The Comit team was delighted to see our client, DataSolutions, being recognised with the Communications Excellence Award at this year’s Tech Excellence Awards for an integrated PR, digital and marketing campaign promoting its hugely successful Secure Computing Forum 2018. Collaboration is a key pillar of what Comit, as a PR company does, and we were thrilled to be a central contributor to helping raise awareness of the Forum through this integrated PR and marketing campaign.
As a distributor, one of DataSolution’s key value propositions for vendor and reseller partners is its investment in market leading communications programmes and as part of this, it organises the annual Secure Computing Forum. This is Ireland’s leading cyber security event and conference, which, through a series of engaging talks from leading voices in the industry, raises awareness of security threats facing Irish businesses today. End users, resellers and vendors all gain significant value from the event.
Ahead of the Forum, DataSolutions created an integrated communications campaign focused on the theme of, ‘Putting cybersecurity at the heart of your business strategy.’
DataSolutions took a multi-channel approach that integrated multiple marketing elements (email, social etc.) and public relations, working closely with its Irish partners, leading technology players in the IT security space and all with a view to raising awareness among key decision-makers from the Irish end-user community.
The objectives for the 2018 SCF campaign were:
- To raise awareness around the multiple security threats facing Irish businesses today.
- To deliver a content-led campaign communicating key cyber-security topics.
- To provide its partners with an opportunity to communicate to their end-user customers and prospects.
- To provide a platform aimed at fostering dialogue and more communications amongst key security players in Ireland.
- To bring together the Irish partner and end-user community for a one-day conference that reviews and anticipates the multiple threats facing Irish businesses today and offers strategic advice on combatting cybercrime.
Comit’s part to play
Comit managed the PR and media relations aspect of DataSolutions’ campaign to increase awareness of the Secure Computing Forum in order to help drive attendees.
Comit issued an event announcement for the Forum and subsequent releases announcing event speakers. These resulted in high profile broadcast interviews with speakers, including interviews with Lord Alan West on the Pat Kenny Show and DataSolutions’ own Michael O’Hara on Newstalk’s Down to Business. Furthermore, Bennett Arron, Eoin Keary and Graham Cluley were all featured guests on the Irish Tech News podcast.
As part of the campaign, DataSolutions commissioned TechPro Magazine to run an IT security survey involving senior IT professionals and decision-makers in Irish enterprises .
The entire campaign resulted in a staggering 53 individual pieces of coverage, reaching more than 3.5 million people, with the survey findings alone – which were split into two press releases - generating 31 pieces of coverage. Publications included national print media such as Irish Independent, The Irish Times, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Business Post, The Times Ireland and Irish Examiner. Further coverage was secured in broadcast, business and technology media, including Newstalk, Silicon Republic, TechCentral, Business Plus and Business World.
Finally, Comit assisted in developing and scripting an ad campaign to run in media including TechPro Sunday Business Post and Irish Tech News.
Other elements of the campaign
DataSolutions created an end-user integrated communications campaign with each partner to drive attendance including:
- Prospect database and target list building with each partner.
- Developed customised partner emails.
- Telemarketing campaign with scripts to drive attendance and educate the end-user on the latest cyber threats and why they should attend the Secure Computing Forum.
- Social campaigns created for each partner which included Twitter and LinkedIn content and graphics.
- Regular reporting to each partner on registrations/leads and progress.
- Dedicated partner-branded pod table provided for each partner.
A targeted email series was rolled out to key technology vendors in IT security to encourage them to get involved in the Secure Computing Forum and to educate their end-users on cyber-security threats. Email topics included:
- Know your enemy – Understanding the cyber threat landscape.
- Focus on prevention – It is cheaper than the alternative.
- Taking a proactive approach to improving cyber-security.
- Ransomware still a cybercrime mainstay in 2018.
- Know how to respond – Timing is everything.
- The perimeter is no longer fixed – Mobile and cloud security.
- Is AI the silver bullet in cyber-security.
- Securing the Internet of Things - Balancing opportunities and threats.
A dedicated website – www.securecomputingforum.ie – was set up for the event which included information on speaking topics, guest speakers blogs, vendors and sponsors for the event. Videos from previous forums were also uploaded to the website to encourage prospective attendees to come to the event.
DataSolutions launched a social media campaign across DataSolutions’ LinkedIn page, DataSolutions’ Twitter account and the dedicated SCF Twitter account for a period of 16 weeks which included approximately 23 posts per week. This activity was also boosted by social media campaigns DataSolutions’ vendors and resellers pushed which were designed by DataSolutions. Impressions from the campaign reached 320,000 on Twitter and 31,330 on LinkedIn. Partners also received email footers and weekly social media graphics on the event and its speakers through the targeted email campaign.
And the result
On Thursday, 20th September 2018 DataSolutions hosted the Secure Computing Forum at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. 470 registrations were received from organisations of all sizes including government representatives, business owners, C-Suite Executives, CISOs, IT Security Directors, IT Managers and Networking and Security Architects.
Sixteen international speakers discussed the latest threat landscape, cyber-security, counterterrorism, identity theft and social engineering. Fourteen resellers from the Irish partner community participated and attended with their customers and business prospects. Furthermore, 12 technology vendors exhibited their technologies to the end-user community in Ireland.
The key to their success was a carefully planned integrated communications campaign which identified the company’s target audiences’ most critical concerns and used a vast array of media to reach every prospect possible in multiple ways. The company bases its approach on the science of integrated communications which proves that campaigns that reach prospects via different media and touchpoints (such as email, phone, national press, video, social media and blogs) at least three times, have a much greater chance of success.
Comit was delighted to be a part of such a successful campaign that brought DataSolutions’ expertise together with our media relations and PR experience. The champagne moment was seeing DataSolutions take home the Communications Award!
The 2019 Secure Computing Forum takes place on 12th September 2019. If you want to meet a who’s who of the Irish technology industry, you should attend – bookings via this link. If you’re interested in finding out more about how Comit collaborates with our clients to create award-winning PR campaigns, you can contact us here.
