Strong month for the Schwartz team with a SABRE Award in "Research for Publicity" for its work with Javelin Strategy & Research.
The Schwartz team and Javelin combined professional and social media to promote Javelin's annual identity fraud report, increasing media coverage 126 over previous years, and a whopping 97 percent of all articles emphasizing at least two key messages.
In addition to Javelin, some terrific clients were honored with nominations: medical device company Bioness, antivirus and desktop security software provider ESET and boutique healthcare investment services provider Leerink Swann. Although they didn't take home trophies, it's the first time Schwartz has emerged with four finalists in the SABRES and the work remains outstanding.
There's a great case study on Schwartz's work with Bioness, including a campaign that delivered $4M in sales leads. Check it out!
Tags:
anti-virus,
awards,
healthcare PR,
public relations,
public relations agencies,
security,
software
Posted by Bryan Scanlon on May 21, 2010 at 9:29 AM
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The classic 80s movie “When Harry Met Sally” follows two people through the years, originally stuck together for a Chicago-to-New York drive, then by chance bumping into each other and finally into love and a long relationship.
This is not unlike what we've seen happen with marketing and sales. Anyone with tenure in the business world knows that these two organizations need to be brilliantly in love and joined at the hip, moving together or else stumbling separately.
There was a time where a great “story” got ink and everyone was happy. Pump up the volume. But now, every good business is looking to connect the sales impact of initiatives, in marketing, public relations, everywhere. Many chief marketing officers are now experts in inbound lead generation, in addition to the traditional staple of brand, awareness and visibility. And the real magic is where they intersect, with one driving the other.
Today’s announcement of Schwartz's partnership with HubSpot is another great example of the transformational work we’ve been doing for years: tying storytelling to sales at all turns, and even rejecting stories that may seem to have cool headlines, but don’t move a needle on any measurable front.
Some of the most interesting work Schwartz is doing for its clients today is what we’ve dubbed “closed loop communications” --- being able to execute a strategy that loops directly into inbound marketing efforts. We’re creating content of interest, optimizing and pushing it out with professional and social media relations, search marketing and other services. That in turn is driving awareness, measured in web traffic and leads. Then we're reporting back on exactly what’s working, who’s looking and what’s prompting action in a client’s communities.
At Schwartz, we’ve nailed an outstanding strategy and process for doing this through many different types of approaches, tactics and tools, including inbound web marketing (leveraging HubSpot), digital video content (including some brilliant video marketing solutions from Visible Gains) and other strands. Whether you're in healthcare, technology, cleantech or consumer, we understand your business and the right mix of levers to pull, buttons to push, and people to influence to deliver tremendous impact.
The best meal on the menu is closed loop public relations. Order it.
Tags:
healthcare PR,
hubspot,
lead generation,
marketing,
sales,
search marketing,
technology PR
Posted by Bryan Scanlon on May 19, 2010 at 9:04 AM
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We are story tellers at Schwartz Communications. For almost 20 years, our teams have translated complicated technical and medical concepts into messaging that resonates with strategic audiences.
Being a good story teller means that at your core you need to be a good writer. This is why, for as long as Schwartz has been in business, every employee candidate takes a writing test, sitting down at a desk specifically reserved for the task.
This test continues to be important today as content has become a core aspect of everything we do for our clients. Every company needs content to attract potential customers, partners and employees, and to establish a corporate image to existing customers, partners and employees.
We certainly have moved beyond just the writing test in terms of what we now look for in potential Schwartz staff members. Our employees now are creating YouTube videos, managing social media content, conducting interviews for podcast episodes and suggesting graphics to augment stories. And we teach them to optimize and promote what they create, so our clients receive SEO impact from our efforts.
While content remains king, the tactics and tools available to PR pros in recent years have expanded dramatically. With social media, the ease of creating digital content, and the changing, flattening nature of how people can find information via Internet-driven tools, PR and communications today have become larger, more influential parts of marketing than at any other time. We are also able to measure our effectiveness in ways that directly relate to our clients’ businesses and their strategic business objectives.
Many of Schwartz’s services are, in fact, transforming marketing, creating a direct connection between PR, marketing, lead generation and marketing measurement. Since Schwartz is a top five technology PR, healthcare PR and green PR firm, we have taken a leadership position in defining this connection for our clients and in offering marketing transformation services.
Today, we extended that leadership by announcing a partnership with HubSpot. HubSpot sells web-based tools that help companies create, optimize and promote content so those companies can easily be found online, tools that help convert those visitors into leads and customers, and tools that track who comes to their websites, which visitors become active leads and close into customers---and a whole host of other information.
In many ways, HubSpot’s inbound marketing platform complements Schwartz’s methodology and services. Many of our engagements have capitalized on HubSpot for some time. Schwartz teams use HubSpot to help create and promote optimized strategic content for clients. The analytical tools within HubSpot allow us to see directly how the content Schwartz creates and promotes generates leads and fills the top of the marketing lead funnel. By seeing how many leads the traffic generates, we can repeat tactics that generate significant results.
Inbound marketing and HubSpot software are not new to us, and we certainly are not talking about them for the first time based on today’s partnership announcement. But today’s news exemplifies how PR and communications can have an even closer relationship to marketing and sales---not to mention how PR for innovative companies has changed dramatically in recent years.
Schwartz has maintained its leadership position as a PR firm for innovative companies because it has stayed ahead of the curve in offering services that define how PR is changing. You can expect so see many posts about the topic in the weeks and months ahead.
In HubSpot, we have a partner providing solutions that contribute directly to how PR has changed and how we deliver services to our clients here at Schwartz.
At Schwartz we believe that the modern PR firm should be content-driven, strategic and able to measure its effectiveness. My co-worker Laura Kempke has authored a white paper that goes into more detail, and I invite you to download it. We are constantly evaluating products and services that can be managed by our clients’ account teams and can seamlessly enhance our clients programs. Over the past several months, we have added new measurement, lead-tracking and content marketing programs that are powered by HubSpot. Our clients and their Schwartz teams see the clear benefits of these marketing transformational approaches.
At the same time, we recognize that the HubSpot partnership is based on the premise that, at Schwartz, we are fundamentally still story tellers. What excites us are the new possibilities for telling those stories, identifying and connecting to strategic audiences, and measuring our work. We’re excited by the ways that PR, communications and marketing are all changing, and feel this partnership with HubSpot is a good indication of this transformation.
Watch this space.
Tags:
cleantech PR,
healthcare PR,
HubSpot,
marketing transformation,
medical PR,
PR agency,
Schwartz Communications,
technology PR
Posted by Ross Levanto on May 18, 2010 at 2:06 PM
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On June 17, Xconomy will once again bring out the New England revolutionaries in business, academia and technology for XSITE 2010. XSITE has become one of New England’s most anticipated conferences. This year’s theme is “Building the Next Economy,” reflecting the region’s obsession with inventing products. It will offer the perfect venue to explore the realities of the startup life cycle and the obstacles entrepreneurs must overcome to succeed in frontier fields like wireless health services, smart grid technologies, biotech, and even the design and manufacturing cluster. Schwartz Communications is eXITEd to sponsor this event for the second year. This year’s host is Babson College, with support from the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Wellesley.
The day will begin with opening remarks from Babson College President Len Schlesinger and Olin College President Rick Miller. Keynote appearances will include Rodney Brooks, co-founder, chairman and CTO, Heartland Robotics; Peter Hecht, CEO, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals; Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO, X Prize Foundation; and Richard Pops, chairman and CEO of Alkermes.
Throughout the day, Innovator Profile presentations will highlight the efforts of new and exciting companies in New England. Massachusetts continues to be at forefront of technological advances. According to a recent study from the Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy by Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, on a per capita basis, Massachusetts inventors were granted more patents than any other state or nation.
Plenary sessions will include “Innovation After Acquisition” featuring IBM and Schwartz client E Ink and “Is Venture Dead?”, which brings together leading investors from around the U.S., including Vulcan Capital, Intel Capital, and Boston Millennia Partners. During the afternoon, attendees will participate in breakout sessions on life sciences, energy/cleantech, health IT, and information technology, and hear firsthand how New England’s startups, large companies, and academic leaders are driving dynamic change.
Finally, a dozen of the region’s most promising emerging firms in IT, life sciences, and energy will strut their stuff at XSITE Xpo, a rapid fire session with audience voting on which companies will be the most transformative.
XSITE 2010 will take place on June 17 from 8:15 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., with a networking reception to follow. For information about the agenda and registration, go to http://xsite2010.eventbrite.com/. You can also follow and participate in the Twitter chatter using the hash tag #xsite10.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Tags:
Alkermes,
Babson College,
E Ink,
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering,
Heartland Robotics,
IBM,
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals,
Massachusetts Technology Collaborative,
Peter Diamandis,
Peter Hecht,
Richard Pops,
Schwartz Communications,
X Prize Foundation,
Xconomy,
XSITE 2010
Posted by Davida Dinerman on May 17, 2010 at 9:25 AM
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Late last week I attended a panel discussion in San Francisco entitled, “Can Fairness and Accuracy Survive in a Page-View World.” Participants included Ina Fried from CNET, Eric Knorr from InfoWorld, Owen Thomas, the new executive editor at VentureBeat, and David Patton, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who is now with Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. The panel was moderated by media analyst and former journalist Sam Whitmore.
From left to right: Whitmore, Knorr, Thomas, Fried, Patton
The panel generated an animated discussion about the changing face of the media industry. The panelists paid particular attention to the enormous pressures that journalists and their editors face to quickly post the news of the day, regardless of source verification or fact checking in order to drive page views that can be monetized. Over the course of the event, the panel discussion covered four main areas:
• Page views—It was no surprise to attendees that publishers are measuring page views, especially for online only sites. But as Thomas commented, you need to know your audience and have a clear vision of the audience you want to create. To illustrate the point, Thomas said that since joining VentureBeat as executive editor a month ago, he hasn’t checked the page views yet as he first focuses on refining his vision. See this mediabistro post for his thoughts on this topic.
• Audience creation—Today writers stand on their own, as audiences are no longer built-in like they were with print publications. Most traffic to stories is driven by stand-alone links, not the publication’s homepage. Some publications have a formal policy requiring journalists to tweet, as is the case with InfoWorld. Others like Fried aren’t required to use Twitter but do it automatically; creating an audience is what reporters do.
• Rise of bots—Bots make SEO critical. Knorr said “If you don’t optimize for SEO, you die.” Thomas said “Computers are making humans easier to use,” underscoring the idea that bots can control the exposure to certain thoughts humans put out there. Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera was in the audience and shared tips on how to be at the top of Techmeme:
-Identify the holes in what’s out there. If an article fills a void, it will generate an audience.
-Consider posting more thoughtful, analysis pieces on the weekend to avoid the competition with breaking news. By saving it for a slower time, it may reach more people.
-Titles must be clear to readers so they can scan online headlines and identify what is worth reading to them.
• Competition with newsmakers—The newsmakers today can publish direct and circumvent the news media altogether. Steve Jobs’ recent statement that outlines why the company would no longer offer Flash support is an example of this new competition. As Thomas mentioned, Jobs’ Thoughts on Adobe quickly rose to the top of Techmeme and eclipsed “the news” of the day.
It’s a brave new world. Journalists—like technology executives and technology PR professionals—are learning how to use today’s tools to their advantage in telling important stories, developing their brand and creating audiences. They are sharing best practices at work and helping each other to figure out how to succeed in a dynamic environment. That said, it was clear from the discussion and audience Q&A that followed, the underlying foundation of good journalism remains unchanged. To paraphrase Fried: “a good journalist has to bring something new to the table.”
This is the same advice we give to clients every day who want to raise their exposure in the media: what insight on a particular topic do you have to share that is new, thought provoking and not just a rehash of what’s out there? For journalist and clients alike, there’s always a place for quality content and fresh perspectives.
Posted by Jill Reed on May 4, 2010 at 12:43 PM
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