Priority Consultants was shortlisted as a finalist in the Best Regional PR category for the MARKETING PR Awards 2020 thanks to sustained, great work over 12 years on behalf of IWG’s Regus and SPACES brands in Southeast Asia. Read how the team successfully ran the campaigns across Southeast Asia working with the different business cultures to deliver great results.
Led by Senior Consultants Cristie Hilado and Sherry Tenorio, Priority Consultants deployed a team of five to plan and execute a multi-country awareness-building campaign for International Workplace Group (IWG). Account Executives Lhara Paraboles, Fajar Handoko, and Alex Ngo worked tirelessly to make a difference for this innovative global corporation.
IWG is a global flexible workspace provider with a 30-year heritage as a leader in commercial real estate. Its portfolio of operating brands, including Regus, Spaces, Signature by Regus, HQ and No18, offers an unrivalled level of choice for businesses of all sizes and budgets. With over one million workspaces and a presence in hundreds of countries, cities, towns, and transport hubs worldwide, IWG has the world’s largest network of flexible workspaces and a full suite of business support services to enable people to focus on their core business and enjoy a great day at work.
Despite its global presence, the Regus and SPACES brands were not well recognised in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. Regus and SPACES were seen as international brands with foreign leadership talent that was inherently expensive and “inflexible’ in their offerings. Yet, the growing economies of these markets make them highly important and critical for IWG, hence the need to solidify brand awareness and support the sales and marketing activities. The challenge was to re-make IWG into a cool alternative, one where all generations of talent could mingle, connect and extract value.
Targeting fast-growing local enterprises in these markets that were entrenched in and yet constrained by traditional workplace/office/commercial environments, was a key challenge, compounded by local co-working solutions providers who were more price competitive. So, we produced a consistent pipeline of media opportunities, increasing both Regus and SPACES name recognition and positioning the company as a leading co-working solutions provider.
In each of the three target markets, we created leadership profiling for the executive spokesperson and educated businesses on the IWG value proposition. The key to success was building a partnership platform with targeted media and social influencers who would be co-opted as IWG’s “Raving Fans” – generating organic interest and support.
PHILIPPINES
In the Philippines, the team focused on a combination of print, social, broadcast and online media. We chose a series of broadcast-based briefings and collaborations with leading local journalists and broadcasters. We invited them to film episodes and conduct panel discussions/talk shows in the SPACES and Regus facilities to promote their flexibility and value. We reached out to and converted key opinion leaders, senior editors and producers to the flexible working environment rather than coffee shops that seemed “trendy” but were inherently uncomfortable workplaces.
INDONESIA
In Indonesia, our team on the ground pitched the country spokespersons as opinion experts through a consistent series of media interviews and thought leadership articles. This positioned the senior executives as leading opinion-makers and contributors with valuable insights on local market trends and developments. We also initiated partnerships with major organisations such as TEDx that paved the way for collaborative events at SPACES.
VIETNAM
In Vietnam, we drove awareness through successful media briefings and thought leadership article placements. We started by identifying the top tier local media channels and evaluated their influence as well as the relevance and core value they would bring to the Regus and SPACES target audience. Once identified, we pitched collaborative stories and special insights “scoop” pieces to them. This allowed these sites and news channels to get ahead of their competition by covering stories that were critical to the country’s national agenda and industry at large.
In each of these markets, we secured a series of interviews and opened up the SPACES/Regus facilities to editors, producers, and social influencers. Instead of purchasing media space, we were able to barter with broadcast, digital and publication journalists to secure organic engagements through our custom pitches. For example, we offered limited-time membership, 30-day trials and special discount codes for their readers and users to enjoy the use of Regus and SPACES facilities.
DATA AND INSIGHTS
Measured 3 years from 2017 – 2019, our campaign strategy and execution significantly increased occupancy rate in both the Regus and SPACES facilities from 65% to 95% on average across Indonesia and Philippines whilst in Vietnam it grew from 44% to 78%. With such growth, naturally, IWG expanded and opened another 5 centres in each country to address the rising demand.
Regus and SPACES secured 70% Share of Voice across the sector with 246 media clippings out of a total of 351 garnered in 2019 with 206 of those clippings in tier 1 media publications. All this resulted in a whopping 4.06 million views from a pool of 2.9 billion online readership.
The sustained and active engagements contributed to the “partnership” established between IWG and the media catapulting brand recognition of IWG as a truly global but local player. The interviews and expert content further reinforced IWG’s position in the three markets and spokespeople are still sought after for industry commentary and opinion. Meeting our promise to support the bottom line of our clients, the PR campaigns delivered business value that could be measured in terms of an increase in occupancy rates, customer renewals and revenue.
Get in touch if you need any help with your communications across Asia and we look forward to hearing from you.