The Surrey Research Park - Dr Malcolm Parry

"We have always found CBC to be creative, efficient, and responsive to our needs, not only in terms of the work required to produce our Surrey Research Park News publication, but also in the wider context of preparing Press Releases and helping us with additional, wide-ranging promotional issues".

Independent IT consultancy - 35-50 employees

CBC Client since 2002

Consult Hyperion was founded in 1985 as an independent consultancy, and remains privately held, and wholly owned by employees. Consult Hyperion advises government, financial organisations, telecoms operators and their suppliers how to exploit new technology for payments, identity management, ticketing and other electronic transactions services.

Then:

CBC started working with Consult Hyperion in 2002, when Consult Hyperion was already well established, with a solid client base and had already used PR as a tool for promoting its services and expertise. Later, a Consult Hyperion director said of CBC;

"One of the reasons that we chose CBC was that in the tendering process, we were impressed by how interested the CBC people were in our industry, their knowledge of it and also that they asked lots of questions when they didn't know. Our previous PR agency was not interested in our industry. What has been really good is that the expectations that were set with our initial choice in CBC have been valid and have shown to continue into the relationship. We are getting a very good service".

Dave Birch, one of the founders, was already a reasonably well-known industry expert. When creating a PR campaign, CBC recognised the need for Consult Hyperion to showcase the expertise of the Company as a whole as having core competencies across a range of specialist, diverse sectors, in addition to promoting the expertise of the management and founders alone. A PR plan was drawn up to champion Consult Hyperion as a specialist IT consultancy and thought leader, and soon began to achieve regular coverage across national print media, broadcast media and across a range of vertical press. At the same time, the Company had been organising events in the field of Digital Money (since 1997) and Digital Identity (since 2000) (These are not-for-profit industry forum events that support a variety of charities). Therefore, CBC worked with Consult Hyperion to promote the social commitment of Consult Hyperion to the local and wider community, as well as to showcase its expertise in digital money and identity, by ensuring key journalists and analysts were visitors and "ambassadors" for these forums.

Now:

Consult Hyperion currently advises governments and organisations around the world on contactless payments, near-field communications (NFC), identity cards, mobile money transfers and migration strategies for MIFARE based ticketing systems. The company has developed into the 35 strong team that it is today and broadly specialises in 4 sectors: Financial Services, Telecommunications and Media, Mobile Money and Public Sector. CBC continues to promote the work and growth of the Company across its core competences and to promote its consultants as experts in their fields. The PR campaign is delivered across all four core competences, with CBC drafting and issuing specific press materials to promote each sector, promoting client case studies relevant to each sector, helping promote client research projects, announcing new partnerships, supporting the announcement of Consult Hyperion experts at key industry events as speakers, and pitching its key spokespeople to key media and analysts looking for expert comment across the 4 sectors. With the arrival of podcasts, digital identity blogs and digital money blogs (posts go back to 2006) and with the Twitter and websites of its guru Dave Birch, Consult Hyperion has quickly embraced new technology to communicate with its audiences. The PR campaign has therefore been broadened to use Social Media Tools to deliver messaging to its key audiences in addition to traditional channels. PR is helping Consult Hyperion increase its market share and build its reputation in the global area by showcasing the depth and range of expertise across the company. CBC has continued to support the CSR of Consult Hyperion and its involvement in supporting local causes and charities. Press coverage has been achieved across a vast range of Trade publications, TV Radio, Local and National Press:

• Airports International
• Banking Technology
• BBC Radio Cumbria
• BBC Radio Scotland
• BBC Today Programme & Working Lunch
• Biometric Technology Today
• Card Technology Today
• Cardworld
• Computing
• Computing & Moneywise
• Credit Collections & Risk
• Euromoney
• European Communications
• Eurotransport Magazine
• Financial World
• Football & Stadium Management
• FST (Financial Sector Technology)
• FST IT Security supplement
• Government Computing
• Guardian
• Infosecurity Magazine
• International Banking Journal
• IT Reseller Magazine
• Land Mobile
• Payments Cards & Mobile
• Professional Security
• Retail Systems
• Sky News
• Surrey Advertiser

Background

OmniPerception engaged CBC as its PR company to help boost its profile as a leading British facial biometrics company, to attract both customers and investors. OmniPerception's intellectual property portfolio and in-depth expertise drives a growing range of products in global markets, particularly in the field of machine readable travel documents and other access control solutions.

The Challenge

OmniPerception wanted to define its key offering to the market, and to shape its company messaging. The company needed a planned, structured approach that would introduce OmniPerception to the media and help to position OmniPerception as a national authority on biometrics.

The Solution

CBC was able to introduce OmniPerception to the UK media successfully by using a structured approach to PR that effectively raised both the profile and awareness of the company. The progression and development of the PR Campaign included a careful study the nature of the materials released to the press, and the order of release.

CBC drafted and distributed six Press Releases for OmniPerception in the first six months of the Campaign. An initial launch release was followed up with an opinion release which positioned OmniPerception spokespeople as experts in their field. Next a release on a specific OmniPerception product to generate commercial interest, and two follow-up releases concentrated on company growth and new partnerships, both serving to build OmniPerception's credibility further. After that foundation was laid, a timely opinion release was issued, generating substantial interest and further cementing OmniPerception's position as an opinion leader.

The Results

CBC achieved fantastic media success with OmniPerception, including featured appearances by the company's spokespeople on national TV on five separate occasions, an interview on the 1pm, 6pm and 10pm BBC News programmes on biometric passports (this news piece was also shown on BBC News 24 each hour for twelve hours, with the Company's logo visible).

As well as positive national TV coverage positioning OmniPerception as key spokespeople in their industry, CBC achieved several national press articles about OmniPerception, including three mentions in the Financial Times, Guardian, international media coverage including profiles in the NIKKEI Daily and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology magazine, and significant articles in the technology and business press. In fact, CBC generated 26 mentions of OmniPerception in the media in just six months.

CBC'S structured profile enhancement of OmniPerception resulted in a representative being invited onto the BBC programme 'Now You're Talking'.

Background

OB10 (www.OB10.com) is the leading global B2B electronic invoice exchange and was established in 2000 to simplify and streamline the invoice-to-pay process. The OB10 e-Invoicing network solution means that neither buying organisations nor their suppliers are required to implement hardware or software. OB10 is compliant with the requirements of VAT and e-Invoicing legislation and currently operates in 70 countries. Buying organisations implementing OB10 can expect to enrol up to 70% of invoice volumes in less than 12 months.

The Challenge

OB10 and CBC identified that a key industry award would be pivotal in the continuing expansion of OB10 and would supplement its strategic PR campaign within the UK, by developing recognition for its achievements and gaining credibility for its service offering.

The Solution

CBC sourced relevant awards within OB10's market sector and together with OB10 made sure that the company fulfilled the entry criteria. CBC then coordinated, managed and completed all the relevant award documentation, and on approval from OB10, submitted the forms to the judging panel within good time of the award entry's deadline.

CBC liaised with the award organisers to make sure that the entry had been received and managed all further correspondence leading to the announcement of the shortlist for the award and the presentation evening.

The Results

OB10 was awarded the 'Most Effective Use of IT' award at the 2006 Information Age Effective IT Awards on 22nd June in conjunction with one of its leading clients.

Press coverage, as a result of winning the award, was generated within OB10's leading target publications and this has been used to great effect in generating both press interest and sales leads.

Corsaire Information Security consultancy (11-50 employees) - Founded privately in 1997

CBC Client since 2002

Corsaire is an information security consultancy that provides a range of tailored services around policy and compliance, assessment and training. Corsaire is one of the oldest privately funded consultancies in this market and operates internationally across Europe, Africa and Asia-Pac. It was founded privately in 1997. www.corsaire.com.

Then:

CBC has worked with Corsaire since 2002. The company had been founded five years previously. The founders clearly had a great deal of knowledge in their particular subject area, but the consultancy was small, and was not known of. CBC was engaged by Corsaire to create awareness of the consultancy and build brand identity. CBC employed PR tactics that helped Corsaire rise above the noise level of competitors and gain market acceptance so as to build up its customer base. Specific PR effort was focused on promoting Whitepapers and research findings to help share best-practice principles and proven information security techniques, and portray Corsaire as experts in various fields. As a result, Corsaire was perceived to be a "bigger" player and subsequently was able to pitch for bigger opportunities.

Now:

As the customer base has increased along with the list of impressive testimonials, the team of consultants has expanded solidly over the years with Corsaire attracting like-minded colleagues with unsurpassed IT security expertise and now has consultants in numerous countries including Spain, South Africa and Australia. As a result, PR has been focused on promoting the growth of the company through new appointments/new client releases, messaging that demonstrates the value of the Corsaire offerings, promoting White papers that highlight new areas of research, and increased knowledge/tools in response to new threats, and a focus on pitching Corsaire experts out as "thought leaders" across compliance, risk assessment, threat intelligence, and security testing. Corsaire is now regularly contacted by the Media to provide expert opinion on a whole range of security issues as a result of the knowledge and expertise of its consultants, and achieves regular coverage in its key publications. As the Company continues to grow, PR helps in supporting repeat customer projects, expanding areas of expertise, keeping the Company ahead of its competitors, and helping Corsaire to "punch above its weight". Coverage has been achieved regularly in all of its key publications:

• Banking Technology
• BritishComputerSociety
• Computer Weekly
• Computing
• FST (Financial Sector Technology)
• Infomatics
• Infosecurity
• IT-Analysis.com
• Payments Cards & Mobile
• PC Magazine UK
• Professional Security
• Retail Security Fraud & Loss Prevention Magazine
• Retail Systems
• SC Magazine (The Info Security News Magazine)
• Surrey Advertiser