Company: Racepoint Group, Inc., Waltham, MA
Company Description: Racepoint Group is an award-winning global public relations agency with special expertise in digital media relations. We leverage the power of traditional and digital media relations to elevate premium and emerging technology, health and science brands – generating world-class media and analyst coverage. Racepoint has offices in Boston, San Francisco, and London and affiliates worldwide.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Communications Campaign

Nomination Title: Bridging the Digital Divide: One Laptop per Child

1. Tell the story about this nominated communications program (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Forty years ago, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte had a dream about using
technology to educate and empower children to make the world a better place –
particularly in developing nations. In early 2005, Negroponte felt that the
technological barriers could be overcome, and so he launched One Laptop per
Child (OLPC), a non-profit organization to design, manufacture and distribute
low-cost laptop computers to provide every child in the world access to new
channels of learning and self-expression.

By late 2006, Negroponte realized that OLPC needed a global communications
campaign to influence governments to commit to the program. Furthermore, as it
became apparent that OLPC might actually succeed in delivering a low-cost
laptop to one billion children, two industry giants – Intel and Microsoft –
began their own FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) campaigns to discredit OLPC
and shut it down. Negroponte’s big dream was no longer viewed as one
man’s “pipe dream,” but as a viral movement to be squashed.

Over the course of 2007, the OLPC communications campaign had three overarching
objectives: (1) to recruit ten governments to work with OLPC; (2) to fight the
Intel FUD campaign, which was spending millions on product dumping and
disparaging OLPC to governments; and (3) to drive North American consumer
participation in a Give One Get One campaign to fund the delivery of 100,000 XO
laptops to children in the world’s poorest nations.

Racepoint devised a three-pronged platform to communicate OLPC’s multi-faceted
story to the world. The messaging stressed OLPC’s moral purpose, education
purpose, and technology innovation. OLPC was positioned as a humanitarian
initiative whose mission is to eradicate poverty by providing poor children
with access to modern education. In terms of technology innovation, the XO is
the first computer designed specifically for children in remote and rural
environments.

Throughout 2007, Racepoint announced a series of milestones to prove that OLPC
could deliver a first-rate, low-cost laptop. The PR campaign generated more
than 20,000 print and broadcast features and 60,000+ blog posts. Print media
highlights included stories in the International Herald Tribune; multiple
stories in the New York Times, including a front-page story; multiple stories
in the Wall Street Journal, including three on the front page; Le Monde; Der
Spiegel; O Globo; The Guardian; Times of London; The Australian; The Hindustan
Times; The Globe and Mail; The Economist; The Christian Science Monitor; TIME;
Newsweek. Broadcast media coverage included CBS “60 Minutes,” PBS “The NewsHour
with Jim Lehrer,” ABC “World News Tonight,” ABC “Good Morning
America, ”NBC “Today Show,” CNN International, BBC World, BBC News, BSkyB, NHK,
Fuji-TV, France 24, Al-Jazeera and several programs on National Public Radio
(NPR).

The media blitz shaped global public opinion in favor of OLPC. The non-profit
now has purchase commitments from Peru and Uruguay and is in discussions with
two dozen other countries. Give One Get One exceeded expectations by raising
$35 million and enabled laptop deliveries to Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia,
Haiti, Mongolia and Rwanda. While OLPC has much work to do to fulfill its
mission, 500,000 XO laptops are on their way to children worldwide and the
digital divide is on its way to being closed.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/09/olpc.negroponte/ 
– CNN International article - Give One Get One

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2007/11/14/whitfield.intv.negroponte.one.
laptop.cnn.cnn?iref=videosearch  – CNN video - Give One Get One

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3645338&page=1  – ABC World News Tonight

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7115348.stm  – BBC in Nigeria

http://olpc.tv/2008/02/20/khairat-village-kids-show-off-their-xo-laptops/  –
Tech 2 TV in India

http://search.cbsnews.com/?source=cbs&q=Nicholas+Negroponte&x=21&y=6  – CBS 60
Minutes story

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/technology/30laptop.html?scp=30&sq=One+
Laptop+per+Child&st=nyt  – NY Times front page story

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that carried out this nominated communications program:

For more than two decades, President and CEO of Racepoint Group Marijean
Lauzier has provided strategic marketing and public relations counsel to the
world’s leading technology, health and science companies. A successful
entrepreneur and chief executive, Marijean has founded, sold, integrated and
built over $500 million in public relations agency revenues since 1990. Prior
to founding Racepoint, Marijean was President and COO of Weber Shandwick, the
world's largest global public relations firm.

Marijean is at the forefront of helping the world’s top brands and emerging
companies develop and implement digital strategies that build thought
leadership and generate demand. She has been recognized as one of "The 50 Most
Powerful Women in PR.”