The Bigger Picture

Harvard has begun a major PR campaign for Sky as part of the satellite broadcaster’s CarbonNeutral environmental campaign. Work under “The Bigger Picture” theme involves reaching out to Sky’s 8 million customers, encouraging them to take responsibility for reducing their own carbon footprints – a special ‘carbon calculator’ has been developed as part of the campaign.

British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) has become the first media company in the world to achieve CarbonNeutral status. This is a major milestone for the company and will be reflected strongly in its overall brand values. Sky is not only adopting a CarbonNeutral stance on its own operations, but is also committing to engage its 8.1 million customers with practical and inspiring ways to become better informed and more progressive about energy use.

The work being undertaken by Harvard is part of a wider brief being undertaken by Harvard’s parent company, Bell Pottinger Group, and includes internal as well as external communications and social media activity. The Bigger Picture is aimed at encouraging both employees
(via car-sharing, for example) and customers (through a variety of energy-saving ideas) to adopt greener lifestyles.



More coverage, to boot

When Pentax planned the launch of its flagship SLR camera, the K10D, it called upon Harvard to develop a strategy that would create a buzz in the media and generate standout coverage in a competitive market environment that is dominated by multinational consumer technology conglomerates with massive advertising budgets.

The solution was a pre-launch event to get alongside key journalists ahead of the industry’s Photokina exhibition in Cologne. Harvard chose English Heritage’s Wellington Arch (at London’s Hyde Park Corner) as the ideal venue which appealed both for being an unusual location and that it offered an interesting photogenic setting.

The outcome of the event was a range of pre-show coverage and relationship-building that resulted in three days of more in-depth media briefings at Photokina.  All of which resulted in Pentax taking in all of their target press and enjoying a total haul of coverage that was far in excess of what would normally have been expected.

The campaign continues in the run-up to Christmas with further activity on the K10D, Pentax’s range of digital compact cameras and specific activity targeting the plethora of consumer press.




European PR training

Harvard has just completed a major programme helping Fujitsu Services equip its local marketing and country managers across Europe with the fundamental tips and tools to better manage their regional PR campaigns. This is in support of the company’s major European growth plans, and in recognition of the different stages of development across the region.

Working closely with Fujitsu Services’ Head of European Marketing, Harvard identified where the team needed the most support in terms of tactical and strategic counsel. The foundation of that support was a solid understanding of PR, where it can be used and what elements it needs to succeed. It was also important for the team to understand the market nuances across Europe and how they could better collaborate.

We developed a tailored two-day programme for a PR seminar that would provide the basis of Fujitsu’s PR outreach. It covered PR fundamentals, how the media works, crisis management, creating news, planning and reporting, analysis and measurement and managing a PR agency.  As part of that training, Bryan Glick, Editor of Computing, was invited to present about the ‘average’ day of a journalist and what he is looking for when considering the news and analysis sections of the magazine.

The next stage for the European work is an ongoing European PR Clinic service whereby the respective PR and marketing teams across Europe can call on the team at Harvard for advice and counsel.  This will include such activity as supporting in-country agency review processes, message development, spokeperson training and centralised European campaign development.