Objectives
Homegrown success story Commsworld wanted to play a key role in the Scottish Government’s vision to create a world-class digital nation by 2020.
As the country’s largest independent telecoms provider, the former telephony firm already delivered a range of business services.
Connections to its ultra-fast wide area network are driving its growth – with clients such as Skyscanner, Edinburgh Zoo and City of Edinburgh Council.
However, Commsworld’s desire is to be a serious sector player required it to evolve from a popular and trusted “central-belt” business to a Scotland-wide player, with sights set on the rest of the UK.
The PR challenge for 12 months was to deliver national awareness to create the step-change in its reputation – and support its rapid business growth into new and established markets.
Crucially, this would help Commsworld to be seen as a safe option for contracts in the highly lucrative public sector.
Objectives
To deliver measurable success we worked with Commsworld leadership to agree clear, unambiguous metrics to keep the campaign focused and on track.
To Raise awareness of Commsworld across Scottish mainstream media we set out to deliver a minimum 50 items of coverage, thereby creating a new company record of one million Opportunities to See (OTS) over 12 months.
Within that we agreed to showcase Ricky Nicol, Commsworld’s charismatic founder and MD as a “Thought Leader”, by delivering at least five platform interviews.
To support understanding of Commsworld’s evolving business, as it competes against industry giants, we crafted a suite of five key messages – and targeted that at least 60% of all coverage should include at least two of those messages.
And to build confidence in the all-important public sector, we agreed to deliver a showpiece PR event with a credible advocate
What we did
Our research highlighted the importance of leaving behind the technical and jargon-heavy language of the sector, which does not cut through with a mainstream audience.
Instead, we focused on business stories to help take Commsworld’s story beyond IT bosses and reach decision-making FDs or MD. We also carefully aligned our calendar of activity with behind-the-scenes planning to land a potentially business-changing £30million seven-year contract with Glasgow City Council.
That PR calendar was well targeted and brimming with PR ideas that were well dispersed as to avoid media fatigue – including stories targeted at rural regions, announcing top-level appointments, unveiling the Glasgow City Council deal and CSR focused articles.
We also highlighted business growth stories, especially focusing on Commsworld’s record revenues. And we helped masetermind a high-profile visit to Commsworld’s Glasgow Office from Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity, Fergus Ewing MSP, helping build momentum.
Results we delivered
What we did
