Liberate Media case study: MOOFU

Services launch campaign and building a brand

Result: Direct sales leads delivered via BBC, international, trade and education coverage online and offline. 30% per cent increase in traffic to the client’s website, and MOOFU positioned as innovative and trusted brand.

Client quote: Nick Palfrey, MD MOOFU: “As a young company working in a crowded learning technology space, we needed to raise our visibility and win customers. Liberate Media’s thoughtful, strategic approach to PR and their knowledge of the technology sector, particularly in education and games, has been invaluable to our growth.”

Overview

MOOFU is a UK media company with a passion for innovative ideas and technology. It focuses on emerging markets across a range of disciplines, developing interactive learning solutions for business and education.

The young company needed to build the MOOFU brand and engaged Liberate Media as its strategic PR partner in late August 2009, with this goal in mind. The strategic elements of the campaign were formed around the focus of MOOFU’s new services.

The Campaign

Liberate Media first identified the unique qualities of MOOFU’s services as well as developing the directors’ knowledge of how PR works. Detailed discussions around the brand were followed by an in-depth session to identify core themes that would underpin the PR strategy.

Liberate Media developed a strategy, in partnership with MOOFU’s MD and marketing director that would build confidence and trust in the MOOFU brand, while maximising social media activity to help connect MOOFU with its community, engaging with the widest range of online influencers. Print articles were also targeted as a secondary, but important tactical element.

Liberate Media kicked off the tactical elements of the campaign with a focus on Archi-Me, a service that develops computer game-style interactive 3D environments for marketers, designers and their clients.

How Liberate Media delivered the campaign

Liberate Media’s strategic role covered a vast array of action areas, from website development and optimising social profiles  , to aligning marketing with PR messages, creating company profile materials and developing launch-phase press announcements.

With online engagement a primary target, Liberate Media used its extensive network of online influencers and bloggers in the education, technology and building design sectors, updating them with relevant information ahead of the main launch.

Liberate Media also developed interest in MOOFU’s new service before launch through one-to-one briefings with selected journalists in the national and trade media.

Launch campaign targets were divided into three broad sectors: national media, education and building architecture/design. Media stories were tailored to each sector to attract maximum ongoing attention and coverage, while positioning MOOFU as an innovative, knowledgeable and trustworthy brand.

Implementation

Liberate Media, identified new opportunities for online engagement and conversation, first mapping the construction, architectural, design and education communities to identify available opportunities. Next step was to develop the brand’s connections with the community’s influencers as well as listening to conversations to pinpoint needs and track/realise connections.

From this base, Liberate Media then advised MOOFU’s marketing department on relevant content creation to use in joining the conversations and to build calls to action. An element of the tactical work also involved creating useful content, particularly on the company website and blog to build influence in the target sectors.

Liberate Media tracked the success of this engagement, feeding back coverage and comments to MOOFU as the first phase of the campaign progressed.

The team also identified daily opportunities for the MOOFU marketing team and MD to post comments on relevant blogs and online news stories, building the online visibility of the brand.

Target journalists in each media sector were also called individually to discuss the newsworthy issues surrounding the sector and the relevance of Archi-Me. The key outcomes were arranging exclusive interviews with the MOOFU team, its partners and advisors, to advise on future plans.

With national and trade coverage assured, Liberate Media then widened the net to include online specialist sectors through direct calls and detailed content follow-ups.

Finally, the news was distributed through online newswires and Pressitt, Liberate Media’s social media news release platform.

Further calls resulted in extensive articles, both online and in print, in leading education-design and construction magazines.

Liberate Media then extended the launch campaign tactics to include a new technology solution, LEVROS, (Learning Environments Virtual Reality Online Simulator), a fully interactive 3D environment explored using online characters (avatars), which was developed by MOOFU in partnership with Institute of Education, Birmingham City Council and the leading educational planner Dr Kenn Fisher.

Results

The Archi-Me launch announcement generated a huge amount of interest and coverage, driving a 30 per cent increase in traffic to the website and leading to a rise in sales inquiries, further boosted by online and print feature articles.

Direct new business opportunities were established via the results from the campaign with leading companies, including Research Machines (RM) and Apple. As a result, MOOFU is now working with RM on a bespoke 3D sales environment.

The LEVROS launch beat all expectations with national online and extensive global coverage of the announcement, again leading to increased sales calls and  cementing of a long-term relationship with Birmingham City Council, the University of London and other partners.

The first phase campaigns raised the profile nationally and internationally of both MOOFU and MD Nick Palfrey, evidenced by the willingness of Plymouth MP Alison Seabrook to take part in a discussion with Nick around virtual worlds, the digital economy and education, which will form the base for a feature article targeted at both the national and regional press, as well as online titles.

Campaign first-stage highlights

Coverage, including:

Archi-Me -

For sample coverage click here

LEVROS -

For sample coverage click here

About Archi-Me and LEVROS

Archi-Me is an innovative service that brings 3D models and design ideas to life by creating interactive virtual environments. These high quality 3D environments give clients and their customers the power to collaboratively explore design spaces.

Any 3D CAD model, from a building to a yacht or a car to a golf course, is brought to life by the Archi-Me team. For those without CAD models, designers work with plans and designs to deliver highest-quality interactive virtual environments.

LEVROS – Learning Environments Virtual Reality Online Simulator – has been developed by MOOFU in partnership with Institute of Education, University of London, Birmingham Local Education Partnership and the leading educational planner Dr Kenn Fisher.

It is a fully interactive 3D environment that can be explored using online characters (avatars) and a simple user interface. The collaborative tool helps to improve spatial literacy while the blending of virtual and physical environments matches trends in the gaming world where participants move around virtual spaces such as in Second Life and Sim City.

LEVROS is purpose-built to resolve challenges in education planning, particularly in the multi-billion pound Building Schools for the Future programme.

Teachers and students anywhere in the world can work together to experiment with furniture, resources and layout, moving them freely to modify environments. With this ability to manipulate objects and positioning, LEVROS is also a powerful way of testing the effectiveness of learning environments for disabled students.