Spada is a specialist PR agency serving professional services firms. For more than 20 years it has advised some of the most influential organisations and professional bodies in the legal, financial services and built environment sectors, including top-four global real estate adviser, DTZ.
DTZ’s annual flagship research report is called Money into Property.
Objectives: the brief from DTZ
- Position Money into Property 2009 as the most authoritative global research on real estate capital markets – against a backdrop of similar reports
- Launch the DTZ Fair Value Index – an entirely new concept introduced for the first time in the report
- Devise key messages and craft press materials
- Secure media coverage of the report by a heavyweight broadsheet newspaper – in addition to high-quality property and other specialist trade coverage
- Secure attendance of senior property correspondents at the launch event
This brief was provided to Spada just one week prior to DTZ’s official launch to clients.
The challenge
- Advise DTZ’s research team on media strategy, angles and approach
- Prepare press materials based on evolving drafts of the report – the final version became available just two days before the launch
- Explain the highly technical research to journalists
- Launch the Fair Value Index as a new method of measuring property investment returns
- Brief senior DTZ spokespeople to ensure consistency of messaging to the market
- Generate in-depth broadsheet coverage at a time when the news agenda was dominated by European elections
Strategy
Spada’s PR strategy for DTZ is to project relevant insight straight into the boardroom via the pages of national broadsheets, leading business trade press, and key websites. In 2009, Spada secured 267 pieces of national coverage for DTZ.
Central to Spada’s strategy was to exploit DTZ’s existing research programme more powerfully to generate hard-hitting media profile. Money into Property is the firm’s flagship report but despite a production run of more than 34 years, making it one of the oldest reports of its kind, it had never achieved coverage outside the narrow confines of the property trade press.
Spada’s strategy for the launch of Money into Property was to:
- Approach the Financial Times as the leading UK business broadsheet to secure coverage of the report ahead of the client launch event
- Target top-tier UK publications, canvassing the key findings on the day of the launch to drive home the message about the report’s importance and credibility
- Invite editors of the leading property trade titles (Property Week, Estates Gazette and EG Capital) to the launch event
Target audience
To maximise the impact of the research, Spada was required to think outside the box of the traditional property media. The agency expanded its canvassing to include finance, investment, and business reporters. This proactive approach enabled Spada to capitalise on the research throughout 2009, creating a springboard to develop DTZ’s media contacts outside of the pure property press.
Campaign timescale
Spada selected sophisticated news angles and authored a compelling press release, full media cascade, target lists and supporting notes within 36 hours of receiving the draft version of the Money into Property report. This quick turnaround ensured DTZ’s executive committee had sufficient time to sign off the media angle and press release content so that the agency could execute the next stage of the strategy and open exclusive talks with the Financial Times. Coverage on the front page of the Financial Times was secured in advance of the client launch event on 9 June 2009.
Media channels and results
- Secured front page, in-depth coverage in the Financial Times – exclusively based on the report
- Achieved front page coverage in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune
- Secured coverage in top-tier trade publications, including Property Week and Estates Gazette
- Ensured the attendance of the editors of Property Week and Estates Gazette at the launch event
- Secured one-to-one press briefings for key trade journalists, one of which resulted in a double-page spread in EG Capital
- Overall, achieved 28 pieces of top value coverage in the UK, including:
- Financial Times (front page)
- Property Week
- New York Times (front page)
- Estates Gazette
- International Herald Tribune (front page)
- EG Capital
- Financial Times (Europe Edition)
- PERE
- The Times
- Financial News
- City A.M.
- Property EU
- Evening Standard
- Property Magazine International
- Reuters
- EuroProperty
- In addition to hard-copy articles, online coverage was also secured for all of the above
- Successfully positioned Money into Property as the authoritative research on real estate capital markets – positioning DTZ as the go-to consultancy in this area
- Improved media relations buy-in from senior DTZ spokespeople
- Achieving high-profile media coverage contributed to the DTZ research team being singled out for a special “Best in Press” award at the company’s annual Directors’ Conference
In addition, given the economic downturn and the concomitant mood of the commercial property industry at the time, the success of the campaign served as a major morale booster for the firm.
Client testimonital
Oliver Bonser, Marketing Manager at DTZ with seven years’ experience handling the production of the report, commented: “This campaign resulted in profile-raising which extended beyond Money into Property 2009 to benefit the profile of DTZ Research and the company as a whole dramatically. The benefits to the business are still being felt.”
Cost-effectiveness
- Print coverage reached c-suite readership of over 5 million across the globe
- Online coverage secured on websites attracting a total of more than 100 million monthly unique users
- Overall total number of readers targeted was in excess of 105 million
- Advertising equivalent of coverage secured was approximately £250,000