Aris Education was a well-known, eighteen year old IT Training company that was taken over by John Bryce Training, an Israeli/American training organisation quite unknown in the UK. Blue Click PR Ltd. was appointed to handle a strategic public relations campaign to raise awareness and promote the rebranded company in an industry that was suffering after the techno-bubble burst.

There were some delicate matters to announce such as the departure of the previous CEO who was well known in the industry as the 'face' of Aris Education. Over 18 years, the media had regularly consulted him because of his experience and personal profile in the industry.

The company was listed 9th in the industry rankings by IT Training magazine. Generally the media want industry comment from the top 3 companies or those with aggressive growth plans. They were now much less likely to ask John Bryce Training for comment, especially since the new CEO had no track record in the UK.

However, Blue Click PR quickly reversed the journalists' reluctance to contact him. We majored on his extensive Pan-European IT Training experience as the John Bryce Training Managing Director who had established new offices in Turkey, Hungary and Germany before coming to Britain.

Our strategy was to take the new CEO to meet editors and key journalists of the industry-leading magazines such as Computing, Computer Weekly, IT Training, Microscope and Network News. Face to face meetings developed dialogue that led to the new CEO being asked regularly for industry comment. We positioned him effectively and he was prepared to be a little controversial to get media coverage.

Working with Microsoft's PR Agency - August One

Blue Click PR believes in strategic Public relations, not just issuing hundreds of press releases. Microsoft were a major client and business partner so we made it a priority to visit August One, Microsoft's PR agency, to help identify joint PR opportunities for John Bryce Training.

As a direct result of this meeting, John Bryce Training was the only IT training company asked to provide independent industry comment at the Microsoft Windows XP launch in London in December 2001. Their leading .Net Trainer was asked to share the platform with Microsoft spokespeople for media interviews all day.

Many training companies have strong relationships with Microsoft, so this was quite a PR 'coup'.

2.2 John Bryce Training Case Studies - Golden ROI with Microsoft

Case studies are invaluable pieces of collateral for use in the sales process because they demonstrate the true benefit of a product or service. They are a great way of establishing credibility, especially when the client is blue chip: Microsoft! Case studies act as a shorthand 'seal of approval' to one of your sales prospects because if they see a large/well-known company trusting you with their business, it offers them 'peace of mind' when they place their business with you. Large companies do not suffer fools gladly and would not deal with amateurs - ipso facto your company are professionals.

John Bryce Training asked Blue Click PR Ltd. to write three case studies which Microsoft wanted to use as their own sales collateral i.e., how John Bryce Training delivered training on Microsoft products and what value that was to Marconi, city finance company Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Rhebus HR.

Each 3,000 word case study involved a client site visit and due to the complex nature of Microsoft's template, took about 5 days to write and gain approvals. They are normally 500 words long and take about 1.5 days to write. Although this was a significant amount of time (read investment), it contributed to the company being awarded the Microsoft Gold Learning Partner Award for CTECs. John Bryce Training was one of only six in UK and only nine in total worldwide to achieve this recognition from Microsoft. Blue Click PR was trusted with sensitive information and key client relationships. We delivered against this very specific PR target.

What John Bryce Training did well

The new CEO had been with the parent company, Mentergy, for 7 years, setting up offices in new countries. Common to many really fast-growing companies, Mentergy used Public Relations and regular press releases right at the core of the business. Mentergy is listed on America's NASDAQ stock exchange and we were pleased they distributed some of our press releases globally.

The CEO was always available for media interviews. He was not afraid of voicing an opinion. He was never too busy to approve press releases and we were impressed when we faxed him at the German offices one day and he replied with approvals within 2 hours.

Working closely with the Business Development Manager and having access to the sales pipeline meant we could drive a proactive PR programme and cherry-pick the best stories with high-profile clients. John Bryce Training offered their clients free publicity through joint press releases, which enhanced perception of the company.

> Click here for our next case study <