PerkettPR focused its effort on print and broadcast media outlets in and around New York City where the impact of the transit strike was most intense. The agency also used the opportunity to develop and reach-out to a targeted media list, which was more apt to take a higher level of interest given the tie-in to the breaking news. The dual focus on local and national broadcast outlets would get the word out to as many New Yorkers as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Our Influence

PerkettPR suggested and developed the concept of offering New Yorkers free access to WebOffice during the transit strike. This would allow them to have access to a shared working space, office documents, and group calendars as well as web and audio conferencing. The agency then provided strategic direction for messaging and wrote the press release. PerkettPR also offered counsel for the corporate website; developed a targeted print and broadcast target list; pitched the news; provided talking points for broadcasters; briefed and secured three customer references; coordinated interviews; and tracked resulting media coverage - all within a 48 hour period.

Our Results

In this very short period of time, PerkettPR scheduled six media interviews and obtained 16 pieces of top-tier coverage in online media and in broadcast outlets. This coverage included major local and national news outlets; broadcast media such as CBS Network Radio; features on local New York newscasts: CBS-TV Channel 2 and ABC-TV Channel 7; and full coverage on the CBS national and ABC-TV local news websites. IDG, Red Herring and TechWeb also ran coverage, and there were several news mentions in the blog community.

PerkettPR not only increased market awareness of WebEx, but also drove trials for WebOffice - introducing the product to a broad audience in a short amount of time. Because the product proved its value at such a crucial time, prospective customers were motivated to try and ultimately buy the product to ensure they were prepared for a future transportation crisis, whereas they might not have otherwise known such a solution existed.

The effort demonstrated PerkettPR's ability to develop issues-based PR and marketing campaigns that connect the client's business to a major news event, react quickly, and manage customer relationships. PerkettPR also demonstrated its ability to work effectively with the media across all mediums: blogs, podcasts, broadcast and print; and to quickly identify and connect with media outlets outside of our client's normal target area.

The campaign proved so successful that PerkettPR received a Bell Ringer Award for the category "Response to Breaking News" from the Publicity Club of New England.

A Sampling of the Coverage Received

Strikebound Lean On Technology
CBSNews.com

WebEx Provides Free WebEx WebOffice Accounts to Help New Yorkers
Online Business Blog

Using WebEx During Transit Strike
CBS 2 NEWS THIS MORNING, 01:54, 12/21/2005 6:00:00 AM

Connecting Commuters
CBSNews, Larry Magid TechReport

Telecommuting Websites During Transit Strike
ABC 7 EYEWITNESS NEWS, 03:01, 12/22/2005 12:00:00 AM

Sree's Thoughts on Emergency Telecommuting
ABC 7Online.com

Biz Unprepared for Pandemic
Red Herring