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Racepoint Group, Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts won a Stevie Award for Best Communications Campaign in the 2008 International Business Awards. Here we look at that global campaign and find out what it achieved.
 Forty years ago, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte had a dream about using technology to educate and empower children in order to make the world— particularly in developing nations—a better place.
In early 2005, Negroponte felt that technological barriers could be overcome, and so he launched One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), a non-profit organization to design, manufacture, and distribute low-cost laptop computers and to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning and self-expression.
OLPC developed the OX, a small machine with a big mission. The XO is a potent learning tool designed and built especially for children in developing countries who live in some of the most remote environments. About the size of a small textbook, it has built-in wireless and a unique screen that is readable under direct sunlight for children who go to school outdoors. It is extremely durable, brilliantly functional, energy-efficient, and fun.
By late 2006, Negroponte realized that OLPC needed a global communications campaign to influence governments to commit to the program. Furthermore, as it became apparent that OLPC might actually succeed in delivering its low-cost OX laptop to one billion children, two computer industry giants began their own FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) campaigns to discredit OLPC and shut it down. Negroponte’s big dream was no longer viewed as one man’s pipe dream, but as a viral movement to be squashed.
Give a Laptop, Get a Laptop, Change the World
Over the course of 2007, the OLPC communications campaign had three overarching objectives:
- - to recruit ten governments to work with OLPC;
- - to fight the FUD campaign, which was spending millions on product dumping and on disparaging OLPC to governments; and
- - to drive North American consumer participation in a “Give One Get One” campaign to fund the delivery of 100,000 XO laptops to children in the world’s poorest nations.
Racepoint devised a three-pronged platform to communicate OLPC’s multi-faceted story to the public. The messaging stressed OLPC’s moral purpose, educational purpose, and technological innovation. OLPC was positioned as a humanitarian initiative whose mission is to eradicate poverty by providing poor children with access to modern education. In terms of innovative technology, the XO is the first computer designed specifically for children in remote and rural environments.
Media Blitz
Throughout 2007, Racepoint announced a series of milestones to prove that OLPC could deliver a first-rate, low-cost laptop. The PR campaign generated more than 20,000 print and broadcast features and 60,000+ blog posts. Print media highlights were multiple stories in the New York Times, including a front-page story; multiple stories in the Wall Street Journal, including three on the front page; plus stories in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, TIME, Newsweek. People, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, O Globo, TheTimes of London, The Guardian, The Australian, the Hindustan Times; and the Toronto Globe and Mail.
Broadcast media coverage included CBS “60 Minutes,” PBS “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” ABC “World News Tonight,” ABC “Good Morning America,” NBC “Live with Regis & Kelly,” CNN International, CNN, CBC, C-SPAN, Al Jazeera, MS-NBC, CNBC, NHK, Fuji-TV, France 24, BSkyB, BBC World, BBC News, and several NPR programs.
Shaping Public Opinion
The media blitz shaped global public opinion in favor of OLPC. The non-profit organization now has purchase commitments from Peru and Uruguay and is in discussions with two dozen other countries. The “Give One Get One” campaign exceeded expectations, raising $35 million and enabling laptop deliveries to Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, Mongolia, and Rwanda.
While OLPC has much work to do to fulfill its mission, the digital divide is on its way to being closed.
About One Laptop Per Child
The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. OLPC believes that when children have access to this type of tool, they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world, and to a brighter future. To find out more, go to http://laptop.org.
About Racepoint Group, Inc.
Racepoint Group is an award-winning global public relations agency with special expertise in digital media relations. It leverages the power of traditional and digital media relations to elevate premium and emerging technology, health, and science brands—generating world-class coverage that directly impacts mindshare and market share.
As the shift continues from traditional media (print newspapers, broadcast television) to digital media (online news, blogs, communities), corporate communicators and marketers are turning to new strategies to reach diverse audiences. Racepoint is reinventing public relations in a digital world. Its digital media-relations methodology combines digital intelligence and engagement with online influencers, direct-to-consumers, and businesses. At the conclusion of every campaign, Racepoint measures communications and business impact and evaluates the return on marketing investment.
The Racepoint worldwide headquarters is located outside of Boston, with offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Racepoint has a European headquarters in London, and a global network of partners and affiliates spanning four continents.
Racepoint Group is a part of W2 Group, a global marketing services ecosystem founded by industry thought leader Larry Weber and organized to help CMOs in their new role as builders of communities and content aggregators. For more information go to www.racepointgroup.com. |
What book are you currently reading? 
, by Derek Gatehouse.
, and yes!
