Background
Horizon MTS were an independent IT Training company with a £12.5 m turnover specialising in Cisco Training. Their excellent relationship with Cisco meant that the third only cable training lab in the world (worth £1.5 million), was installed at their new premises in Maidenhead. Cisco's major investment was a real vote of confidence in their training of engineers for ntl, Telewest, BT and European Cable operators.

Situation
HMTS was a niche player and CISCO training media features are relatively rare. We wanted to raise brand awareness to combat the many other training organisations that offered 'grey' or unofficial Cisco training courses.

Solution
One of the first press releases was about the Cable Training Lab and Blue Click PR particularly wanted to leverage their association and close working relationship with Cisco. We sourced a quote from the Head of the Cable Business unit in the USA but during the approval process it became clear he felt uncomfortable. We insisted his PR team should approve the press release but they replied that Cisco never endorsed third party press releases and we could not use his quote.

The value of having Ciscos' quote could not be underestimated as it would guarantee much wider media coverage. Undeterred, we sought an alternative and were introduced to the European Marketing Manager and Cisco's Vice President of Europe. From then on all our press releases were channelled through this approval system resulting in sharper copy with greater technical depth. Cisco's direct input meant the techies who invented the technology helped us deliver the best possible output.

Within six weeks of being appointed to handle this company's public relations, we were asked to write an entry for Computing magazines' 'Training Company of the Year Award'. Blue Click PR identified the USP as a good reputation that attracted delegates from 24 countries. The award proposal beat about 300 other entries and our client was shortlisted as a finalist.

At the Networking Exhibition we arranged 6 appointments for the client to meet face to face with magazine editors and journalists resulting in 2 offers to write articles and several contacts for industry comment. We had got the ball rolling.

European PR

Blue Click PR was asked to handle two European PR press releases. We wrote one for the Danish branch of the company distributed throughout the company group and Denmark

A partnership with a German firm called Avodaq AG was also written by Blue Click PR in two versions, UK and Rest of World.

Results
We gained significant media coverage every time a press release carried comment from Cisco's Vice President of Europe, or the comments of a Cisco specialist.

Horizon MTS were shortlisted as one of three finalists for the Computing Magazine's Training Company of the Year 2001'. It was most unusual for a niche player to get that far out of 300 entries because it was normally the 'one-stop shops' that would be shortlisted. The company's exposure as finalists in the leading trade magazine meant their name was 'in lights' for 2 months with over 135,000 readers being made aware of this on four or five separate occasions. An excellent boost to brand awareness and a good exercise in market positioning.

Six months media coverage was analysed and the figures proved a six times return on investment. Because lead times for some magazines are around three months it takes a little while to gather momentum but we would anticipate that after a year this ROI would have been between 12 and 18 times the PR budget. However, marketing and PR activity was curtailed by cutbacks due to the economic slowdown in IT market.

Medical Practice on National TV Headline News

Restrictions
The General Medical Council has very strict guidelines on health related public relations. Taw Hill medical Practice may not blow its own trumpet so others have to praise its work and services instead. Therefore we worked very closely with then MP for North Wiltshire and IT Minister Michael Wills, and MP Julia Drown. She champions the work with Swindon Sanctuary, a center for victims of sexual assault set up by Chief Police Surgeon for Wiltshire, Dr Peter Crouch, who is a partner GP at Taw Hill.

Background
This Swindon medical practice is situated on the largest private housing development in Europe and is facing exponential growth. Over a 5 year period, it will grow from 0-12,000 registered patients. Most GP surgeries have legacy IT systems whereas this surgery is installing scalable IT hardware, software, systems and advanced workflow processes that can handle the eventual patient database. Storage space for this many patient medical notes is an issue they have overcome through the intelligent application of IT solutions.

The story
Patient records have been kept on cards in envelopes for decades. They used to be presented to the GP for each consultation, updated by hand and filed afterwards. Surgeries devote a lot of shelf space to storing these records and a huge amount of time to pulling and refiling these notes each day. In large surgeries there are teams of people dedicated to this job alone.

This story covered the innovative application of IT in the NHS and really demonstrated patient benefits of the technology.

Most GPs nowadays have transferred to computerized records, however, the benefits of computerisation are not normally passed on to the patient. Here, patients were given their medical records on disc so they could check the accuracy of information. If patients with a complex medical history have a crisis, whichever hospital they are admitted to has immediate access to details of their medication. Frequent travelers benefit from peace of mind having their medical records with them.

The 'Hook'
Accuracy is critical when records are transferred onto disc. One GP asked his patient about when she was 'sectioned' under the Mental Health Act. It transpired the previous GP had written this cryptic note referring to a 'Caesarean section'. This was the main reason for giving patients their notes to check the accuracy of data on disc. It was the opening gambit on the phone call to journalists which captured their imagination and delivered excellent results in take-up of the story.

Process
There are over 140 magazines, newspapers and medical journals on the media list for this client. All were contacted in advance of despatching the release. The majority requested the press release. Without telephone contact to discuss the story, the emails may have languished in editor/journalists' email inboxes. 'Selling in' the story is what clinched the TV coverage.

Results
This story was welcomed by broadcast media. Our GP and a patient were interviewed and featured on BBC News 24 and the story were made the home page of the www.bbc.co.uk website. Our GP client and a patient headlined in February 2003 alongside Colin Powell and the Iraq war, the London Peace March, and Ken Livingstone's London Congestion charge.

SKY, Central & HTV sent TV Crews to film and the story became a discussion thread in the National Health Service bulletin board because this scheme has bypassed a government initiative that has been 2 years in the pipeline and still not produced results.

Headline News
National TV channel BBC News 24 ran a 3 minute feature alongside news of the London Peace protest against the Iraq war, and the introduction of the Congestion Charge to the center of London. Our GP was featured up there alongside Colin Powell of the US Defence and Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London.

Timing
It is possible that take-up of this story was greater than anticipated because it was a 'Good News' story at a time when the impending Iraq war was making depressing headline news on a daily basis.

Spinoff
As a result of contact over this particular story, this client was invited to write three articles for GP magazine.

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