Onyx’s brief
Onyx began working with digital workplace provider Invotra, in August 2017. A strong competitor to Microsoft SharePoint and a supplier to more than half of central government, Invotra were keen to build their reputation and develop greater awareness of their capabilities and areas of expertise.
Invotra asked Onyx to manage day to day press office activity including product and service announcements, but we also recommended developing original content that would give them a stronger thought leadership position.
The launch
Onyx recommended commissioning research among senior IT decision makers in Invotra’s biggest market, the public sector, and one of their target markets, the financial sector. This study explored respondent’s views on driving digital change, the resource and budget allocated to it, their feelings on emerging technology and its application within their sector, the impact of cyber attacks and their greatest technology concerns for the year ahead. The objective was to show that Invotra understands the broader digital transformation and technology challenges faced by its audience; providing an important contrast to the regular Invotra product and new contract announcements issued via day to day press office activity.
With compelling findings about respondent’s greatest worries for the year ahead, Onyx launched the Digital Transformation Study just before Christmas to take advantage of the natural news hook of the imminent New Year, and to seize the opportunity to drive coverage over the Christmas break, when journalists are typically short of strong original content.
Our media strategy involved the issue of three separate releases, targeted to the financial, public sector and a general business/national media. We embarked on a hard- hitting media relations campaign to drive as much on message coverage as possible.
Result
The campaign achieved 32 pieces of coverage in total, more than 3 x the volume of coverage achieved by previous press office news announcements focused on Invotra updates or contract wins, and far exceeding original targets for coverage volumes. The coverage also achieved a total reach 692,961, with a significant volume appearing in financial services trade media; a particular win for Invotra, as the business was not established or well known in this market when the research was commissioned.
Coverage highlights included an exclusive feature in Ignites Europe (part of the FT), published after Onyx set up a meeting with Invotra’s CEO Fintan Galvin and the journalist in question. Other highlights included Global Banking and Finance review, Manchester Evening News, The Yorkshire Post, the National (Scotland), Insider Series and Digital by Default.
The content and coverage generated by this campaign will be used by Invotra to further engage the financial sector, at forthcoming Q&A and networking events they are hosting with senior representatives from the industry, and it will fuel ongoing PR and social media activity.
The wider impact of the campaign was that Invotra’s viewpoint on the broader issue of digital transformation was showcased for the first time, and they were shown as having a unique understanding of what this means to different industries and where the challenges lie for IT and digital professionals, building more than just awareness – but trust and credibility.