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Company: Weber Shandwick Belgium
Company Description: Honeywell Turbo Technologies is the world’s leading automotive turbocharger developer, supplying technology solutions to nearly every major carmaker worldwide. The Turbo business is part of Honeywell Transportation Systems, which enhances vehicle performance, efficiency and appearance through state-of-the-art technologies, world-class brands, and global solutions.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Marketing - Business-to-Business
Nomination Title: The Future Is Turbocharged
Tell the story about this nominated campaign since 1 January 2010 (up to 500 words). Be sure to cover the genesis, development, performance, and results of the campaign.
CHALLENGE
Honeywell Turbo Technologies is the world’s leading developer of automotive turbochargers. The US company sells 75% of its Garrett brand turbos direct to car manufacturers and 25% to garages.
Despite dominating the European turbo market, Honeywell faced huge challenges:
• Along with the entire automotive industry, it had been hit hard by the global economic downturn
• Share of voice in the European media was low in relation to its market share
• The message that turbos improved fuel efficiency and could help manufacturers meet EU emissions targets was not penetrating
• Turbos were seen by many in the motor trade and its media as obsolete – a relic from the 1980s
In addition, suppliers Bosch, Mahle and Continental had announced they were entering the turbo market in Europe, and the latter’s CEO had been quoted as saying they would be the first truly European turbo supplier.
This prompted Honeywell Turbo Technologies to approach Weber Shandwick for help to boost its reputation in the European motor trade.
SOLUTION
The team ran a B2B media relations campaign from mid-2009 to mid-2010 targeting the publications read by car manufacturers and garage owners, and business publications in France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
This was a complete departure from anything Honeywell had done before: as an American company, its strategy and activity was until recently less developed in Europe.
Weber Shandwick profiled turbos as an existing technology that could fulfil demands for cleaner technology, fuel efficiency and meeting stringent EU emissions requirements.
Honeywell was shown as constantly innovating, and CEO Alex Ismail was profiled as a thought leader and an expert in green solutions for the car industry.
The team organised a press trip to Honeywell’s production plant in Atessa, Italy for 11 journalists from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the UK.
Activity also included 12 press releases, setting up one-on-one interviews, and media outreach around major industry events such as the Geneva and Frankfurt motor shows.
RESULTS
The PR activity led to 33 features in the target media. Motor trade journalists who admitted they did not previously know Honeywell made turbos now view it as an expert industry commentator.
In Q2 2010, Honeywell Turbo Technologies in Europe saw a double-digit increase in sales over Q2 2009. In Q2, the company’s year-to-date global turbo contract wins were estimated at more than $2 billion, including wins with major European car makers.
In July 2010 division CEO Alex Ismail was named ‘2010 Auto Supplier Division Eurostar’ by Automotive News Europe at the car sector’s most prestigious awards.
This generated significant coverage in Automotive News Europe. Honeywell was the only supplier featured in the magazine’s 2010 Paris Motor Show special print edition for 60,000 executives. The award led to interviews with publications in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Alex Ismail has also been invited to speak at Automotive News Europe Congress in 2011, the industry’s most important conference - a rare honour for a supplier.
List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, video clips, work samples, 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://thestevies.com/IBA11Attachments/Honeywell/
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that carried out this nominated communications program:
Nicolás Muzi is an Account Manager at Weber Shandwick in Brussels, leading on pan-European advocacy campaigns. He has more than three years’ communications experience in the automotive and transportation sectors. As well as Honeywell Turbo Technologies, Nicolás executes PR programmes on energy efficiency issues for Honeywell Building Solutions and Honeywell Specialty Materials. Nicolás currently performs the central PR coordination for Chevrolet Europe in 11 European markets and is part of the team that manages UPS’s public relations across 23 markets in EMEA. As an Italian and Argentinean national, he speaks fluent Spanish and English and beginner’s Italian, French, and Portuguese.
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