Sfida:
Western Digital has a long history of technology excellence. As one of the top HDD (hard disk drive) vendors, it has an established position in the traditional PC market, with products that are well known and respected among tech specialists. End user visibility, for both products and brand, used to be quite limited.
AxiCom started communicating for Western Digital in Italy at the end of 2005. A first goal was to bring back the company on the Italian press landscape, giving visibility to its wide range of products as well as position WD as a visionary and technologically advanced company.
Attività:
After some initial activities aimed at raising the level of visibility for the entire range of products, WD asked AxiCom to intensify its communication effort on the consumer side. This came at the same time as a series of product announcements targeted to end users. Two product ranges were introduced – the My Book and the My Passport, respectively a 3,5” and a 2,5” drive – creating a brand new offering targeted to the retail channel.
AxiCom organized a set of different events, with the specific goal of reaching new press targets, at the same time not neglecting in any way the traditional tech contacts. Two parallel programs have been put in place: a tech track, consisting of product communication and product reviews, targeted to the IT press; a consumer track, consisting of informal meetings and product fulfilment, for the consumer press. This latter activity was backed up with strong emphasis on imagery – new products came always with a vast range of lifestyle pictures, in order to be more easily placed into non-IT publications.
An International survey was also carried out to outline the value that digital storage has for every single user. Goal of this survey was to highlight how important sometimes our personal files are - pictures, movies, documents, musical files – and how we should act to keep them safe. In other words, how important personal back-up can be for every one of us. From the survey, we drafted a number of press releases and media alerts, outlining different aspects of the story.
Risultati:
The most significant result was the effective start of an ongoing relationship with Italian non-IT press. At the last WD press event, a good 40% of the attending press came from consumer or vertical press, including publications such as Corriere della Sera, Il Giornale, Jack and SportWeek.
Coverage was very high as well, with a constant presence of non-IT media, such as dailies, lifestyle monthlies, business weeklies and monthlies, as well as publications dedicated to digital music, photography and gaming. Currently, WD is receiving a strong coverage in Italy, with an average of 200 hits per quarter, compared to the 50 it was receiving only 2 years ago.
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