In October 2017, Parallel Wireless introduced a solution that added modern innovation to outdated 2G technology. The challenge was to convince the telecom industry that 2G is still necessary due to 4 billion people worldwide remaining unconnected with 39% of global cellular subscriptions running on 2G.The main objective of this campaign was to let the world know how we intend to connect the unconnected and inform them of the social and economic benefits that result from enabling 2G coverage.
As part of the announcement strategy, this message was spread through a multi-channel campaign that included a targeted press release (globally distributed in 10 different languages), email outreach, event presence, award nominations, news articles, and extensive social media campaigns. To maximize the announcement's visibility, the news broke in conjunction with an industry event taking place in Africa (where 2G is most relevant) with the objective of reaching the business decision makers who would benefit most from our solution. These campaigns worked in conjunction with one another with the objectives of (1) promoting the PR and increasing its visibility with hopes of generating new leads, (2) leveraging the announcement to help build our follower base and create news coverage, and (3) increasing traffic and meetings at an industry event shortly following the announcement. By running these campaigns simultaneously, our plan was to increase exposure to our targeted audiences that Parallel Wireless is an innovative company that provides groundbreaking solutions.
Parallel Wireless' product launch of 2G included e-mail outreach, pre-briefing press/analysts, employee communications, dedicated webpage, executive interview videos, and newsletter insertions. The event presence and article placement tactics were both targeted towards the appropriate audience and decision makers, while the sales outreach approach engaged existing customer channels and created the opportunity to provide them with a new solution. We were able to boost visibility through an extensive social media plan that included paid campaigns across Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and an organic campaign across all three platforms.
The PR itself was distributed globally with a focus on emerging markets (i.e. India, Africa) and translated into common world languages to reach a global audience. To support the release, we worked with a PR agency who knew emerging markets well and could distribute news articles covering the announcement throughout these regions. These articles highlighted the importance of 2G and how we address the challenges associated with it. We also created an engaging infographic that accompanied the articles and was also shared on social media.
Another component of the campaign included submitting our solution for industry awards, eventually winning one and placing as a finalist for another. These awards added credibility and visibility to our solution.
The most effective approach for generating visibility was social media. Over a 30-day period, our low-cost social media campaigns utilized case studies, deployment pictures, and solutions videos to provide interesting content that both engaged our audience while also educating them. We also ran an extensive organic campaign that highlighted new business or technical benefits each day with the goal of driving views to the announcement. This approach was very targeted as the entirety of the campaign was pieced together as a story, starting with the challenges and appealing to people's emotional connection, and slowly building into the technical aspects that explain how we solve these challenges. This enabled us to provide engaging content that also educated our audience while retaining their attention and avoided overwhelming them with an abundance of technical information.
The Parallel Wireless marketing team also engaged the company team members to post on their social media networks which helped drive exponential visibility and promoted company culture to potential new hires. As part of the internal outreach, we also encouraged our sales team to reach out to their accounts and contacts to inform them of the new solution. By providing materials and pre-written outreach emails, our sales team was able to generate additional interest in the new solution which in turn helped generate additional customer meetings.
In addition to digital promotions, we also timed the announcement to coincide with a major industry event taking place in South Africa. As is typical for these events, word of mouth can be an effective tool to create buzz and excitement, so timing the announcement with the event worked well for generating booth traffic. As a result, we were able to reach many decision makers from our target markets and generated significant interest in the new solution.
As a result of our campaign efforts, the PR reached a potential audience of almost 200M, referred 2000+ web sessions, and generated 70+ leads through the event! We spread additional awareness of the solution by pre-briefing 46 press analysts, resulting in 29 news stories, 3 newsletter inclusions, and an executive video interview that educated our target audience. These articles were then promoted on social media using both paid and organic campaigns. Using paid campaigns also allowed us to strategically target regions that would be interested in this solution, leading to 600K impressions at an average cost-per-impression of $0.001. With the organic campaigns reaching 430K+ people, we totaled over 1 million combined impressions! These campaigns also brought 7K+ new followers total across all our social media channels. We also achieved our goal of reaching a global audience by having significant engagements from users in India, Brazil, UK, and throughout the African continent. Lastly, our award submissions ultimately led to one award win and a nomination as a finalist for another, thus adding credibility. By targeting 2G-centric regions and utilizing multiple mediums to spread awareness, this announcement created a healthy pipeline of interested customers that helped to increase our global presence and generate new revenue opportunities!
