IBA News Archive
 

December 2011

Never say December is a quiet month for PR. As 2011 drew to a close we took advantage of the festive season by writing some seasonal-oriented pieces around shopping, mobile and social media and had excellent take-up in customer service, marketing and retail publications and mobile marketing publications.

So there was no let up here on the number of good press clippings we saw despite the traditional media wind-down in the run-up to the holiday break - some journalists even tweeted lonely 'is anyone out there?' messages! Well they were. We know magazines still get published and online publications have pages to fill - so we were hard at work getting good cuttings in IT magazines for a piece on cloud computing, in collections, billing, utilities and financial publications around a new partnership agreement.

And good news for the team here at the end of the year - we took on a new account for 2012 - a company with London and New York bases which is aiming for global expansion. So it promises to be a busy year for the team

November 2011

November was a particularly busy month, with our teams attending major client events on both sides of the Atlantic.

Early in the month we were in LA for client visits and then Arizona for an annual conference - good to meet all the execs and partners and collect many good stories for our next year's campaign. Back in London we were involved in inviting media to a client event at Altitude 360 on how business can best engage with customers through social media. We attracted four journalists from key publications to attend and we, journalists and attendees posted regular real-time Tweets. There were more than 300 Tweets sent out from the event, mostly praising the speakers, their presentations, the general quality of the event and to interact with what was being said on stage.

It was another excellent month for press clippings both sides of the Atlantic, with good coverage following on from a conference in London in October in public sector and networking publications and some great clips for a US client in healthcare magazines. We also took on a new client in the digital marketing space and racked up some impressive cuttings from a piece we wrote around its innovative work in harnessing the power of Smartphones and generating online leads.

October 2011

October was another great month for press clippings, with good coverage in the publications both sides of the Atlantic: nice clippings from articles written about a customer launch event we helped organise in September both in national and in local media; good coverage in target publications carried research undertaken by one of our major clients, on how businesses use social media; vertical market coverage for our client's involvement in improving network coverage and performance for a customer in the public sector; and a three-page article for one of our US-based clients in a target healthcare publication to support their drive into that vertical market.

One of our biggest clients held their annual UK customer event in London early last month and we managed to attract 15 print and broadcast journalists and industry analysts with three further telephone interviews - coverage included excellent 'on message' with coverage in a mix of target media: a video interview, audio podcast, online media and print.

We also placed our latest blog, on behalf of a client, on the website of one of our target publications.

The month was also spent building a campaign for our new digital marketing client, planning and writing a series of relevant press articles to help grow the brand. We expect to see some good coverage in target publications in November.

September 2011

This was a very busy month for the team with preparations for two major events of the year coming up in October for one of our biggest clients. We generated a buzz around the two London-based events, adding proactive tweeting to the mix - and managed to attract a total of 15 journalists from target publications to attend, together with nine telephone interviews either on the day or afterwards.

It was yet another good month for press clippings including a front page of Computing's website for an article we placed inside and excellent thought leadership coverage in ITPro on our pitch around 10 social networking tips for businesses.

We have been publicising an upcoming US charity rock concert which is being sponsored by our Arizona-based e-billing client. Headline acts include legendary seventies and eighties rockers REO Speedwagon and Boston and we have already secured good coverage in the entertainment press and in the local Arizona media.

The month ended with a press launch for a partner of one of our clients in Bristol. Broadcast and magazine journalists attended and there were two telephone interviews shortly afterwards.

We ended the month winning a new digital marketing client and we have already begun the exciting work to grow the brand.

July 2011

Entering the silly season for stories over the summer period, we found that events followed us around over July and August! We wrote a news pitch around the UK government's warning that the upcoming Olympics would spark a rise in remote and home working. Our pitch - did companies have the infrastructure in place to support this? We had some nice take-up in publications such as CRN and Call Centre Clinic and then, no sooner said than done, we had riots around the UK, so our story had added weight, we re-pitched it and garnered additional coverage in public sector and business magazines. We have now verticalised the story for the retail media with a nice placement in Retail Technology.

New research highlighting the fact that many workers say they don't have the technology they need in order to perform in their jobs effectively also got a lot of interest from the media - this featured in IT Pro, Business Computing World, Call Centre Clinic, Call Centre Helper and Data Centre Solutions.

And our US-based e-billing client had some nice coverage in one of its target publications - Public Power - alongside one of it's major customers in the Utility market. This follows another appearance in a recent Aite Report, which highlighted the company's position in the US Healthcare market - a clear sign that we're creating great momentum in the company's two key verticals!

We continued our sponsorship of the arts and equestrianism by again giving and presenting the award at the Society of Equestrian Artists Exhibition 2011 for the best horse and rider picture. This year it was won by Alasdair Banks for his stunning racing picture 'Duel'.

June 2011

This month we began a fortnightly blog in ZDNet for one of our clients. It's nice to see the website has excellent editorial guidelines and a moderator process so no sales pitches get up. The first post was about bringing water cooler conversations into the business which our client then tweeted to business and personal contacts. Nice below-the-line PR.

We also wrote a comment pitch around social CRM which had excellent take up in publications including Direct Marketing International, Call Centre Clinic and the Customer Engagement Club. And for our enterprise client, we secured case study coverage of Hertfordshire County Council's implementation of a new network infrastructure in Netcomms Europe.

Meanwhile, our ebilling client had articles we had written on ebilling published in three of their top publications - two in the utilities market (HFMA RCS newsletter and Electric Energy T&D), and one in the healthcare market (Healthcare Finance News). We also placed a utilities whitepaper we had written on a number of websites, including Inside Arm and CPA Magazine.

Meanwhile David Bannister from Banking Technology went out to Prague for us and met up with the Bank of Greece. We look forward to his copy. Btw he took a dual carrier flight due to time constraints and he reports that EasyJet (home) was a better service than the BA (out).

May 2011

May has been another busy month with a lot of coverage for all of our clients.

For our enterprise client, we've had published a number of case studies in magazines including e-Health Insider and Network Communications News. We also placed an industry comment piece in Business Computing World around the consumerisation of IT, in detail about the growth of video conferencing in the enterprise, and how this is being taken-up by business driven from the growing use of video in the personal world, such as Skype. And we had almost 500 views for a presentation our client gave at Contact Centre Live which we placed on the Call Centre Clinic website.

Our ebilling client had significant coverage for a Q1 review release, in publications such as Energy Central, Collections Recon, as well as a key vertical publication, Healthcare Finance News.

And finally we were delighted with two major achievements for one of our insurance clients: they have won the Technology Initiative of the Year Award with Liverpool Victoria at the Claims Innovation Awards 2011; and have been short-listed for the Technology Award in the British Insurance Awards 2011. Watch this space for the results!

April 2011

The start of the second quarter of 2011 has brought with it huge success for our clients.

We launched the world's first global independent film video on demand streaming service, securing great placements in Screen Daily, Studio Daily, IndieWire and IMDB amongst others. As part of the launch strategy, with registrations from journalists for a preview reviewing service, we signed up key bloggers and reviewers in the independent film space for a free trial with a view to then reviewing the service, including the New York Times.

For our enterprise client, at the beginning of Q2, we took Computing and Computer Business Review to cover major announcements made at their large scale event in Barcelona. Controversial comments from the event meant that we increased our client's presence in the conversation around the use of mobile devices, namely in Computing and blogs focused on the enterprise. At the same time we had a bundle of placements, featuring in Channel Pro, Call Centre Clinic and Call Centre Focus - all helping to build a powerful brand awareness for our client.

March 2011

March has been another busy month with a lot of feature placements coming through, firstly for our telematics client which featured in three of its top publications this month: Commercial Motor, Van User and Motor Transport, the latter following an interview we arranged with the company.

Our enterprise client also had a high profile media month with top tier coverage in Computer Weekly, MyCustomer.com, Call Centre Helper and networking+. We also held some press briefings this month with top senior executives, with resulting copy featuring in both Loyalty Magazine and Call Centre Focus.

We also saw some great coverage come through for our West Coast e-billing client in the form of an interview in American Gas Magazine, and a feature article in Electricity Today - both great publications to be featured in to further their growth in the US utility market.

February 2011

February has been a busy month here at IBA, with multiple placements secured for our clients as well as numerous outreaches surrounding hot topics in the media.

We secured great coverage for our enterprise client, with placements of two major product launches in some of their top publications including Enterprise Communications Europe, MyCustomer.com and Computer Business Review. We also secured a feature in networking+, commenting on what SMEs can do to make their networks more 'green'.

Our West Coast e-billing client also had a busy month with lots of activity surrounding the announcement of their first utility customer, as well as a webinar detailing the launch of their new mobile payments solution. February also saw an article placed in Public Utilities Fortnightly around the importance of the growth in the use of SMS in e-billing.

January 2011

A successful start to the year with two major articles in print for our telematics client - one in European Supply Chain Management and the other in Land Mobile. We also secured great coverage for their first release of the year, in key publications Fleet News, Fleet World and Service Management 365.

For our West Coast e-billing client, we started the year with a prediction piece on the future developments in electronic billing for the year ahead - a great way to get our client talking about their most recent developments and forecast for the year.

Our enterprise client had a successful first month with us at the reins, with some key thought leadership pieces, one looking at the cultural disconnect in customer service which featured in European Business Review. We also secured great coverage in Call Centre Helper with an evauation of the benefits of the customer effort score in understanding how to promote loyalty in the customer base.

December 2010

We were still busy up until the last week of December before the holidays began. IBA arranged a press photocall opportunity for our West Coast e-billing client to present cheques to two local charities totalling $100,000 raised at a Rock concert the previous month. We had the local Arizona TV crew turn out and interview both the company founders and executive director as well as the charity organisers to give some live TV coverage to the event. The reward for a busy and successful year of press relations in the e-billing market has been an increased US budget for 2011.

Meanwhile an IBA blog on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was picked up and re-used on the BullDog website as a nice commentary on the use of PR to promote a cause and a personality.

On another continent our contact centre client had a first this month with a full profile in CFOWorld of their Paris-based CFO. It followed an interview we had set up as part of a new campaign to raise their profile in C level business publications.

2011 is looking busy for the same client. They have expanded IBA's contract covering customer service to also include a full campaign on their networking infrastructure operations to cover the UK and Northern Europe.

November 2010

November has been a busy month, with major coverage secured for a number of our clients. Our US team wrote and secured article placements in both Energy Central and Public Utilities Fortnightly for our e-billing client.

Our contact centre client continued their success following last month's Enterprise Tour with placements in Call Centre Clinic and Customer Engagement Club - a nice follow-on from our outreach team's hard work. We also secured coverage for our Online Jobsboard client in one of their key publications, Recruitment International around the development of their new website, which has been designed to include added features for both job seekers and recruiters.

And for our new California-based RFID client, we secured significant European coverage as a result of just one press release, with 42 clippings in total, 3 journalist interviews secured and 2 upcoming speaker opportunities. Top placements featured across Europe in publications such as the RFID Journal, Retail Systems, Logistics Business IT and RFID im Blick. A great result to re-start their European campaign!

October 2010
 

We have kicked off the fourth quarter of 2010 in fine style. Highlights included some great US placements this month for our e-billing client. We achieved great coverage in Collections Recon and Inside Arm surrounding a partnership with MVBA Law, as well as featuring in American Banker upon the announcement of a new solution to help streamline the returned-check process.

In the UK, our outreach team was busy again this month, this time at the Dynamic Enterprise Tour, supporting a contact centre client in conducting a series of roundtables for numerous analysts and press. We also secured some great coverage for this contact centre client, including nice pieces in both SMI and the European Business Review.

And we are proud to announce a major achievement for one of our insurance clients: they have won an award at the BCS UK IT Industry Awards 2010, in the 'Consumer IT Innovation of the Year' category. Competing against five other products from across a whole range of industries, their success in this category is a testament to their vision and pioneering work in the claims handling industry.

September 2010
 

One of our major tasks this month was the US launch of a major research report on Online Lead Generation in 2010, carried out for our digital marketing client. Our outreach secured significant coverage, in particular a long piece - complete with graphs - which featured in the top US publication MediaPost and the e-business magazine BizReport. The outreach is ongoing.

In the UK, our outreach team was busy at Call Centre Expo and secured six 1:1 interviews around the new breed of challenging 'post-recession' consumers, with excellent resulting copy in Customer Engagement Club, as well as pieces in MyCustomer.com and Call Centre Helper.

We've had lots of coverage this month for our e-billing client, including excellent coverage for their new cash payment solution which featured in American Banker, Inside Arm and Collections Recon - a healthy selection of their target media.

And we have a new international client on board - a California-based company already recognised by the World Economic Forum with its advanced RFID technology, looking to grow across the US and into Europe. We launched the company across Europe last year and as a result they secured some major orders - another excellent addition to our portfolio of US clients.

August 2010
 

Social media is never out of the news and we were busy during August promoting the new social media strategy of our Contact Centre client, with nice pieces in SMI and The Wise Marketer amongst top placements. August has been a good time for us to get extensive top tier coverage for the same company's Gartner award and a big Travel and Leisure customer win story, including a feature in Contact Centre World.

Every client wants to see its customers appear in their target media and our Telematics client was delighted to have two pieces in its top magazine Fleet News: one on the impact of the recession on telematics which appeared in the online version of the magazine and in Fleet News' Small Fleet Review, and then we had an excellent hardcopy feature case study on the importance of fleet telematics in the NHS. Perfect.

On a completely different note, IBA is proud to continue its sponsorship of the arts and equestrianism by again giving and presenting the award at the Society of Equestrian Artists Exhibition 2010 for the best horse and rider picture. This year it was won by Vanja Karamatic-Crew with her entry 'Concentration'. For details of the winning entry, please click here.

July 2010
 

We have a new client on board for July - a US-based company in the property insurance market looking to grow across the UK and then into Europe - a nice addition to our portfolio of insurance clients.

We had excellent coverage for our new e-billing client with two flagship pieces: one in Smart Grid Today following a 1:1 interview with our client's President about e-billing in the utilities market; the other in a top healthcare publication, Managed Care Contracting & Reimbursement Advisor, again for a 1:1 interview following a very successful webinar.

Other placements included an excellent hard copy, double-page spread in Civil Society magazine on customer service and a fraud article in Network Security.

IBA uses the Targetwire distribution service for its clients press releases. The service recently produced record quality clippings in the IPTV and broadband markets for two clients, with a far higher number of featured and by-lined take-up than any other of the traditional wire services.

June 2010
 

In June, media placements were at the top of our agenda with not one, but three clients featuring in national press around key business issues: personalised marketing in The Guardian, lean management in the Daily Telegraph and our Online Payment client had a comment featured in the Wall Street Journal regarding Smart Meters - all showing our clients in key thought leadership editorials.

We achieved great success for our Telematics client with front page coverage in Motor Transport Magazine for a piece looking at vehicle movement (or non-movement) during the England World Cup Match, as well as further key features in top transport publications - Fleet News, Fleet Van and m.Logistics.

Industry issues are key to getting quality coverage for clients through thought leadership, and this month we put together a Q&A piece around hot topics in the recruitment industry, such as the place of social networks in recruitment, for our Online Jobsboard client, which was featured in top business publication Fresh Business Thinking.

We continued with our Contact Centre client's analyst briefing tour, the latest meeting with Frost and Sullivan, discussing developments and strategies going forward. The same client also had great coverage across trade, charity, IT and business press for one of its customers, the charity the NSPCC, plus a double page spread in Modern Utility Management for another of its customers, Scottish Power.

May 2010
 

May has been busy with an international launch in the online lead generation market achieving high visibility for our client in key marketing press in the US and throughout Europe. Highlights include featured pieces in Online Media Daily in the US, W&V in Germany, Strategies in France and key marketing publications in the UK.

We secured national coverage for our online payments processing client with a feature comment in the US edition of the Wall Street Journal on the hot topic of healthcare in the US. Still in the US, our press outreach teams set up a 1:1 interview for our digital signage client with top US digital signage magazine, Digital Signage Today, enhancing its ever growing profile as a key player in their field.

In the UK, our outreach team has been hard at work and secured a 1:1 interview with resulting copy for our online fraud prevention client with the Mortgage Finance Gazette, as well as coverage in Retail Technology for a comment on new developments in online security.

The team also arranged a series of 1:1 analyst and business media briefings with a number of influential business and customer service journalists, gaining highlight coverage in CIO, CCF, Customer Engagement Club for our contact centre client.

April 2010
 

We have kicked off the second quarter of 2010 in fine style.

The lead up to the UK General Election gave us the opportunity to build our clients' positive media presence - CEO of our online lead generation client had an interview with Bloomberg News to discuss the financial impact of the forthcoming election on SME's. This was quickly followed by joining 55 other SME's voicing concern over a hung parliament. We're on a roll, no matter the election outcome.

Our team has been kept very busy managing the European conference for our contact centre client in Amsterdam. We had more than 1,000 attendees with 18 senior analysts and press from the nationals, trade and IT sector, and secured amongst many 1:1 interviews, interviews with the editor of Banking Technology and Customer Engagement Club.

Meanwhile further afield, we have secured an interview for our online payment processing client with Arizona Republic for a feature length company profile piece. Our online lead generation client went to further strengths garnering a high profile coverage in Europe with W&V in Germany and Bulldog Reporter in the USA.

 

March 2010
 

The UK General Election fever hit our offices last month with the CEO of one of our clients being part of just 15 business men off to a breakfast briefing with the Prime Minister on key banking issues. Excitingly this has led to a high profile TV interview with Bloomberg News.

The same company had a high profile media month internationally with top tier coverage in the UK from Marketing Week, a piece in OMMA's MediaPost in the US and great coverage in Germany including W&V, Marketing Borse and ecommerce magazin. A major coup was a piece in the UK's Guardian newspaper.

We spent a busy few days at The IPTV World Forum 2010 where our sister company Targetwire sponsored the Press Office and attracted a significant number of companies to use its media distribution service.

And we started off the month by winning the US PR business of a payments company based in Arizona. A nice end to the first Quarter.

 

February 2010
 

February has been a busy and successful month for our press outreach teams with two large press events in London to launch a new international charity into the UK.

We secured interviews with journalists from The Independent on Sunday and Bloomberg News, with lots of interest from TV and radio and this resulted in excellent coverage in a number of top tier publications including an excellent piece in Politics.co.uk and The Huffington Post to help drive our government lobbying campaign for the charity.

We continued to push editorial opportunities to our clients' hit lists with excellent coverage in Zoom In Online, IT Security, Retail Systems, and Net magazine.

Our own Disaster Management article 'The Disaster Limitation Rule Book 'Lessons to be learned from the Toyota brand disaster' sparked a lot of interest from journalists - amongst them Stuart Elliott of the New York Times. The article also appeared on MyCustomer.com in the UK and will be featured in the Spring Edition of The Strategist, published in the US by Public Relations Society of America, the world's largest organisation for PR professionals.

 

January 2010
 

How not to do crisis management the Toyota way

In the past few months we have witnessed a series of crises mis-managements – from Tiger Woods to Toyota, we have seen them repeat the same mistakes, leading to what could be irreversible brand damage. The instant nature of today's communication means no one can hide from the media, from the Tweeters or from the bloggers.

The lesson to be learned from the recent raft of crises mis-managements is how to avoid them. IBA's Judith Ingleton-Beer looks at the mistakes people and corporations make and identifies six essential rules on how to manage a crisis, starting with the cardinal rule for all crisis management – assume the worst. This way you may still have a chance at coming through a crisis with your brand a little tarnished but intact.

 

December 2009
 

Despite the gloomy economic and political outlook, we have found 2009 to be a very busy and fruitful year! Here at IBA we have had a very productive December bringing this eventful year to a close and securing excellent coverage to finish 2009 on a high note.

Following a successful series of meetings in the US last month around one of the industries top Online Lead Generation shows, we wrote and pitched a number of articles which focused on boosting sales in the run up to Christmas, which resulted in great placements in a number of key marketing publications.

Back in London, our outreach team was busy at a seminar for industry professionals at the BT Tower, sponsored by our business analytics client, and we secured a 1:1 analyst briefing for leading industry publication, Mobile Media.

More coverage for our vehicle and telematics client, as well as securing an interview in 'm.logistics', a feature in 'Fleet World' and a placement in 'Land Mobile' – three of their top tier magazines. We also arranged a number of 1:1 interviews in the US for our Digital Signage client and in the UK for our Medical Recruitment client which resulted in great coverage in a number of hitlist magazines.

 

November 2009
 

It's been a busy November here at IBA, starting off with a visit to the ad:tech event in New York to support our digital marketing clients, and where we managed to secure an interview with Dennis Kneale, the host of CNBC's power lunch, all aobut social media of course! Then off to Oslo for a take-on briefing and customer site visit with our new Nordics client.

We have secured some great vertical market placements this month especially for our vehicle tracking and telematics client who featured in Motor Transport, Maritime News International and Fleet News, and for our digital marketing clients with placements in NMA, Internet Retailing and Exec Digital. Our national's highlight this month was a feature for our business analytics clients in The Guardian.

The new blogsites went live last month and are really picking up good hits - the blogs spotlight current events and the PR lessons to be learned from them.

 

October 2009
 

European coverage has been good this month for our contact center client with two top interviews for its Spanish division, one with Call Centre Magazine, the other with Call Centre Noticias where we also had a nice placement. In the UK we had placements in CCF, My Customer and Call Centre 101 as well as an interview in Card World and features in Call Centre Europe and Consultants United. This month we had our take-on meeting with the Nordics division, so look out for more success here.

Our design client had a top panel postion at Barcelona Design Week taking part in a spirited conversation about the concept of design and its role in business today.

Off to the ad:tech show in New York in November where we have interviews for our Online Lead Generation client.

FYI: this month saw the launch of our two blogsites: The Level Pitcher provides an open commentary on the techniques that shape the news we all read; for a more irreverent look at all things PR, turn to The Spin Bin.

 

September 2009
 

Media placements were again top of our agenda with not one but two clients, one a leader in Business Analytics and the other a big player in the Contact Centre field, achieving excellent coverage in the Financial Times Digital Business supplement – in both the hard copy and online versions.

Our Telematics client also had continued success within the transport press. Their Marketing Director was quoted in two of the top industry publications, Fleet News and Motor Transport, on important issues affecting the transport sector.

We also achieved excellent placements internationally, including pieces in Data Strategy and FraudWatch for our Internet Fraud client, a piece on social work in OnRec for a Medical Recruitment client and pieces in The Wise Marketer and Direct Marketing International for our Online Lead Generation client.

Our international roster of clients grew again this month with the addition of the Nordic division of our Contact Centre client.

 

August 2009
 

August was a great month for international outreach. In particular we secured two1:1 interviews for our Business Analytics client with correspondents of the Financial Times for its upcoming Digital Britain magazine which included organising an international call with two US customers. Then it was over to Taiwan for face-to-face meetings for another of our clients in the Powerlines Communications industry with a target publication, Compo Tech Asia.

UK placements were good, with excellent coverage for our Telematics and Business Analytics clients in key publications, including Risk UK, Government Technology and Local Government in IT Use.

There has also been a lot of European activity this month, with newly appointed executives in France and Germany for our Online Lead Generation client featuring in top publications including Journal du Net and W&V. This client also gained some great coverage from an interview in one of its top tier Swedish publications, Dagens Media.

Meanwhile the US-based RFID company we launched into Europe last year, came back to us to work with them on European rollout.

 

July 2009
 

Articles and placements were top of our agenda in July. Our online-lead generation client was featured in Brand Republic in the UK and achieved excellent coverage internationally for its finance story in the top business publications in the UK, France, Germany and Sweden.

Meanwhile our fleet telematics client had another triumphant month with two features and an interview with the sales and marketing director in key target magazine Fleet News.

Over in the world of independent films, we wrote a 'comment' about the need for filmmakers and distributors to work together which was used in Cinema Business, Millimeter and My Reviewer.

And we added another 'arts' client to our portfolio – an online music download company whose first release received positive coverage, including in MixMag, the UK’s top consumer dance magazine.

Outside of the media world, IBA continued with its support for the arts by sponsoring the Ingleton-Beer Associates Prize for the Best Horse and Rider painting at the Society of Equestrian Artists Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. This year the Award went to Laura Barber-Riley for her painting in oils entitled Acquiescence.

 

June 2009
 

Our press outreach teams were busy in June with two global events - in Spain and in Taiwan.

We managed press attendees from all over Europe for the Barcelona event resulting in excellent copy uptake while over in Taiwan our outreach for Computex 2009 created great pieces of coverage in leading Asian magazines EETimes Japan and Compotech Asia.

Over in Germany we secured a top speaker slot at Mailingtage for our Online Lead Generation client where our hardwork is paying off with interviews in Absatzwirtschaft and Online Marketing Expert, and excellent coverage in the top German publication Horizont.

Pitch writing around industry and press hot topics such as household energy consumption and online fraud resulted in securing excellent placements. And on top of all this, we were busy sorting interviews with Recruiter magazine for our Online Recruitment client, and Screen International and the Washington Times for our Independent Film client.

 

May 2009
 

Despite the gloomier economic outlook, our clients are maintaining a positive media presence, and making sure that any sales opportunities that are out there in the market come their way as opposed to their competitors.

May was a big month for European and international outreach. Our team was hard at work managing the entire European press attendees for our contact centre client's user conference in Barcelona, but that didn't stop them arranging 1:1 interviews with Japanese, Taiwanese and Asian journalists for our broadband client who was at an event in Taiwan. Meanwhile we continued our UK and US push for our independent film client with well attended screenings in LA and New York.

Generating editorial opportunities is what we are good at here. New government and gas industry initiatives into the Smart Grid market triggered our editorial team to draft an excellent Comment and some Quotable Quotes for our client, which not only generated good coverage but interview and article placement opportunities; a mini-positioning Opinion Piece we had written for another client on the growth of online click fraud produced an interview opportunity and article in our client's target magazines.

On top of this, we scored great interviews for all our clients, including in Fraudwatch for our fraud solutions client, and in the telematics market, in Commercial Motor and Fleetworld.

 

April 2009
 

Off to Paris at the beginning of April to supervise a series of 1:1 interviews we had arranged for our client at ad:tech Paris. This resulted in good coverage including streamed online interviews with Net Economie and VNU Net, as well as coverage in Marketing Direct.

The same client also had a prominent speaker slot we had arranged at the Promotional Marketing Exhibition where their session entitled 'New Techniques in Online Lead Generation' was the most attended of the whole event.

We publicised two new films for our Independent film client at the renowned Tribeca film festival in New York. As a result of the publicity, one attracted the biggest audience ever — 5,000 in one night and won a special Jury prize award audience.

We wrote and pitched comments to coincide with UK budget proposals. Just one example was a comment from our Spanish powerline communications client on carbon emissions which led to an interview opportunity and a commissioned article in a key target magazine.

A good month for our international expansion with the signing of a year's contract with a digital signage company for its PR in Canada and the US. In April we also won the UK vertical market PR business for the world leading company in business analytics.

 

March 2009
 

Another growth month for our international business. We were appointed to run the local public relations campaign for the Spanish subsidiary of one of our international communications industry clients. They have also asked us to manage a major pan-european press and analyst event in June.

March was busy! Our independent film client was at the Houses of Parliament premiering a film about the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Speakers included the British UNICEF Ambassador and Chair of the All Party Landmine Eradication Group. The event was attended by a roll call of industry lobbyists and journalists. Then we were off to New York to manage the second annual Independent Film Awards event with almost 400 people attending from the industry, and some 50 key journalists and nationals, including the Independent from the UK

The co-founder of our Powerline Communications client gave a presentation on Home-Networking at the IPTV World Forum in London, and we successfully secured 1:1s with six journalists and analysts.

We arranged a speaker slot for our online lead generation client at the 2009 Promotional Marketing Exhibition, allowing us to achieve a 1:1 with Incentive and Motivation magazine as well as a guest blog on the Internet World website. Their Scandinavian division also featured in Marketsføring, a top Norwegian publication.

 

February 2009
 

Highlight of February was our visit to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where our Mobile client launched its new cloud computing software. We secured interviews for them with prospects and with top publications and analysts including New Media Knowledge, Gartner and Mobile News.

Journalist outreach was also top of the agenda for our Insurance client who launched a major personal injury claims initiative together with a group of lawyers and medical software consultants - stories featured in a number of targeted publications, including Insurance Daily, Injury Law News and Claims Standards Council.

National placements were also a success as we had our childcare vouchers client featured in the money section of the Sunday Times. But not to forget the importance of vertical market media where our Independent Film client was reviewed in a detailed article on online distribution in Converging Media, as well as an article in Vertigo about the successful film premiere in January, End of America.

 

January 2009
 

A successful start to the year as we saw two of our big clients feature at the Consumer Electronics Show 2009 in Las Vegas. We arranged 1:1 briefings with top journalists from publications including the Wall Street Journal, Computerworld and Digital Lifestyle. On top of this, we placed a lead feature in EETimes Europe for our Powerline Communications client.

We also held a film premiere in London for our Independent Film client, with over 40 members of the press attending - nationals and trade press - resulting in high profile features in the Guardian and Financial Times plus all the main film media. We missed out on a scheduled Broadcast slot with BBC The Politics Show at the last minute because the editor managed to get an interview with Alan Milburn!

And two achievements for our online lead generation client: the UK Managing Director won a prestigious Sales Promotion award for 30 under 30 industry leaders; and the Chief Executive was selected to judge a high profile internet advertising competition.

 

December 2008
 

December was another successful month as we yet again exceeded targets for our clients. News of a non-executive appointment for one of our Online Lead Generation clients achieved 15 high-profile UK editorials in addition to target media appointment coverage. We also secured key editorial for the same client's Scandinavian subsidiary in its top marketing publication to support the company's drive into the Scandinavian market.

Placements and interviews were top of our agenda this month as we prepared outreach support for two of our high profile clients who were exhibiting at CES 2009 in January in Las Vegas. For our Design Consultancy client, we secured a pre-show 1:1 with Popular Science Magazine and additional face-to-face interviews for the event with leading publications, including The Wall Street Journal. We also arranged 1:1 meetings for our other client - a leader in the Powerline Communications sector - during the three day show with key target press and analyst, including Forrester Research and Strategy Analytics.

Despite the difficult economic times we live in, we find that more and more companies are using our 'unbundled' PR services to grow their businesses internationally — we signed up the French subsidiary of one of our existing clients to put in place a French PR Campaign starting 2009.

 

November 2008
 

In November, we continued to achieve strong success with our outreaches across Europe and the US with placements in the UK, Finland, the Netherlands and the US for our Online Lead Generation client, and in Germany, France and Spain for our RFID client.

A major coup this month was coverage in the Wall Street Journal for an opinion piece for one of our major international clients in the mobile marketplace. This same piece achieved over 25 significant press clippings, as well as interviews with Mobile Marketing Magazine and Mobile Europe - showing how you can place an opinion piece more than once, and in very good publications!

Our client base in New York City grew and our US team secured increased levels of activity from clients for 2009 including a launch into the UK insurance market during 2009.

 

October 2008
 

In October IBA achieved an impressive and varied array of press coverage for its clients. This included thirteen interviews, twelve placements and several features culminating with a front cover spread, for one of our major Call Centre clients, in the top target call centre magazine, CCF.

IBA secured an interview with The Sunday Telegraph for our independent film client resulting in excellent coverage, and arranged a series of 1:1 press briefings for an International fraud detection company with publications in key vertical sectors, including travel and retail. For an Online Lead Generation client IBA achieved International placements in the UK, USA and in Germany.

Our roster of international clients continues to grow. This month we were selected to launch of one of the industry's most advanced passive RFID technologies across Europe — the launch centred around the company's first appearance in East Europe and we secured 1:1 teleconference and face to face briefings with industry analysts including Gartner and Forrester, and press interviews across Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Belgium, the UK and Finland.

Meanwhile our mobile 'cloud' software company continues to gain traction on the international scene being dubbed by some journalists as the software that 'turns any phone into a Blackberry'!

 

September 2008
 

In September international outreach was again at the top of the agenda for our clients who have extended their core campaigns across different geographies. We achieved significant success in face to face briefings and gained excellent coverage in target publications in the United States, Germany and Holland.

In particular our international online digital marketing client had interviews with five top German publications, including Kress.de and Acquisa, as a result of a great few days at the OMD show in Düsseldorf followed by a similar number of interviews in the UK and AdTech.

One call centre client enjoyed another month of great coverage with four interviews, while one of our telematics companies had placements in Logistics Manager, Fleet News and Service Management but most excitingly in World Fishing and Fishing News, demonstrating fantastic progress in branching out into its vertical markets. Finally, our online specialist healthcare recruiter had an excellent interview in Recruiter Magazine.

The team were also involved in securing attendees at several journalist and customer/prospect events this month — 21 quality prospects attended our retail consultancy client's Project Management Event. We are also working with a new e-business client on the launch of an exciting and revolutionary new product into the mobile communication software. In September we briefed analysts and the press with resulting coverage across analysts, mobile and communications media and on the very powerful consumer blog sites.

 

August 2008
 

In August once again, our Contact Team demonstrated strong success in arranging outreaches for clients with face to face briefings at some of this month’s major events which included ad:tech in Chicago and the big summer Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City. Our clients’ execs spoke to journalists at top publications and the meetings have already resulted in excellent coverage in target media and blogs.

Our success in quality placements for clients continues with a feature-length article in Customer Magazine — the first time our client has broken into the business press.

Highlight coverage in clients' key publications covering nationals and vertical market publications: Variety, Niche Commercial Finance, Business Weekly, Revolution, Screen Daily and New Design, plus a full page feature placement in leading sector publication Customer Magazine with an article we wrote examining the relationship between satisfied customers, customer loyalty and brand management.

A release for one of our clients, an Internet-based distributor of independent films, announcing a new partnership with the film distributor of the important new independent film SKID ROW about homelessness in the US, achieved over twenty five press clippings and resulted in interviews with a leading journalist at Society Today, and the Denver Post.

 

July 2008
 

In July, we organised 1:1 briefings for one of our clients in the financial market with key sector publications, including Mortgage Advisor and Mortgage Introducer. These resulted in some excellent feature coverage.

Highlight coverage in clients' key publications covering nationals and vertical market publications: The Financial Times, Precision Marketing, HRZone, My Child, The Film Panel Notetaker and Automotive Electronics. This month, we produced a press release for a client in the fraud prevention market to announce Continental Airlines as a new addition to its customer list. The release received great coverage in American Banker, which resulted in a hot prospect enquiry from another airline.

Our ability to target journalists in a wide range of markets was once again demonstrated by interviews that we set up for our independent film client who attended this year’s BRITDOC international documentary filmmaking festival in Oxford, including the editor of Screen International.

In July we continued our sponsorship of the sporting arts with our annual Society of Equestrian Artists award at the SEA exhibition in London. The Ingleton-Beer Associates Award was won by Paul Lucas for his oil on canvas painting 'Speed' depicting the final moments of a racehorse and jockey as they fight as a partnership to win the race.

Our international operation grew again this month, with another new client joining our roster - an international provider of e-business and mobile phone software products that founded its success on supplying the private and governmental sectors in Greece.

 

June 2008
 

In June, one of our major clients within the Powerline Communications sector exhibited at this year’s Computex event in Taiwan. We successfully arranged six 1:1 interviews with key journalists securing great coverage in sector-leading publications, such as EETimes, Taiwan Economic News, EDN China and Digitimes.

With Green Issues and the rising cost of fuel being hot topics in the media at the moment, we wrote a positioning piece for one of our telematics clients, which we pitched to an FT freelancer and secured an interview with our client and one of its customers. This resulted in a main feature piece plus a picture, also highlighted on the front page of the Financial Times supplement, and appeared in both Financial Times hard copy and online versions.

IBA achieved over fifty cuttings for a press release on the results of some Digital Marketing research for one of its clients in the Online Lead Generation market. For the same client IBA successfully secured a double page spread in one of the leading marketing publications, Direct Marketing International.

Blogger communities were also a target this month for some of our clients within the contact centre market in particular — CCF Online led with our client’s latest research story that highlights the overwhelming "Executive Disconnect" with regards to customer service.

Highlight coverage in clients’ key publications included: NCF Online, New Media Age, Fleet News, New Business, The Teacher, and the FT hard copy and online versions

 

May 2008
 

We focus strongly on themes and issues-based PR for our clients and a highlight this month was a full page article - referencing our client - in The Daily Telegraph around a business theme we had discussed with the DT journalist.

Our international operation saw its client base grow once again, with another new client joining our roster this month, a leading European telematics company operating out of Germany.

Throughout May, we arranged a number of interviews with leading media publications including Design Week, Sales Promotion Magazine and New Media Knowledge.

In May, we coordinated the UK press attendance to one of our client’s annual Contact Centre events in Berlin, Germany. Survey figures that were unveiled at the show produced high levels of coverage in business, trade and vertical press including great pieces from Customer Strategy and Call Centre Focus.

Our 'Blog' hit-rate continues to increase with good take-up for issues around product design and ergonomic features as well as trends within the independent film industry.

Highlight coverage in clients' key publications included: The Daily Telegraph, UTalkMarketing, Fleet News, m.logistics, Catalogue eBusiness and Training Zone. International coverage saw key publications like the Wall Street Journal, EETimes Japan and Design Directory lead with our clients stories.

 

April 2008
 

In April, IBA successfully arranged over ten face to face interviews for clients at some of the month’s major events, which included the film industry show IFFS, the big transport CV Show and Internet World. Our clients’ execs spoke to journalists at top publications including More4, MLogistics, Multi-Channel Marketing and FourDocs, and the meetings resulted in some excellent coverage in target film media including The Hollywood Reporter and Cineuropa.

Blogger communities were also a target this month for some of our clients in the financial services market - blog spots were produced on the implications of the FSA's report on fraud in the banks, and developments in one-day bridging loans.

Highlight coverage in clients' key publications included: The Telegraph, The Times Online, Fleet News, Service Management, Call Centre Helper, CCF and in the launch issue of the new business magazine VitAL.

Our international operations portfolio grew with another new client joining our roster this month, a digital signage company operating out of New Jersey and India.

 

March 2008

 

In March, IBA organised the world’s first international award ceremony for indpendent films at the IFC Center in New York. The awards focused on the achievements of independent film producers, directors and distributors and was attended by key UK and US publications including journalists from The Guardian, Filmmaker Magazine, Total Film, Variety and IndieSlate Magazine. To date we have 40 featured pieces in top industry and national publications with many follow-up interviews including Channel Four TV.

Our international operations thrives, with another new client joining our roster this month, an international design company operating out of New York and San Francisco. One of the UK’s leading food retailers, Sainsbur’s along with our client, a pioneer in experiential learning and people development, announced a Graduate Community Action Learning Programme. We arranged interviews with key journalists and secured feature and case study opportunities resulting in some excellent coverage including great pieces in Training Journal, A Guide to Skills and Learning and HRzone.

We also ran a high profile comment piece against the government’s non dom tax policies for one of our clients in the artworld resulting in excellent national and blog coverage.

Highlight coverage in clients' key publications included: The Guardian, Evening Standard, New Media Age, Computer Weekly, CCF and Multi-Channel Marketing.

 

January 2008

 

One of our major clients within the Powerline Communications sector exhibited at this year’s CES event in Las Vegas. IBA secured press interviews with the company’s top executive with key industry journalists, analysts and TV press.

Throughout the month, highlight coverage in clients’ key publications included: Channel 4.com, Motor Transport, Computer Weekly, My Customer.com and The Wise Marketer.

In light of the recent news regarding the rising cost of childcare, IBA arranged interviews for one of its clients - a leader within the Childcare Voucher Scheme arena - to share its industry expertise and comments.

January also saw the first quarter briefing between one of IBA’s Contact Centre clients and IDC’s leading field analyst during which latest issues concerning the Contact Centre and wider business industry were discussed.

 

For further information please call Jenny Forrester on +44 (0) 1780 721433
or email Jenny on jforrester@iba-international.com