One of the technology industry’s biggest events took place a little differently this year. Collision from Home 2020 featured thought leaders from around the world and attendees participating from the comfort of their own homes. We secured a panelist spot for Aptum’s CEO and president Susan Bowen to talk about how to unite a remote team.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid and dramatic shift to work-from-home practices, leaving unprepared organizations scrambling to catch up. StrategicAmpersand helped Chief Financial Officer Shenif Visram share his perspective with Exchange Magazine on what IT services will look like after COVID-19.
With its popularity soaring in recent months, StrategicAmpersand worked with Zoom to tell its story in Canada. We arranged for Zoom’s Global CIO, Harry Moseley, to speak with security publication Canadian Security, sharing insights about how the company ramped up to quickly meet the needs of its growing user base, shifted its engineering team to focus on security, and more.
Waze uses driver input to help plan routes but it also relies on a global community of volunteers who edit maps and improve the user experience. To raise awareness of the 60,000-strong Waze community, StrategicAmpersand brought Driving.ca, MobileSyrup and L’actualite to a gathering of map editors in Miami for the North American Mega Meetup. Media spoke with dozens of Waze staff and volunteers and came away with a new understanding of what makes Waze different, resulting in nine stories in the weeks following the event.
StrategicAmpersand worked closely with Sharp Electronics of Canada to reintroduce Canadians to a company with a long and varied history. President Carmine Cinerari got up close and personal in The Globe and Mail about Sharp, discussing how he led the company through challenging times, sharing his leadership philosophy on The Business Leadership Podcast and The Sergey Ross Show, and updating partners and Canadians about the latest and greatest news.
The Nikon Z 50 mirrorless camera launched just in time for the holiday season and StrategicAmpersand educated consumers with a mix of editorial and paid placements in traditional and social media. TV viewers had a chance to win a Z 50 on Breakfast Television Calgary’s 12 Days of Gadget Giveaways. YouTube creator Jess Brooke shared how she uses her Z 50 to produce content. We also partnered with Daily Hive to create an article targeting content creators. Many first-hand reviews of the Z 50 appeared on TV and online, with pieces reaching both technical-minded photographers and consumers alike.
The key to great media relations is making it easier for journalists to do their jobs. StrategicAmpersand put this approach into practice by pitching timely stats from McAfee’s holiday cyber scam research. We secured a story with CTV News that zeroed in on how Canadians are targeted by cybercriminals during the season. A week later, the research proved useful a second time in a fresh CTV News story about Black Friday shopping scams. Then, late in the season, LifeLabs reported a data breach and CTV cited McAfee’s research a third time to provide context for cyber crime activity in Canada. The combination of local statistics and relevance to breaking news proved irresistible. When media see PR as a resource, clients win.
Cogeco Peer 1 was acquired and announced a name change to Aptum Technologies. StrategicAmpersand was engaged to develop a comprehensive global rebranding including: visual identity, brand usage guidelines, graphical assets, the corporate narrative, website and intranet design, sales collateral, launch videos, internal and external communications and public relations. This extensive rebranding helped bridge Aptum’s heritage with their vision for the future and supported their position as a leading service provider.
StrategicAmpersand shared the story of Luke, a boy from Montreal who made a game on the Roblox entertainment platform to teach other kids about depression and mental health in the wake of his father’s death. The moving story resonated with journalists, and pieces appeared on national CTV News, in the local Montreal Gazette, and in Tech Daily. Following the coverage, Luke saw a spike in visits to his game.
The original remit was to focus on inviting journalists to attend a panel discussion at Collision. StratAmp saw an opportunity to adopt a more intimate storytelling approach and to go beyond the conference, driving meaningful conversations around the concept of using play to help kids navigate depression and mental health.
For the third year in a row, OpenText hosted its annual Enterprise World conference in Toronto. Media from around the world were in attendance as OpenText made a number of critical announcements, and hosted inspiring discussions on stage (captured by Canadian media) with Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Peter Gabriel. StrategicAmpersand managed Canadian PR, resulting in coverage from Financial Post, Bloomberg and BNN Bloomberg, to Canadian Underwriter, Canadian Security, and more.
