CAMPAIGN TYPE: Media Relations
TIMEFRAME: March 2003 - April 2004
BUDGET: US: $10,000/month (global was $20,000/month)
As wireless-technology provider InterDigital prepared for 2003, punching up its media outreach was atop its agenda. PR agency Ruder Finn had helped InterDigital to
increase its presence in the trade press while the company had captured some major accounts and was also showing strong financials.
Yet a media audit showed that the mainstream press was largely ignorant of the company's story. Based on that audit, Ruder Finn identified journalists at top-tier national
business publications who cover wireless and telecom and then developed a message based partly on InterDigital's technology but even more so on the firm's positive balance sheet
and successful efforts to license its product.
The company had some major licenses pending, including a deal with Ericsson, so the PR team began its media outreach in advance of that signing.
"InterDigital was confident that [Ericsson] would be a positive for them, so we looked in advance to identify the top journalists and to determine what would be our pitch to
them," says Melissa Boehning, senior account executive. "We really put a lot of time into our research to identify the big influencers in the national business press who were
covering the wireless industry."
When the Ericsson deal was signed in March 2003 it became a case of show-them-the-money. "Financial writers might not be following wireless and they might not know how exciting
it is," Boehning adds. "So for them it meant using the Ericsson news as the hard news and adding to that a solid financial story and a company that was playing in a really hot
space."
While others might have sold a technology story by plugging the client's success in securing patents, Ruder Finn had sound strategic reasons for playing up InterDigital's
success in licensing.
"As far as patents are concerned, it is just a numbers game, and while it interests some people, it is not the most interesting aspect," Boehning says.
But start dropping names like Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung, on the other hand, and reporters' eyes light up like a pinball machine.
The client applauds Ruder Finn's finesse in being able not just to tell the right story -- but to convey it in a way that reporters et al. could understand.
"This is a complicated story," says Guy Hicks, who was VP for corporate communications at InterDigital during the campaign. "It takes a while to set the stage, because there is
so much that is intangible and legalistic, and so a lot of reporters have a hard time getting their arms around it."
PR reps helped ground the story with reference to real numbers and repeatedly referred to the client's financial performance. "At a time when the market was not performing
well, InterDigital was consistently outperforming it. Its financials were very impressive on a consistent quarterly business," says Kristie Heins agency management supervisor at
Ruder Finn. "When you pitch a CNN or a CNBC the first thing they are going to look at is the market [capitalization], and if the market cap is below $1 billion, they
won't even look at the company. Then they want to see quarter-over-quarter improvements and earnings per share."
Indeed, PR reps demurred from approaching such outlets until mid-2003, when they could show the solid numbers the media demanded.
But they kept a steady slow of hard news, with about two releases a month covering everything from earnings announcements to technology stories. The company also got attention
from two of its local newspapers, Philadelphia Business Journal and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The PR team saw these hits as a stepping-stone to bigger things. "What are the New York Times people who live in that area reading? They are reading the local press,"
Heins says.
Stories about InterDigital ran in Barron's, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg TV, "CBS Marketwatch," "CNNMoney," Dow Jones, Forbes, Investor's Business
Daily, Philadelphia Inquirer, RCR Wireless News, the Wall Street Journal and Wireless Week, representing a 400% increase in national
business press coverage in 2003 compared with from 2002.
Perhaps more important, however, the various media hits helped to increase the value of InterDigital's stock by almost 75% during 2003 (while the overall telecom sector was
flat or slightly down). "Ultimately viewers want to know whether to go out and buy this stock," Heins says, "and the strong financials told them that this was a company worth
looking into."
CONTACTS: Melissa Boehning, 312.329.3975, [email protected]; Kristie Heins, 312.329.3985, [email protected]; Guy Hicks, 484.919.4122, [email protected]