Satyam - Launch in Europe
Satyam Computer Services Ltd. is a leading global consulting and IT services company, offering a wide array of solutions customised for a range of key verticals and horizontals. From strategy consulting right through to implementing IT solutions for customers, Satyam straddles the entire IT space. It has domain competencies in verticals such as Automotive, Banking & Financial Service, Insurance & Healthcare, Manufacturing, Telecom-Infrastructure-Media-Entertainment-Semiconductors (TIMES).
Satyams network spans 55 countries, across 6 continents. Nearly 53,000 dedicated and highly skilled IT professionals, work in development centers in India, the USA, the UK, the UAE, Canada, Hungary, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan and Australia and serve over 558 global companies, including over 163 Fortune 500 corporations.
The Brief:
Newshound PR was formally engaged as Satyam’s European agency in March 2006, after an initial trial project the previous autumn. The remit was to build the company’s brand in the UK, Germany and the Benelux territories to support the increased sales focus on the European market. The initial goal was to secure a profile in the media commensurate with its position as India’s fourth largest IT outsourcing organisation.
Prior to working with Newshound Satyam had an ongoing US PR campaign but no focused European PR activity, relying instead on newswires to communicate predominantly financial results to the European media. An initial press audit of those journalist regularly writing about outsourcing, off-shoring and related topics, established that there was minimal awareness of Satyam and no understanding of its competitive positioning against other Indian and global IT integrators.
An independent media audit from independent measurement firm Performance Research, against its key competitors including global players such as Accenture and EDS, placed it in last place with 0.6% share of voice behind all of Indian competitors such as Tata Consulting Service (TCS), Infosys and Wipro, even behind some Indian players with smaller market share figures.
The Challenge:
The other leading Indian outsourcing specialists had been conducting PR activities in the UK for some time and had a head start on Satyam. However in the German and Benelux territories the market was less mature, which presented Satyam with an opportunity to educate the media about the benefits of outsourcing and gain a first-mover advantage in the press.
As there was no precedent for PR in Europe, the initial plan involved developing a European-focused messaging strategy, training the key media spokespeople across the range of different vertical markets and defining a process for the translation, distribution and corporate sign-off of European-generated case studies and press releases as well as for reviewing and adapting non-European press releases for the European media. The agencies across Europe also set to work with the local European sales offices to develop local customer stories; a process which frequently proved time-consuming and difficult, as many companies were reluctant to publicise the fact that they were outsourcing IT services to an Indian company.
Another key challenge for the PR team was to overcome the sometimes negative media comments associated with off-shoring and educate the market about the professionalism of Indian IT companies and minimise the stigma in the media associated with Indian call-centres, exploitation of workers and other inaccurate perceptions portrayed by the press.
The Campaign:
The initial challenge was to jump-start the media campaign and quickly establish Satyam as a leading player on the European outsourcing stage. To do this and to introduce the press first hand to the realities of working for an Indian outsourcing company, Newshound organised a European press tour to India.
Working closely with the European Marketing Manager, Newshound arranged for a group of 13 journalists from the UK, Germany and the Benelux, from a range of titles ranging from Nationals such as the Times in the UK and Handelsblatt in Germany to trade and vertical titles such as IT Week (UK), ComputerWoche (Germany) and Computable (Holland)to visit Satyam’s head office in Hyderabad. The tour lasted for three days and included briefings with the company’s senior executives as well as a trip to visit Satyam’s BPO facility and to view a variety of CSR initiatives to enhance the lives of Indians living in villages around Hyderabad .
The tour was a great success and resulted in 14 pieces of coverage from the journalists attending the tour in the month following the trip. It also successfully elevated Satyam from a 0.8% share of voice in the press to 2.8% and placed it in fifth place behind HCL in the league of Indian companies. In the UK alone the advertising equivalent value of media coverage directly resulting from the tour amounted to more than £53K and the tour gave the campaign a real momentum with many of those journalists going on to write numerous subsequent articles on the company during the ensuing year.
Following on from the tour the challenge was to generate newsworthy European PR stories for the press and continue the process of building a relationship and awareness of Satyam as a leading player in the market. A series of press luncheons and supper meetings were organised in London, Munich and Amsterdam with senior European Satyam executives including a meeting for Satyam’s CEO with the German IT Minister as an ambassador for Indian off-shoring companies doing business in Germany.
Another successful element of the strategy involved using the European-developed case studies to build a profile for Satyam in key vertical market press. Due to the success of the initial press tour the European PR team decided to organise a second European press delegation in February 2007.
The second tour involved 15 European press and included press representing the International title Newsweek, nationals such as The Guardian and leading online press and trade press from Silicon.com and specialist titles such as Outsource in the Netherlands. The second tour resulted in even greater coverage than the previous one including amongst others: an article in Newsweek, two pieces in the Guardian newspaper, and a week of daily online articles on Silicon.com. The total advertising equivalent coverage from this tour in the UK alone amounted to £102K.
The Result:
In the course of a year, the concerted European campaign elevated Satyam from a 0.8% share of voice (SoV) when the campaign commenced at the beginning of 2006, to a 5.1% share of voice amongst all the leading International and Indian IT integrators including EDS, BT and Accenture by the first quarter of 2007. This represents a significantly higher SoV in the media over its market share, since the combined revenue of the five leading Indian outsourcing companies accounts for less than 3% of the total IT service spending
Another major media success was that Satyam was consistently quoted in the European press alongside other leading Indian competitors. Between March 2006 and 2007 the volume of Satyam’s coverage in the UK has increased by more than 800% according to independent media audits by Performance Research. In Benelux & Germany the company’s share of voice exceeded that of its larger rivals achieving a leading SoV over all the Indian IT companies in Benelux with a 6.2% SoV.
According to Priti Thakker, Satyam’s European Marketing Manager, “The European campaign conducted by Newshound PR has truly established Satyam as a leading player in the market and built a positive image for the company within the media. The successful European press tours have not only deepened our relationship with the key press and generated a huge amount of positive press but has also enhanced the understanding and image of the media towards the Indian IT services industry.”