London, 14 April 2011: International public relations consultants, Hotwire, announces its selection by mobile bill analysis firm, billmonitor, to support its mobile PR needs in the UK. Hotwire started the mobile PR campaign in March with an initial brief to launch its national billmonitor mobile report to UK media, analysts and online influencers. The launch, taking place this week, marks a bold entrance into the wider UK market for the new organisation.
Founded by Oxford University mathematicians, billmonitor is a bill analysis engine for mobile phone users. Employing highly developed statistical methods, billmonitor analyses online bills to establish phone usage patterns, analysing the results against available contract deals in the market in order to match consumers to the most cost-effective contract. Hotwire launched the mobile PR campaign with the national billmonitor mobile report on 11th April 2011, based on the scientific analysis of over 28,417 mobile phone bills and matched against over 8,530,118 mobile phone contracts available online from the major networks and retailers.
Hotwire devised a three stage strategy to launch these complex findings to the media, encompassing national, broadcast and regional, tech and lifestyle media. The first stage of the mobile PR campaign briefed key influencers from the national and international English language media under embargo to secure detailed, longer length and analytical coverage that would go beyond the headline-grabbing findings of the report. This approach delivered 16 pieces of national and international coverage, including analysis by The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal Europe, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.
The second stage of the mobile PR campaign saw Hotwire pre-brief broadcast media to secure broadcast coverage on the day of launch which supported the first wave of national print coverage, ensuring that key messages were reinforced and cemented in the consumer consciousness. The resulting 23 pieces of broadcast coverage secured included repeated, longer length news, analysis and feature pieces with BBC Breakfast News, BBC Lunchtime News, BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat and Channel 4 News.
Finally, Hotwire launched the report to regional, tech and lifestyle media, securing over 200 pieces of coverage. This included major regional titles as well as influential personal finance, tech and lifestyle titles such as Money Saving Expert, Moneywise, Totally Money and Techwatch, Computer Business Review, TechCrunch and MSN.
The three stage approach meant that Hotwire was able to control messaging around the report and achieve widespread, blanket coverage on launch day to support the company’s business objectives. In total, more than 260 pieces of coverage were achieved at launch, generating strong debate on social media platforms as well as driving almost an entire month’s worth of traffic to the billmonitor website in just one day. The sheer volume of online coverage significantly increased billmonitor’s SEO, making it currently the number one result when searching for the term ‘mobile’ on Google News UK and the number two result globally.
billmonitor co-founder, Dr Stelios Koundouros, commented on the success: “Broadcast seemed to love the story and the result completely surpassed expectations from a PR point of view – which has raised the company profile and already helped open up a whole range of future opportunities.”
Hotwire director of mobile PR, Rebecca Honeyman, concluded: “The sheer volume of data available from billmonitor meant that the company was able to put together a compelling and comprehensive picture of the UK’s mobile usage, distilling this into a consumer-friendly report. The three stage approach meant that we could maintain control over the way in which this data and the wealth of analysis that billmonitor is able to offer was shared with key influencer audiences. We’re delighted with the results of this launch campaign, not just in terms of initial coverage but also looking at the online engagement and SEO results.”
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About Hotwire
Hotwire is an innovative international communications consultancy that provides media and influencer agnostic public relations services. Hotwire’s team spans six specialist practice areas: Telecommunications and mobile PR, IT & Services, Consumer, Media & Marketing, Banking & Finance and Cleantech. These practices are supported by experts in corporate, consumer, digital and public affairs. Through wholly owned offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, Sydney, Melbourne and a global partner network we work with brands on international and local campaigns. www.hotwirepr.com
