EMC wanted to break the record in hosting its biggest ever press event and AxiCom Italy was there to deliver the media both through their participation and reporting

The Challenge

EMC is a worldwide leader in solutions and technologies for managing the information infrastructure. Historically focused on the storage market, it has gradually extended its range of solutions, currently offering a wealth of products covering storage, content management, security, data management, deduplication and cloud computing.

In order to re-vamp its storage stronghold, under the banner of a Record Breaking Tour, EMC has organized a MegaLaunch event, to promote the largest product announcement of its history – 41 products, covering all the aspects of the storage market. The event has been held simultaneously in three locations – New York, London and Singapore. 

The Strategy

All agencies wererequested to define a local communication project to support the global launch. Corporate marketing and communication have invested a lot in the event, and the need to maximize its overall visibility and coverage was key. The focus of the event, though, was fairly technical, therefore communication activities were targeted mainly to trade and channel press.

Axicom Italy, working in close cooperation with the Client’s local communication team, drafted a shortlist of press to invite to the London event, offering the possibility of meeting the company’s top executives. Tier one editors were invited to London, while tier two press were hosted in local follow-up actions.

Ten journalists, representing Italy’s key trade and channel press, were invited to London and attended the conference. They flew from Milan and Rome to the UK - each of them individually briefed for the event, always keeping in mind the confidentiality of the forthcoming announcements – the product news had to generate as much noise as possible, but only after the event date, therefore avoiding advance communication leaks was key.

The Results

The conference itself was a great success, with approx 70 journalists from all over Europe attending the London event – where the EMC CEO delivered his keynote.

Italian press attending the event generated a high number of dedicated articles, more than 1 per each journalist, covering all the different announcements presented in London. All in all, more than 45 specific articles have been dedicated by the Italian press to the event, not counting simple press release pickups. This result has enabled EMC to break its records, not only around storage but also around communication.