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Alicia Rose Bell has orchestrated a wide range of marketing communications projects during her career. Following are case studies of her work in public relations, event management, marketing planning, internal communications, and direct mail. To see what Alicia Rose Bell can do for you, call (214) 793-2352 or e-mail results@aliciarosebell.com. Project
Case Studies
In the fall of 2002, the president-elect for the Dallas chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators approached me about joining the organization's 2003 board of directors. I accepted the nomination and took on the role of directing the Bronze Quill Program, the chapter's premier annual event and awards competition. As the program's co-director, I was responsible for planning and executing the entire event and successfully managed every aspect of the project from theme selection to communication planning to establishing and maintaining the event budget. I created a comprehensive communications plan outlining the promotion of the event, which included an innovative and cost-effective electronic campaign with regular e-mail messages and a Flash-enabled Call for Entries, as well as ways to leverage the organization's existing communication vehicles. Attention to detail was paramount for each step of the program's preparation — from selecting a venue to directing the graphic designer to managing the judging and awards process. Overall, the 2003 Bronze Quill Awards Program was a grand success. The theme Leave Your Mark was chosen to illustrate the significance of the accomplishments that would be recognized. More than 60 entries were received with 25 total winners. Seasoned IABC leaders expressed their approval with comments like "Great work! Looks like [the directors] are incredibly organized and well prepared," and "This kind of great work only adds to the positive image for our chapter!" Local comedian and communications consultant, Joel Zeff served as the event's Emcee and Cynthia B. Nunn, president of the Dallas Boys & Girls Club offered the keynote speech on what it means to leave your mark — both in your profession and your community. Event sponsors included well-known corporations such as Centex, Kinko's and BeautiControl. The event came in well under budget and made more than $4,000 profit. Dallas/IABC was later recognized as the International Chapter of the Year for 2003, due in part to the success of the Bronze Quill Awards Program.
EDS wanted a direct mail campaign that leveraged the mass exposure and popularity of its award-winning "herding cats" Super Bowl commercial. To reduce costs and maximize resources, my team opted for a single concept to market several disparate financial transaction processing solutions. Bean-bag cats bearing bandannas with the EDS logo were mailed in cat-carrier like boxes. Personalized sales letters and collateral on select EDS solutions were also included. For this three-dimensional campaign, I developed the exterior box copy, wrote cat-themed sales letters, project managed fulfillment and managed a database of target contacts. In addition, I created a Web site to manage the drawing, track responses and obtain prospects' contact information. More than 3,000 cat boxes were mailed to EDS prospects. To date the company has signed more than $12 million in new contracts as a result of the campaign. This project received an IABC Silver Quill Award in 2001.
EDS' financial transaction management group needed a fresh, innovative way to reach sales. Since the sales team is responsible for the full spectrum EDS' diverse offerings, it's important to give them packaged, useful information about new or unique solutions. My goal was to capture the sales team's attention and educate them on four "quick hit" solutions from the financial services portfolio. For sales, the most compelling feature these solutions share is speed. Each of the offerings has a short sales cycle and rapid implementation time. These solutions offer the opportunity to secure new business in as little as two weeks with implementation in three months or less. With the ever-nearing fourth quarter and mounting pressure to meet targets in mind, I launched a project to create a comprehensive tool on these quick-sale solutions. The deliverable was a two-disc interactive sales toolkit, which included an audio training option. The Downloadable Details CD featured information on the target client profile, key selling points, client case studies and other helpful sales tools for each of the offerings. On the audio CD, dubbed Sales Soundbytes, a unique listen-and-learn format provided recorded offering information the team could use while commuting in their car or on any other traditional CD player. As project manager, I created the format for both the interactive and audio portions on the toolkit. I wrote the copy for the flash screens, as well as the scripts for Sales Soundbytes. Working with a flash designer, media services professional and production house, I orchestrated the project from start to finish, and even performed the voice recording for the introduction and moderating of the audio tool. Personal copies of the CD were sent directly to EDS Client Executives, instantly putting valuable information in their hands that could lead to add-on business. Each of EDS' 14 regions received multiple copies of the toolkit for general use and training. And all of the CD content, including the individual audio tracks, was posted to the internal sales Web site for convenient downloading. Feedback from the sales team has been positive since the CD was released in October 2002. Three other EDS groups are currently preparing CDs for their offerings, leveraging the format that my toolkit pioneered.
Leading IT services provider, EDS had recently reshaped its organization to effectively target its ever-changing market. Two leaders emerged, both with a message for their combined employee base, which makes up about 80 percent of the company. To enable these senior-level executives to reach their employees with their roadmap for the future, I was tasked with coordinating a Global Town Hall in June 2002. Dubbed "Collaborative Synergy," the event was designed to share the vision for how these two new groups would work closely together for EDS' continued success. I orchestrated the complex event by coordinating myriad technical, promotional and messaging details. I led a variety of sub-teams including online, audio/visual producers, graphic artists and speechwriters to create an EDS town hall with unprecedented attendance. The Global Town Hall served more than 90,00 employees worldwide. It was broadcast live to 125 worldwide locations and replayed for Asia Pacific employees. At company headquarters in Plano, more than 850 employees attended the town hall in person and for the first time in EDS history, the newly expanded 750 line call-in number was maxed out by the start of the broadcast. The event Web site experienced 18,000+ hits and the streaming video was downloaded more than 1,000 times worldwide. Hundreds of copies of the video were ordered in VHS and CD-Rom formats. In these uncertain economic times, the open communication from executives was welcomed by employees. Response to the post-event survey indicated many were "charged," "encouraged," "confident," and "informed."
The Wilkins Group, Inc. was a small, but growing private telecommunications company whose leaders wanted a marketing boost to expand on their success. I was brought on board to develop corporate communications strategy and tactics to help the company promote their wide range of services, including PBX switch installation, cabling and network design. My efforts focused on enhancing the company's professional image and promoting consistency for presentation of the company and its services. Since marketing was relatively new for this family-run business, the first steps were basic — define overall key messages and target audiences and create a brand identity. After establishing a new brand with logo, tagline, print and correspondence standards, I developed a marketing plan, seeking out high-impact opportunities to promote the company. Among these tactics were a feature article in the Dallas Business Journal, a new client newsletter, a presence at Dallas' ITEC Expo trade show, and a private Villa at the Byron Nelson. These and other elements of my marketing plan enabled the company to raise awareness of their organization and its services. By leveraging these opportunities with a consistent look and focused messages, the company continued to grow.
EDS Relocation Services is a profitable, but low-profile service for EDS. The group offers comprehensive relocation support to companies like Ericsson, Mary Kay, Samsung Electronics and TXU. In preparing for the group's annual client conference, it was important to keep their audience in mind. The predominantly female group of clients and prospects were a far cry from the typical CxO targets for other EDS services. Relocation clients are primarily HR executives, most of who had a background in real estate along with an upbeat personality to appreciate a whimsical theme. My team and I chose Wizards of Ez for our theme with the tagline There's no place like home for your employees and together we've got what it takes to get them there smoothly. The concept played on both the ease of outsourcing relocation services and the "e" in electronic, which tied to the sessions on how EDS leverages innovative technology to further streamline the relocation process. The theme resonated through the conference materials including a printed invitation, Web site, handout materials and signage. Wizards of Ez enabled EDS to demonstrate its depth and breadth of expertise in this niche market, provided a forum to showcase new services and helped strengthen key client relationships — all planting the seed for new and expanded contracts.
In 1998, National Semiconductor was ready to pioneer a new market, which they dubbed Information Appliances. Innovative tools like personal digital assistants and cell-phone enabled e-mail had barely entered into the world of consumer electronics. National saw the potential opportunity in this space and wanted to establish a position of thought leadership in what they saw as the next digital frontier. To achieve this goal, I identified National's differentiating capabilities in this market and developed a seven-piece collateral suite and Web content illustrating National's natural dominance in this would-be market. I prepared a detailed white paper outlining how the company had all the right technology to meet the current and future needs of this high-growth market. I also crafted a bylined article on the topic for National's Cyrix subsidiary, which was featured in Microsoft's Windows CE Magazine. The white paper, collateral, online content and supporting public relations efforts led to a barrage of media coverage, commending the company's vision and positioning National Semiconductor as a thought leader with the right technology to lead this exciting new market.
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©2006
Alicia Rose Bell Communications. All Rights Reserved. |
