Engage PR Brings Home Gold

I am thrilled to share that Engage PR was named winner of a Gold Stevie® Award in the Communications and PR Campaign of the Year – Technology category. The award-winning submission showcased a campaign we conducted last year for one of our clients, Telia Carrier, “Bridging Borders: Driving Awareness of Telia Carrier’s Expansion into Mexico.”

Why was the campaign so important for Telia Carrier?

Mexico emerged as a strategic business and technology hub for many international businesses in 2014 when Mexican market reforms helped boost competition and stimulate innovation. Telia Carrier was the first major international telecom company to support Mexico’s market growth with the addition of three PoPs (the infrastructure that allows users to connect to the Internet) in Monterrey and Querétaro, Mexico and El Paso, Texas–a city that has recently become a major traffic hub for data-center operators connecting the U.S. into Northern Mexico. Telia Carrier’s strategic expansion in 2020 and 2021 into these rapidly growing areas reflects the growing demand for enterprise services in Mexico and Telia Carrier’s wholesale offerings, especially during a time when the need for quality virtual connection is amplified.

It was important to Telia Carrier to generate awareness of the expansion and its implications.

• Regional markets were unaware of the new-and-improved connectivity implications, allowing users to connect locally and get scalable low latency access to the Telia Carrier backbone and cloud and content ecosystem in nearby regions. Because Telia Carrier believes that the power of the Internet starts with its users, this news needed to hit the specific regions where the expansion was taking place.
• Telia Carrier’s network expansion also provided opportunities for international businesses, making it important to reach American stakeholders.
• Since Engage PR assists Telia Carrier with PR efforts in North America, we developed and executed a campaign to drive awareness to these target audiences.

Our approach and results

Our efforts included working closely with Telia Carrier, its local partners in the region and executing a media outreach campaign. Our outreach efforts for this campaign generated nearly 40 unique international stories about Telia Carrier’s expansion in Mexico, spotlighting Telia Carrier and partners in the Mexico market. In addition, the coverage reached key businesses in Mexico and US-based businesses looking to expand their reach into the region.

A few comments from the judges

“The “Bridging Borders” campaign is another example of a well-considered campaign, focusing not only on the impact the expansion had on Mexico but on educating other audiences about the country, which is quite impressive!”

“Creation of 40 unique stories and running a data-driven, successful campaign, are all contributory to a good story.”

“Excellent initiative! You can see the great effort on both sides of the border. And why it is necessary. Congrats!”

Key takeaways

It takes a smart, savvy PR team to amplify an important client campaign, like Telia Carrier’s expansion into Mexico. It also requires a client and their partners to provide the information needed to help build the messaging for the announcement. While the announcement about Telia Carrier’s expansion was important, it was equally important to highlight the key business drivers in the region and expand on why the connection into Mexico was vital for businesses in both Mexico and America. Telia Carrier’s partners provided many interesting insights into the history of the regions Telia Carrier was helping to connect, which added to our stories and news activities. Not every announcement will have a rich set of information readily available. This is why it is so important to choose the right PR agency partner who is intellectually curious, will dig further and have the passion for executing a campaign across any border.

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