Newsfront Communications agency

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our Company is Lenovo - the world's leader in pc manufacturing. I'm a Sr marketing specialist in Lenovo Ukraine - company's representattive office in Ukraine

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Newsfront Communications agency, and what were your goals?

NewsFront is or agency for all PR services:

• public mentions monitoring
• press office
• paid and non paid pc reviews with blogers
• growing ambassadors
• projects in media
• copywriting
• PR events

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We chose the Agency according to the strict tender procedure. In tender were collected top 5 best Ukraininan PR agencies

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

NewsFront team is doing the following scope of work for Lenovo:

• public mention monitoring in media
• press office
• articles and columns copywriting and pitching in media
• publication in Tier 1 media
• wow stories and special projects in media publication
• PC reviews by influencers
• PR events arangement and participation in 3rd parties
• PR crisis management

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

up to 5 account director, accound manager, junior accounts

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Due to well planned and structured cooperation Lenovo becomes #2 in SOV and now we have over 70% of positive metntions vs 50% before cooperation

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Agency work is very structured, everything in widely described in communicaton. Everything is documented and very transparent. Sometimes I'd like to have some things be done faster but in general they act proactively.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are young, smart, and keen on learning. They can do any activity if they have the right instruments.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I think that agency needs a little bit different approach in ancor reporting to us as a client. But we discuss it afterwards when the war ends. In all other things NewsFront is the good agency to stand for your reputation

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a part of the Global Corporate Communications team at BlaBlaCar and lead Communications & PR on the Ukrainian market. BlaBlaCar is the world’s leading community-based travel network enabling over 100 million members to share a ride across 22 markets. Founded in 2006 in Paris and today active in 22 countries, every quarter more than 25 million travelers trust BlaBlaCar globally. BlaBlaCar is known for its worldwide largest carpooling community bringing millions of people together to share their rides, experiences, and costs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Newsfront Communications agency, and what were your goals?

In 2021 BlaBlaCar was looking for a new PR agency in Ukraine to support local PR and maximize the media outreach and impact. We planned to hire a PR agency to support us in the long run (starting with a 3 months contract), which could be extended to a yearly retainer in case of successful collaboration. We hired Newsfront for a long and successful collaboration in the following areas:

1. Top-tier media interviews with our top managers in Ukraine including but not limited to the following topics: corporate news, shared road travel, mobility, CSR, employer brand.
2. Regional media interviews
3. Frequent positive media coverage in consumer and corporate press (at least bi-weekly mentions in relevant outlets)
4. Broad media coverage (top tier and regional) during reboot (+100 clippings)

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We sent a PR brief to 10 agencies - top PR agencies on the Ukrainian market. If the brief sounded interesting to agencies, we asked them to submit a short slide-deck with presenting 2 cases from the brief within the suggested framework. After reviewing the slides, we made a shortlist of agencies whose solutions were interesting and promising. Newsfront was one of those agencies.

We asked each agency to voice over their cases during a call; also wanted to see that agencies understand our brand and market as well as our target media. After several meetings with Newsfront and other agencies, as well as after many internal discussions, we chose Newsfront.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

They began with a discovery phase to understand our key target media, key narrative, and projects. In the short term, Newsfront helped us to build and execute a strong Covid-19 reboot communication strategy on both carpool and buses. In addition, we wanted to communicate about carpooling resilience in crisis and minimizing contacts during Covid-19. In spring 2021, we hit the 100 million-member milestone.

Indisputably, we became the biggest carpool community in the world. In 2019 we bought Busfor company which made us the biggest bus ticket seller in East Europe. We asked Newsfront to build and execute communication plans regarding these important milestones as well.

During this year of collaboration, Newsfront helped us to appear in tier one business and IT media in Ukraine, wrote dozens of press releases and byline articles, went through several PR incidents, and helped to overcome challenges with the brand reputation.

Also, Newsfront supported our top management during the preparation to speak at top events in the industry, organized media training for key spokespersons in the company, and kicked off the personal brand strategy for the General Manager of BlaBlaCar in Ukraine.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We are working closely with the CEO, account directors, and account managers. The core team that worked with BlaBlaCar, consisted of up to 5 people. What’s good about them is that they have a single point person who can either handle the tasks that come up or figure out who in the team can take on them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since working with Newsfront, BlaBlaCar was covered by tier-one business and IT media outlets in Ukraine. They managed to increase the number of byline articles, and press releases on product and corporate news. Several local PR projects supported by Newsfront were recognized by BlaBlaCar HQ.

Also, together with Newsfront, we organized the PR back office, which included Q&A, a photo gallery, and key statements which were actively used for journalists' requests.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We have weekly meetings with the account director and account managers where we update each other on key projects and activities and go through results. We communicate regularly via email and instant messengers and share feedback and best practices from other industries and companies in Ukraine and abroad.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I'm impressed by how they manage to get their job done professionally and on time. They are agile and resilient to fast-changing environments like the one we're working in. They are reliable and always listen to feedback. On top of that, they educate us based on what they’ve seen with other clients or approaches.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There is always room to grow and develop. But I am sure that this year we have strengthened each other and launched a lot of successful projects, which were recognized by the Ukrainian team as well as in other global teams of BlaBlaCar.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am marketing & PR manager for Amway Ukraine company, direct selling industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Newsfront Communications agency, and what were your goals?

Our company cooperates with Newsfront PR agency for several years and we’ve been working on various communication projects, which covers product PR in beauty and nutrition product segments, influence marketing, bloggers cooperation, crisis management project, corporate PR, social corporate responsibility project. We really value of our cooperation with Newsfront agency and can recommend the team as a professional and reliable partner in all type of communication for the external media and social media. Strong areas of Newsfront team are high level of responsibility, media contacts knowledge, crisis management and communication skills with various target audiences.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The selection of the vendor was done via an open pitch process.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Newsfront agency has kicked off specific new product launches with the PR support, bloggers cooperation, creating the press releases, press packs, communication with media, developed the concept of media event, conducting all communication with journalists, bloggers and opinion leaders in Ukraine. Another project was handling the crisis management project on the media case with the Ukrainian blogger on the geopolitical situation in summer 2021 in Ukraine. Also, we’ve been trained by Newsfront agency CEO on the media management and communication.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We’ve been working with 3 team members, account managers and crisis manager, CEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since working with Newsfront agency we’ve been able to establish strong media relationships in Ukraine of beauty magazine editors, online beauty and lifestyle resources.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We’ve been having constant communication flow via emails, regular messenger, weekly phone calls

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We’ve seen high level of trust, responsibility, partnership and hearing our company business needs. Our alignment process was executed on a very professional level.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Some copy writing skills can be improved for the specific requests related to the crisis management communication.