Konica Minolta: establishing credibility with influencers and decision makers

Our Spotlight campaign idea recognised the fact that Enterprise IT decision makers have significant challenges ahead of them as the technology demands of the workplace change beyond all recognition. So, we created a multi-channel, content-led platform for Konica to address the challenges and opportunities associated with the future workplace.

In the pre-launch phase, compelling films, photography, infographics and articles were seeded to influencers, media and potential customers with an integrated social media campaign.

This built momentum for Spotlight Live in Berlin; a TED-style event for a global audience attending in-person and on-line. The event was headlined by Douglas Copeland and included a dramatic reveal of Workplace Hub itself.

Strategy

We set out to create a global platform that would allow Konica Minolta to engage these audiences and present its new product, as well as their strategic direction for the brand, in a compelling and informative way. The platform was designed to shine a light on an increasingly disrupted world of work, bringing into focus the challenges and opportunities facing businesses today. By looking at the big picture issues that we knew were on our potential customers’ minds, we could begin to position Konica Minolta’s thought leadership and solutions within this broader context.

We called this platform Spotlight and adopted a PESO (paid, earned, shared and owned) strategy that enabled us to create a campaign with multiple touchpoints, targeting different audiences with appropriate content and tactics including thought leadership, films, social-media posts and, of course, live experiences.

Challenges

Jack Morton was asked to develop brand salience and credibility, positioning Konica Minolta within the IT sector while also building strong relationships with an important community of stakeholders that included journalists, analysts, social media influencers, thought leaders and, indeed, potential customers.

At the heart of the campaign was an online hub - www.kmspotlight.com - which acted as a repository for campaign content. Over the course of an eight week run-up to the press launch event, we published articles, films and infographics around a diverse range of topics relating to the future of work, such as artificial intelligence and the psychological benefits of more office plant life.

By focusing on the changing landscape of people, places and practices we positioned Konica Minolta as an authority on the changing nature of work and the role of technology in enabling that change.

We brought in industry recognised experts, such as Raconteur and YouGov to lend their opinions to Konica Minolta thought pieces, thus providing press with news worthy content. We also ensured that this thinking found its way into the design of the launch experience, a TED-style live event called Spotlight Live. For example, we applied the latest thinking in physical office design to the environmental design of the launch event.

Results

Hosted in Berlin, Spotlight Live saw Konica Minolta inviting over 200 press, key customers and employees to full day of brand experience. The purpose of Spotlight Live was to allow Konica Minolta senior executives to unveil Workplace Hub and communicate first-hand the strategic shift the company was undertaking. An industrial space in the heart of Berlin provided an intriguing backdrop for proceedings. The entire location was transformed through dynamic set design, lighting and audio visual into a modern ‘shared workplace’ style environment.

A heritage wall was created charting Konica Minolta’s rich history of innovation that guests could interact with and the space was designed to look and feel like a dynamic future looking office space complete with living walls, innovative use of materials and seating to create the illusion that guests were in a workplace of the future. Having experienced the space, guests were entertained with a keynote speech (by the best-selling and award-winning author Douglas Coupland), a panel discussion featuring leading thought leaders & experts, presentations by Konica Minolta’s key executives, including global chief executive officer Shoei Yamana and, finally, a theatrical reveal of Workplace Hub itself.

The entire event was hosted by the BBC’s Spencer Kelly and was streamed and broadcast live across social networks, video sharing sites, broadcast newswires and to Konica Minolta offices around the world. After the presentations and product reveal, a ‘workplace of the future’ demonstration zone was unveiled in which guests could get hands on with new Konica Minolta products and innovations. This area was hosted by Konica Minolta experts who were on-hand to answer questions.

A full media relations campaign was undertaken in the build-up to the event, with attending media from 10 countries present in Berlin. Press were given one-on-one interviews with key Konica Minolta executives and event speakers, resulting in print, online and broadcast coverage

Following the event, media were invited to a dinner where they could socialise with Konica Minolta executives, helping facilitate relationship building.

The true success of the campaign was that Spotlight helped position Konica Minolta as a forward thinking, solution focused, innovation led business; one that develops products to improve the world of work and one that now stands out in a crowded IT services marketplace.

The overview of results were as follows:

• 200+ in-person attendees for Spotlight Live in Berlin
• #KMSpotlight top trending on Twitter during launch event
• 3,000,000 global impressions created
• 75 articles published