Releases
| IPL | |||
| 20 August 2007 - Displacing Harry Potter | |||
 Displacing Harry Potter
How a UK software company knocked JK Rowling off the printing presses… As the close of their financial year approached, Bath based software company IPL was looking to put in place a sales and marketing strategy that would build on and reinforce their successes of 2006-7. Given the amount of marketing material all organisations are exposed to, the message would need to stand out from the crowd. IPL posed this challenge to Publicity Matters in June of this year. IPL’s strategy of building long-lived partnerships with key organisations in specific market sectors had developed well through the past twelve months. Prestigious names including Nationwide Building Society, Orange, EADS, and Kent Police had all worked closely with IPL to deliver business critical projects through 2007. The desire to communicate IPL’s key strengths of quality and cost-benefit to a wider audience would be the challenge presented to Steve Noble and his team. Greg McBride, Business Development Manager for the Finance Sector within IPL, elaborated: ‘Communicate what IPL are all about – in a succinct manner - is complex. We needed a fresh approach that would resonate with our target audience.’ Greg rang Steve Noble of Publicity Matters, a networking contact established through BNI. Publicity Matters provide integrated PR, web, and graphic design services. However, even with their wide range of skills, Steve knew that PM had to provide something special. With the summer holidays fast approaching, time was also of importance. IPL wanted to get their message out before the summer exodus began. “We had 6 weeks to construct and deliver a campaign’ says Steve. ‘It’s very difficult to get someone’s attention in that short space of time – let alone get gifts branded or logos emblazoned on freebies”. Greg, Steve and Shaun Davey, Sales and Marketing Director at IPL, formulated a strategy. “We identified an area of interest for our audience of high-level IT Managers, Directors and Strategists,” says Greg McBride. “The new paradigm in IT is SOA – Service-Oriented Architecture. Given IPL’s technical competence and experience with systems design and integration, we decided to theme the campaign around SOA.” Armed with that brief, Steve Noble went back to PM and researched the subject. He contacted the world’s best-selling author in SOA, Thomas Erl, who providentially had a brand-new book about to be published: ‘SOA: Principles of Service Design.’ “My initial idea was to get Thomas to the UK to launch his book,” says Steve. “Instead, Thomas suggested a webinar, where he could present over the Internet directly from his offices in Vancouver. An webinar would provide instant benefit by allowing interactive access to Thomas’ vast experience from people’s desks, and provide the perfect backdrop from which to launch his book.” “We made the decision to ship hundreds of copies of Thomas’ book to the UK and do a direct mailshot to nominated contacts,” says Greg. In addition, a three-phase telesales campaign from Bristol telesales specialists ARF ensured that the planned recipients were keen on the subject matter, and were aware of the complementary nature of book and webinar. “We were very pleased with the results,” said ARF MD Ian Bird. “Thomas Erl is a very well-known name in IT circles. Most people said that they’d be delighted to get a copy of the book and they’d be intrigued to attend the webinar.” Steve Noble elaborates: “We had to find an appropriate gift. A branded mousemat, or a T-shirt or bottle of drink or an invitation to a sports event could all be seen as irrelevant to people’s work, and would therefore count as a gift received in kind – not what IPL wanted at all. By presenting people with the book, which we branded with an IPL bookmark, bookplate and a webinar invitation, we could be seen to be adding to the professional worth of the client.” However, there quickly emerged a potential problem. The books were to be printed in the USA some eight weeks before distribution in the UK – giving IPL’s audience a pre-release copy of real value. There was another major bestseller who wanted the use of just about every printer and binder in the US… “I got an email from Mark Levine, representative of publishers Prentice Hall in the USA. Mark had worked very hard for us,” say Steve, “But even he hadn’t foreseen the impact of a certain master Potter.” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was being published on the 21st July, and every binding company in the USA was on standby. “We got an apologetic call from Mark saying could we please wait a week whilst the publishers dealt with HP? But this was the 7th July. Waiting a week would mean the book being received very close to the official UK publication date, reducing impact. It would also mean we were coming perilously close to the summer holiday period.” Steve, Greg and Shaun worked on a response designed to encourage Prentice Hall to assist their bestselling SOA author with his UK launch. As a result, and just for one day at a printing press in Minnesota, Harry Potter was put to one side and Thomas Erl was on the press. “We were genuinely pleased we were able to work so closely and successfully with Prentice Hall in the US,” says Greg McBride. “Being able to provide our audience with a sought after publication, substantially ahead of UK launch, we felt added real benefit.” On arrival in the UK, Clevedon packaging house Cove made short work of labelling, sticking in bookplates, packaging and mailing Thomas Erl’s work. “They responded terrifically, being flexible and positive at all times” says Steve Noble. “Cove really were outstanding.” A week before the webinar, copies of “SOA: Principles of Service Design” landed on the desks of targeted prospects and clients of IPL. Californian company Webex, acknowledged gurus of web conferencing, simultaneously began rehearsals with Steve Noble, Greg McBride and Thomas Erl. On the 31st of July 2007 at 4PM, Thomas Erl took to his desktop in Vancouver and presented an extremely informative 90 minutes on the topic of SOA to an audience of directors, managers, and systems architects from all over the UK. Questions lasted a full twenty-five minutes at the end, with Thomas extrapolating on some of his more entertaining and even contentious points. The audience shut down their Webex sessions with considerably more knowledge than they had begun with. And the outcome for IPL? Shaun Davey, Sales Director, takes up the story: “We wanted to undertake a campaign that not only increased the market awareness of IPL, but complemented and built on our core business principles – tackling key IT issues within businesses in a highly professional and beneficial manner. Our staff have a reputation for being insightful, meticulous, and adding value to our customer’s IT projects and therefore their business. By partnering with a world renowned expert like Thomas on a highly topical subject such as SOA, we hope to have achieved our aims.” For more information call steve.noble@publicitymatters.com on 01275 770703 |
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