Weber Shandwick has announced new partnerships with three sponsors of the Beijing 2008 Olympics: Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd., makers of Yili milk; COFCO Wines & Spirits (GREATWALL WINE); and Shanghai Mobile, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Mobile.
Briefed to help these Chinese companies leverage their sponsorships of the Games this August, the wins are a result of Weber Shandwick’s recent efforts to bring its public relations services to domestic Chinese clients. These multiple wins follow the November 2007 hire of new vice president, Sonny Yang, who now leads the firm’s domestic client business in China.
“First and foremost, local clients have demonstrated a great need for the resources and capabilities that our global network provides,” said Yang. “For these clients, Weber Shandwick offers the understanding and experience of having managed global integrated communications campaigns. I believe our passion to perform is what made us stand out in the field of Olympic-related communications.”
Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd., or “Yili Group,” has enlisted prominent athletes as their spokespeople, including Chinese Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang and China’s “diving queen,” Guo Jingjing. To ensure its Olympic sponsorship is integrated into its overall communication program, the domestic dairy giant held a highly competitive pitch involving 20 roster agencies.
“Weber Shandwick demonstrated they have a great understanding of both the Chinese and Olympic markets. They know how to leverage our Olympic property and connect with our target audience,” said Na An, associate marketing director at Yili Group.
In the case of COFCO Wines & Spirits (GREATWALL WINE), the leading Chinese wine brand plans to use its Olympic sponsorship as a platform to launch a series of corporate responsibility initiatives, selecting Weber Shandwick as its public relations partner after a competitive four-round pitch. “We strongly believe that Weber Shandwick’s local insight, winery industry expertise and international contacts will enhance this partnership and assist the continued development of our business,” said Phoebe Wang, deputy general manager, GREATWALL WINE. “What really makes Weber Shandwick stand out from other agencies is their ability to provide one-stop solutions for the multiple needs of Olympic communications."
Finally, Shanghai Mobile has selected Weber Shandwick as its public relations partner. The firm is charged with raising brand awareness for this sponsor of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, itself a local subsidiary of China Mobile, the official mobile communications service provider of the 2008 Olympic Games.
Weber Shandwick’s “Making a Difference” awards programme honours the pro-bono work of colleagues around the world. In the third annual competition, campaigns from Sydney, Belfast and Washington, D.C. were selected.
The Sydney office earned an award for its work with the Macular Degeneration Foundation for Macular Degeneration Awareness Week 2007. The Macular Degeneration Foundation (MDF) engaged colleagues from the health and wellness team in Sydney to promote the prevalence of this ocular disease within Australia during Macular Degeneration Awareness Week (MDAW), 25 June – 1 July 2007. Noticing the public’s misunderstanding of the importance in protecting their eyes from Macular Degeneration (MD), the MDF sought to use MDAW as a chance to educate Australians about MD and encourage them to be proactive in protecting their vision.
Weber Shandwick colleagues worked with Galaxy Research to create a consumer survey, developed a news hook to conduct consumer research into awareness levels of MD and engaged the media on the survey results. The team directed its national media campaign toward talk radio and metropolitan newspapers with their survey, media kit, celebrity spokespeople and case studies. As a result, MDAW 2007 was the most successful in its seven-year campaign history. Additionally, our colleagues helped MDF increase its visibility—demonstrated by the 340% increase in calls to the MDF support line and by the 700% increase in media impressions from MDAW 2006.
Weber Shandwick’s work in the Belfast, Ireland, office to launch the Robbie Millar Scholarship was also awarded, as was the Washington, D.C. team’s grand opening programme for the President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldier’s Home, National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Eleven more Weber Shandwick client programmes around the world received honourable mentions, including Singapore’s work with Habitat for Humanity for Build4Hope 2007.
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| Weber Shandwick's China team publishes China Technology Today newsletter |
The first edition of China Technology Today, Weber Shandwick China’s technology industry newsletter, was published in April 2008. The newsletter keeps readers up-to-date with China technology industry news and media movements and spotlights technology PR case studies. The first edition included news on 3G in China and the growth of China’s Internet population.
The newsletter is the brainchild of Scott Sykes, who leads Weber Shandwick China’s technology and new media practices. “We have had an amazingly positive response to the newsletter, which shows that there is a tremendous interest in what is happening in the China technology sector, both here and abroad,” said Sykes.
The newsletter is also available online via Twitter at http://twitter.com/ChinaTechToday. If you are interested in the new media landscape in China, you can read news and Syke’s views at http://twitter.com/scottsykes.
At the US SABRE Awards, Weber Shandwick client programmes earned four awards. Campaigns for Chemistry.com, Yum! Brands and Siemen’s Corporation all won Gold Awards and the consumer product programme with Mattel earned a Silver Award. Weber Shandwick CEO Harris Diamond was the inaugural recipient of the SABRE Award for Outsdanding Individual Achievement in Public Relations.
The agency earned 24 Gold and Silver US SABRE Award nominations and topped the list of European SABRE Awards finalists with an impressive 21 nominations. Weber Shandwick had more finalists than any other firm in this premier awards competition.
At the European SABRE Awards, held in May 2008, the agency took home six awards—more than any other agency—including the Pan-European PR Campaign of the Year for Sochi’s bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic games. Other winning client programmes were “The affordable affluence index” for Royal Bank of Scotland, “Securing planning permission for Ireland’s first IKEA store,” “African green revolution conference 2007” for Yara, “Free range working” for Microsoft and “Pan-European public advocacy campaign” for the Save Darfur Coalition.
The International Public Relations Associations’ (IPRA) Golden World Awards, the reception for which will occur in June 2008, also granted Weber Shandwick 25 nominations. Results will be shared in the coming months.
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