apr securit ottawa opening project

Securit Ottawa Opening Event

Work Sample SubmissionAPR Accreditation

Canadian Public Relations SocietyMarch 20, 2008

Elizabeth HendricksMedia Relations Specialist

Securit

Elizabeth Hendricks Ottawa Securit OpeningCPRS Accreditation

Table of Contents

Title Page

Executive Summary 1

Research 3

Analysis 4

Communication 5

Evaluation 8

Appendixes

SIC Codes Appendix AInvitationProject Action Log

Key Messages Appendix BPress Materials

Press Clippings Appendix CAd Value of Clippings

Budget Appendix DCustomer Survey

Securit Opening Kit Appendix E

CD of Opening Event Video Appendix FEvent Photos

Post Analysis Meeting Minutes Appendix G

New Marketing Brochure Appendix H

Elizabeth Hendricks Ottawa Securit OpeningCPRS Accreditation

Executive Summary

Securit is a global information security company with a network of more than 140 branches with 2,600 employees, servicing 150,000 customers in 16 countries. Securit offers three primary service lines: records management, data protection and Shred-it document destruction. Shred-it, the first Securit service was founded in 1988 by President and CEO Greg Brophy. Securit is one of the fastest growing companies in Canada, achieving double digit revenue growth since its inception.

With Securit’s Ottawa facility nearing completion at the end of June, 2007, I was asked to be the Marketing Project Leader charged with organizing a grand opening event in less than two months. This $10.5-million 86,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility represented a major investment for Securit in expanding its service offering in the Ottawa region. Securit had been providing document destruction services to the Ottawa region, under the brand name Shred-it, since 1993 and the Shred-it brand was well recognized. The Ottawa facility was part of Securit’s strategy of establishing the Securit brand name on a region-by-region basis as they introduced records management and data protection services across the country.

Senior management was concerned about the Ottawa opening given the short time frame and the sparse media coverage that previous opening events had achieved. They were counting on me to provide the public relations expertise and lead the marketing team on this project. The Communications Specialist was asked to work closely with me.

Our key strategy was to position Securit as a Canadian entrepreneurial success story. As a result we chose to hold the official Ottawa opening on Thursday, June 28, 2007 to kick off the Canada Day weekend celebrations. Our objective was to generate positive publicity and build Securit’s brand awareness by securing media coverage and educating clients about its new records management and data protection services.

To increase news coverage, I sent press releases to the Ottawa media and trade magazines two weeks prior to the opening event. To attract our target audiences to attend the opening, we offered tips on how to secure business information and protect data, behind the scene tours, an opportunity to meet the CEO, live entertainment, refreshments and a chance to win prizes. We also organized two breakfast seminars the week before. To further increase direct customer contact, tours were offered to those who could not attend the events.

Elizabeth Hendricks Ottawa Securit OpeningCPRS Accreditation Page 1 of 11

I assembled and co-managed a 10-member project team, chairing weekly meetings in order to develop communications objectives, strategies, tools and tactics and to track execution. I developed all media relations materials and contacted the media to arrange news coverage. Based in Mississauga, I communicated with internal stakeholders: corporate headquarters and the Ottawa branch as well as external stakeholders: media, government, suppliers and potential customers.

While not initially defined, the budget was developed as the communications plan was created.

The Ottawa facility opening was viewed as a business success by all stakeholders. On opening day, the National Post published a full-page Entrepreneur Profile feature story and the Ottawa Citizen published a front page article in its Business section. CTV broadcast footage of a convoy of Securit trucks in front of the new Securit facility. Articles and photos appeared in the Ottawa Business Journal, Secure Destruction Business and Recycling Today. Internal metrics showed that two million people read or watched the media coverage, which had an advertising value of more than $88,000. The Media Relations Rating Points (MRP) system score was 78 percent.

This public relations campaign resulted in immediate and long term benefits for Securit. Immediately following the first seminar, Carefor health services transferred all of its client records to Securit for storage. The post event follow up program has resulted in 40 to 50 new customers.

Customer survey results echo the success of the extensive media coverage and customer education program, showing an across the board improvement in almost every evaluation category.

(440 words)


Ottawa Securit Grand OpeningResearch

Five years ago, when records management and data protection services were introduced, the company name of Shred-it was changed to Securit which emphasizes the security aspect of the services. Securit hadn’t launched a brand recognition campaign because of the phased approach to upgrading Canadian branch facilities. Securit enjoys a 97 per cent customer retention rate through its Shred-it brand, a 99.9 per cent retention rate in record storage segment and a 99.7 per cent retention rate in its data protection segment.

I utilized existing research, reviewing both qualitative and quantitative data and sourced information through formal and informal research.

I reviewed previous Securit openings in Cambridge, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. All events were held one week apart in November, 2006 on a Wednesday from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. They secured local government officials such as the mayor to do the ribbon-cutting. They also had one or two speakers from high profile trade associations and police services. Three of four felt they had high attendance rates, for example 47 guests attended in Calgary (65% of those invited). Unfortunately, a snowstorm caused a low turnout in Edmonton. All branches sent media advisories to their local media. However, only one reporter attended the Cambridge opening and branches received little or no media coverage. Branch general managers believed the issues were media advisories should have been sent earlier, more attention paid to their content for newsworthiness, and follow-up calls should have been made.

I developed the key messages with input from senior management. To ensure my press release was newsworthy, I obtained statistics about data security and breaches and interviewed the Ottawa general manager to obtain specific information about the facility.

A database supplier was provided with 15 SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) codes as selection criteria in order to identify potential customers in the Ottawa area. (See Appendix A) Government, information technology firms and hospitals were identified as our biggest potential customers. This research confirmed that Ottawa was a large and important market for Canada.

When I asked how many guests we should plan for, I was told that the president wanted 200 people. Follow-up calls were made until the day prior, resulting in a confirmed attendance list of 185.


Analysis & Strategy

The key communications strategy was to position Securit as a Canadian entrepreneur success story and to hold the official opening on June 28 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. to kick off the Canada Day weekend celebrations. Two seminars on health and privacy were held on June 19 and June 21 as customer appreciation events.

A decision was made to hold breakfast seminars, for those people unable to attend an after work event due to their schedule. Another strategy was to give people the option to schedule a personal tour of the facility if they were unable to attend any of the events. This option was printed on the invitation.

The official opening of the Securit facility needed to be a high profile event to gain public and media support. We planned to use the facility as a selling tool by conducting behind-the-scene tours to educate people about the security features such as: biometrics and video cameras, electronic tracking, temperature controlled vault for data protection, pump room and emergency back-up generator.

In order to get 200 guests to attend the event and maximize exposure, we decided to send invitations to all 7,000 people identified through customer and prospect lists, SIC codes and selection criteria, government list (supplied by SAMCI, a government relations consulting firm), business contacts and suppliers.

Target Audience: Current Ottawa-based customers Ottawa-area businesses identified by 15 SIC codes and selection criteria Government (Federal/Provincial/Municipal) Senior management team Suppliers Media

My media strategy was to send the press release to the media two weeks prior to the event in order to generate news coverage prior to the opening. In order to secure more coverage, add to the article’s credibility and reader’s interest, I sent the media a photo of the new building and offered them an interior shot of the six-storey racking system.


Communications

Communications Objectives:1. Generate positive publicity by securing media coverage, targeted primarily

at newspapers and trade magazines.2. Build brand awareness of Securit and educate current and potential clients

about its records management and data protection services.

Communications Program

To achieve our communications objectives and fulfill the strategy, the following program elements were developed:

1. Organize an official grand opening event for the new Ottawa facility.2. Organize two breakfast seminars on health and privacy.3. Develop a media relations campaign to persuade journalists to attend the

event and/or write about it.

1. Organize an official grand opening event for the Ottawa facility: June 28, 2007

For the “Grand Opening Celebration” event I developed a communications plan to: Ensure team members complete their tasks within the timeframe provided Source customer and prospect lists Develop an event theme, design an invitation and an e-mail version (See

Appendix B) Utilize the call centre to follow-up 7,000 invitees and create a guest list Utilize SAMCI to write letters to the Ottawa Mayor and Members of

Parliament and follow-up with government guests Update and print corporate profile to include with letters to government

contacts Develop new full service marketing brochure to distribute to guests Create, update and print marketing materials for guests in attendance Write and prepare PowerPoint presentation for President Develop tour script for sales team Provide expertise and assist branch with catering, floor plan, staging,

rentals, trade show booth, hiring entertainment and sourcing door prizes

I worked closely with the Communications Specialist to plan and implement the events. Some of the challenges we encountered were only having a two month lead time, organizing multiple events in Ottawa from Mississauga, holding three events in a two week time frame and delays with building signage. A project schedule was developed showing task interrelations, resources and identifying critical paths. It helped keep the team on target by tracking progress and identifying delays.

2. Organize two breakfast seminars on health and privacy


A healthcare breakfast seminar was held on June 19, 2007 entitled: “Exploring Information Management Trends in Healthcare” featuring speaker Roseanne Pacheco of University Health Network. A legal breakfast seminar was held June 21, 2007 called: “Navigating the Challenging Landscape of PIPEDA” with Murray Long, a private sector privacy expert. To save additional postage, we created an insert with both seminars to send with the grand opening invitation. The insert was included in all invitations eliminating the time spent deciding who received it and who didn’t.

We asked the speakers to send us their presentations so we could format them in PowerPoint with Securit branding. Delegate kits were developed with the speaker’s biography and presentation for those attending.

(See Appendix A for project action log)

3. Develop a media relations campaign to persuade journalists to attend the event and/or write about it

I started the media relations campaign two weeks prior to the official opening event by contacting editors and business writers. I secured coverage in the Ottawa Business Journal, Recycling Today, Secure Destruction Business and Canadian Healthcare Technology prior to the event. I arranged for Ottawa Citizen business reporter Kristin Goff to have a tour of the facility with the Ottawa General Manager, Jamie Mannion the day before the opening. I flew into Ottawa June 27th to manage media and final event logistics. I accompanied Kristin and her photographer on the tour. The result was a front page article in the Citizen’s business section with a large photo. The caption reads, “Securit GM Jamie Mannion is dwarfed by secured files at the company’s new facility in Ottawa’s east end.”

Media Relations Campaign Activities: Develop key messages (see Appendix B) Develop media materials including a news release, advisory, biographies

(See Appendix B) Translate media materials into French Create a media list of Ottawa print and TV outlets and U.S. trade

magazines Pitch the media Obtain jpeg images of interior and exterior of facility Create English and French media kits including “confidential” marketing

brochure Track media coverage and obtain copies (see Appendix C) Calculate advertising value of media coverage (see Appendix C)


Budget

Senior management was 100 per cent behind this project. I asked team members to keep track of all their expenditures and submit the amount of each expense to marketing for the budget and send the receipts to accounting for payment or reimbursement.

The following budget provides costs associated with the grand opening event and two customer appreciation seminars.

Marketing Materials 1,000 Corporate fact sheets $ 450.001,000 Securit brochures $ 1,471.006,830 Invitations and postage $12,882.30

Website development $ 2,303.86Trade show booth set-up and shipping $ 3,398.81Promotional items $ 1,307.00Prizes and gifts $ 1,300.00Travel for marketing staff and speaker $ 3,417.62Entertainment $ 1,233.00

Marketing Total $27,753.51

Ottawa Branch Total $20.259.22Catering and rental of tent, stage, audio/visual, table, chairs, fans

Budget Total: $48,012.73

The budget is project based and does not include salary dollars.(See Appendix D)


Evaluation

Objective 1: Generate positive publicity, primarily in newspapers and trade magazines

On opening day, the National Post published a full-page Entrepreneur Profile feature story about Shred-it/Securit founder Greg Brophy. The Ottawa Citizen ran a front page article in the Business section which included a colour photo of General Manager Jamie Mannion. CJOH/CTV 6 p.m. newscast broadcast a shot of the building and footage of a convoy of Shred-it trucks kicking off the ceremony. Articles also appeared in the Ottawa Business Journal, Secure Destruction Business, Recycling Today, Canadian Healthcare Technology and Carefor Health Services Newsletter. All of these articles appeared on each media outlet’s website and nine months later, remain online. The exterior building photo I provided was published in Secure Destruction Business magazine’s July/August issue plus two online articles. The interior shot was published in Recycling Today and is currently on their website.

I produced a media results report with readership impressions and ad value of each article. The total advertising value of this media coverage was $88,205. My calculations show that over two million people read or viewed the media coverage. I contacted each media outlet requesting the price of an ad equal to the size of the article plus readership and web visitors (unique visitors per month). These two numbers were added together to calculate total impressions.

The Media Relations Rating Points (MRP) system score was 78 percent. The measurement indicated an average tone of 3 (neutral) and an average rating of 4.8 based on the following five criteria: brand, spokesperson quote, key message, exclusivity and photo image. Based on a program budget of 60K (50K event costs plus 10K salary) the cost per contact was $0.03. This was calculated by dividing the project budget by total audience reach.

Comments from project team at post-analysis meeting: Great article in Ottawa Citizen. A lot of people saw the coverage in the

Citizen that day. It went a long way and should have a ripple effect for the future. The Ottawa Business Journal gave us great coverage with an online article, a published article and a photo of Greg and caption on page two. CTV broadcast coverage of the trucks and building shot on the 6 p.m. newscast.

Recommendation: Sales people should use copies of the Ottawa Citizen article to promote

their services to prospective clients.

Objective 2: Build brand awareness of Securit and educate current and potential clients about its records management and data protection services.


The 2007 survey of customer expectations showed a significant increase over 2006 and compared to 2007 corporate rates. The average score was 4.10 out of 5. The “2007 Overall Customer Survey Results” for Ottawa show higher scores for 33 out of 37 questions over 2006. Compared to 2007 corporate rates, Ottawa boasted increased scores in 36 out of 37 questions. The results indicated improved performance in the five most important areas of customer service. The 2007 mean score was significantly higher in nine areas. (See Appendix D)

As a result of the records management facility opening, Carefor (a major healthcare client for document destruction) transferred all of its client records for storage (1,300 boxes) after attending the healthcare seminar. The post event follow up program has resulted in 40 to 50 new customers.

Here are some of the testimonials which supported our objectives:

“A Grand Opening Event can only be successful if you get the targeted groups to attend. Like any other event, we compete for our clients’ limited time and attention. I believe the Ottawa Grand Opening was a resounding success because of the time and effort that Elizabeth and the Marketing Team put into the planning and follow up with the extensive list that we started with. In addition, it was crucial to get media coverage in order to raise our brand awareness with the rest of the community. Getting exposure on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen Business section only happens if you can make it an interest piece for the reporter and that is where Elizabeth demonstrated her abilities. The media coverage we received far outweighed the costs of putting on the event.” - Jamie Mannion, Regional Manager, Eastern Canada, Securit (formerly Ottawa General Manager)

“The executive management team and our major stakeholders felt the Ottawa Grand Opening was a great success. Elizabeth did a great job of generating positive publicity by securing media coverage in key newspapers and trade publications.” and “I would like to take you to lunch to recognize the outstanding effort you put into the Ottawa grand opening.” - Susan Robinson, Chief People & Performance Officer, Securit

“I appreciated the dedicated efforts of Elizabeth and her team from head office in developing and planning our grand opening event. Our customers and the local businesspeople I met at the event were very impressed with our facility and new services. We continue to receive requests for tours of our facility from people who couldn’t attend. We have a 100% closing rate from all our tours. Printing this option on the invitation was a great strategy!”- Joanne M. Licari, Sales Manager, Securit Ottawa


”I can tell you that the three people from Health Canada at the opening had nothing but praise for the facility and the visible security for their 100k+ box inventory. I also spent time with Lola Docherty from Stats Canada who had similar comments.”- Tom Hunter, Team Lead, Sales, Securit Ottawa

“Hi Tom, we would just like to thank you for inviting us to your grand opening.... WOW. We were so impressed with your facility. Franco will be very interested in having a personal tour.”- April Dumais, Doculink Shipping Supervisor, Doculink International, Kanata

“Thank you very much for the very informative seminar this morning. The early start time did not interfere with my regular work day. Thank you for the tour. You have a wonderful facility!”- Madeline Marcotte, Records Department, Carefor Health & Community Services

The project team agreed that the work we did should be captured and documented to benefit all branches.

I developed a ‘Securit Opening Kit’, a communications blueprint to help other branches plan their own opening events. This helped ensure consistent messaging to reinforce the Securit brand. This kit consists of a best practice guide, project plan, media kit and sample invitations for a customer appreciation or open house event. These documents will be posted on the Marketing Resource Centre site so other branches can utilize our organizational tools when planning their own event. (See Appendix E)

A two and a half minute video of the grand opening event was produced which now plays on a 52 inch screen in the Ottawa branch lobby. (See Appendix F)

I conducted a post-analysis meeting with the project team to request feedback on the success of the event and captured some great feedback and recommendations for helping branches attract more business. (See Appendix G)

One of the lessons I learned was to avoid planning too many events scheduled too closely together. In future, I would concentrate all my efforts on organizing the opening event. I would recommend a series of seminars be scheduled after the opening event, after asking for input from guests and customers.


The success of this project can be attributed to the effective management of multiple communications channels and having well defined target audiences. By researching and benchmarking previous branch openings, I built on past successes and mitigated past failures. By recognizing the lack of media coverage at previous events, I identified the need to pitch an interesting entrepreneurial story. The coverage in the Ottawa Citizen and National Post created excitement on event day and increased brand image across Canada. The CEO and senior management felt the opening event was a huge success. Securit’s brand image was further enhanced by the seamless execution of tours and presentations, the professional marketing materials and open, two-way dialogue between Securit staff and guests. The invitations, sent to a targeted audience of 7,000, combined with the strong media coverage, ensured a broad communication of our branding in the Ottawa region and beyond. This highly successful public relations campaign directly contributed to the development of new customers and increased revenues for Securit Ottawa. Since the opening event, the Ottawa branch has conducted 40 to 50 tours, with an unprecedented closing rate of 100 percent.

(1,964 words)


apr securit ottawa opening project

Documents