Winner: Weber Shandwick Worldwide
Campaign: Avaya Triple Crown Campaign
Budget: $60,000 a month
Networking company Avaya faced an uphill battle when it was spun off from Lucent late in 2000. Working in the shadow of giants like Cisco and Nortel, the firm generated little
enthusiasm among industry pundits. Avaya execs asked Weber Shandwick to create a comprehensive media relations campaign aimed at transforming the company's image from slow-growth
latecomer to serious industry player.
That task was made easier by Avaya's clear directive to the PR team. "It's not about just getting hits. It's not about producing a large thud factor. We specifically needed to
use PR to help sales," says Adam Cormier, a senior account executive at Weber Shandwick.
With that in mind, the PR team first conducted research to identify those markets where Avaya was in direct competition with the giants of enterprise networking and IP
telephony. Then the race was on, with the PR team working to convince analysts and media outlets like Network World, Information Week and InfoWorld that Avaya was a serious
contender in this arena.
The PR team took Avaya to a couple of leading industry trade shows and prepped for the shows with an intense three-week period of interviews to introduce Avaya to key members
of the press. The media outreach continued after the shows, including a three-day media summit in which nearly 100 writers and analysts met with Avaya in New York to learn more
about the company. Media heard presentations about products and strategy and met with almost every senior exec.
As a result of the sweeping campaign, press coverage of the company has skyrocketed. Prior to the media relations campaign, Avaya was mentioned in less than 4 percent of all
enterprise-networking coverage. Today Avaya accounts for some 30 percent of all such coverage. Avaya'a total monthly coverage has risen almost 600 percent to over 220 articles a
month, including favorable articles in leading trade magazines such as Telecommunications, Network Computing and Network World.
The bottom line tells the most important tale, with PR and other promotional activities producing exceptional results. Avaya's earnings statement for the first quarter of 2002
shows data networking sales up 82 percent. Avaya is placing first in market share in four critical markets, and second in several others.
(Contact: Adam Cormier, 617/441-4000, [email protected])